CUL - Main Content

User-Centered Design

Nancy Fried Foster

Lead Anthropologist and Co-Manager, Digital Initiatives Unit, River Campus Libraries, University of Rochester
Nancy conducts research on faculty, staff, and students to document work habits and identify needs for web-based products to support research and writing. Before joining the library staff, Nancy conducted research in small indigenous communities in Brazil and Papua New Guinea as well as in educational, commercial, and not-for-profit organizations in the United States and England.

The design of libraries and other learning spaces on college and university campuses can benefit from an understanding of the changing needs and habits of the people who use these spaces. This presentation focuses on participatory design in libraries, an approach that involves students and faculty members from the early, conceptual stages of a project. In the presentation, Nancy Fried Foster will provide an overview of a user-centered, library design project from concept through data collection and analysis to applications. This will include a brief description of several methods along with a look at some real data (video, photos, and other artifacts) and a discussion of their meaning and applications. The session will also include a live, participatory design activity.

2006-06-30

Friday

10:00 AM-12:00 noon

203 Butler Library, Morningside Heights Campus, Columbia University

MP3 Audio Podcast [62 MB] and MP4 Enhanced Audiovisual Podcast [64 MB] ~ more info.  PowerPoint [7 MB]