95th chat, Tuesday December 5 2017: user personas for digital collections
6pm Pacific / 7pm Mountain / 8pm Central / 9pm Eastern

moderated by @kate_thornhill and @hskettler
Storify (pdf, html) by @CLIRDLF

Please use both hashtags: #critlib #dlfaig in this chat!

The Digital Library Federation‘s Assessment Interest Group‘s User Experience and Cultural Assessment Working Group’s Twitter chat will focus on the ethical implications of designing user personas as they apply to the creation and universal access of digital collection and repository technologies. These effects are often inscribed by white-straight-cisgendered librarians’ and technologists’ perspectives and values, and influence digital collection building and repository system development and maintenance. The intent of this #critlib #dlfaig chat will be to underscore and outline the snowball effect of early stage human-centered design processes influenced and perpetuated by systemic inequalities.

Suggested resources:

• Personas: Why and How You Should Use Them https://www.interaction-design.org/literature/article/personas-why-and-how-you-should-use-them
• Designing for Culture: Creating the Perfect UX Persona – https://www.uxpin.com/studio/blog/designing-for-culture-creating-the-perfect-ux-persona/
• Digital Libraries and User Needs: Negotiating the Future by Anita Coleman and Tamara Sumner (2004). Journal of Digital Information. Vol. 5, Issue 3 https://journals.tdl.org/jodi/index.php/jodi/article/view/119/123
• The Participatory Museum by Nina Simon. Chapter 10: Evaluating Participatory Projects http://www.participatorymuseum.org/chapter10/
• A Short Guide to Community Based Participatory Action Research by Janice C. Burns, M.A.; Deanna Y. Cooke, Ph.D.; Christine Schweidler, M.P.H. from the Advancement Project (www.advancementprojectca.org)

Discussion questions:

• Q1. What are pros and cons of using user personas for digital libraries and collections? #critlib #dlfaig
• Q2. How can we most ethically and responsibly design user personas for digital collections? How should communities be included and involved? #critlib #dlfaig
• Q3. When conducting user research for user personas, what crucial aspects should digital library practitioners should be aware of to offset bias in the digital library design process? #critlib #dlfaig
• Q4. When designing systems to support digital collections, what are core system functions to include in user persona behavior goals? #critlib #dlfaig
• Q5. How do digital collection selection practices and workflows influence and define user personas? #critlib #dlfaig
• Q6. The DLF UX and Cultural Assessment working groups are in the beginning stages of developing a user personas rubric. What criteria should be included in it? What should be measured? #critlib #dlfaig

Context/additional information:

• DLF AIG User Experience (UX) Working Group https://wiki.diglib.org/Assessment:User/UX
• DLF AIG Cultural Assessment Interest Group https://wiki.diglib.org/Assessment:Cultural_Assessment
• DLF Assessment Interest Group https://www.diglib.org/groups/assessment/