Legal Research

What Devices Will Library Users Be Using?

By admin

It’s always a challenge for libraries to stay ahead of their users. What will they be using over the next few years and what do we prepare for?

We know we’re past the desktop but there are a ot of desktops out there. We know mobile access is growing fast. We know laptops are pretty normal amongst our basic users and dominant with the core user base. And those laptops include form factors that are smaller like netbooks. And we know theat e-readers and tablets are growing fast.

Here’s Forrester’s take on the prediction:

US Tablet Sales Will More Than Double This Year
posted by Sarah Rotman Epps

Forrester’s US Consumer Tablet Forecast, updated Jan. 4, 2011:

Add to this the challenge of knowing the browsers that users are preferring. Often their personal browser choice is different than their workplace browser choice so many users are using more than one browser. And many are using multiple devices, including myself, with both desktop, laptop, e-reader, tablet and mobile choices. I watched a discussion among library e-developers recently that showed a slight dysfunction in that they all shouted out their favourite and preferred browser to develop for and in. Not one person actually pointed out the mix of browsers that their users were using and how to develop for the lot of them. That might explain why so many library websites break in certain browsers. Check out your user stats and see the mix of browsers used by your users – MSIE, Chrome, Firefox, etc. It’s changing but there are lots of folks in each and our persona preferences can’t drive user oriented deveopment activities.

Stephen

Full post as published by Stephen's Lighthouse on January 05, 2011 (boomark / email).