When Melanie Huggins, executive director of the Richland Library, Columbia, SC, took a look at the library's use statistics a couple of years ago, one in particular stood out. Patrons who used the holds process were regular users but only set foot in the library long enough to pick up their books once a week-and were still finding the experience frustrating. "So we [thought], OK, how can we take this service to the next level?" recalls Huggins. Together with designer Patrick Quattlebaum, she used human-centered design techniques to find out: asking patrons to describe their processes in detail, mapping their journeys from the act of placing holds to checkout, videotaping customers in action, and figuring out the "pain points"-individual problematic steps that needed solutions.
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