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A Book Review of Designing the Digital Experience

by David Lee King on August 5, 2011

Designing the Digital ExperienceMy publisher just told me about a review of my book Designing the Digital Experience, and I thought I’d share it with you. The review was published in New Library World (Vol 111, No. 7/8, pg 359-360), and was written by Sarah McNicol.

She nailed it (and I’m not just saying that because it was a positive review). Here’s the start of the review:

“David Lee King is a librarian at the Topeka & Shawnee Country Public Library in Kansas, but he also writes an excellent blog (www.davidleeking.com) on emerging trends in library web sites and digital technology. In this book, he writes in the same accessible and interesting style, focusing on experience design and its role in building web sites. This is not a book about technical specifics, nor a step-to-step guide to building a web site, rather it is a book to make librarians and others, including web developers and marketing professionals, think more deeply about how they design an experience so web site users are “enchanted and captivated.”

Yes! I never intended to write a step-by-step guide to building an experience – how the heck do you do that, anyway? Building experiences, even digital ones, really depends on your individual setting – your staff, your stuff, and your community. My hope is that you read my book, and think. Think about how you can transform a simple website into an interactive experience – much like you already do in your physical buildings.

And … since I’m writing about the book … why not throw in a discount, too? If you buy the book from Information Today before September 5, use this promo code – ITISP. It will give you a discount. Otherwise, buy it from Amazon.

Thanks for reading! And … drumroll please … look for my second book sometime next year! I am a week or so away from sending it to the publisher to do the editing thing to it. Fingers crossed, and more info coming!

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Excerpt of Chapter 5 up at Webjunction

by David Lee King on November 16, 2008

my book arrivedWebJunction recently excerpted chapter 5 of my new book in this article: Designing the Digital Experience: What is Community?

Here’s an excerpt of the excerpt:

Chapter 5 – What Is Community Focus?

What exactly is community focus, and how does it facilitate experiences in the digital space? To answer these questions, let’s consider what community focus means in the context of physical spaces, such as in a town hall meeting. In such meetings, people are focusing on one another: listening, sharing opinions, and discussing community needs. This type of interaction allows community members to voice opinions and concerns, providing a voice for the community. In this context, we can say community focus is an emphasis on participants’ ideas, concerns, and interactions.

The town hall meeting is just one example; people obviously hold many different types of meetings, from religious gatherings to departmental business meetings to family reunions. We tend to think meetings are important. Why is that? Because we find conversation important, and meeting together facilitates conversation.

Conversation inherently facilitates something else, too. It allows us to interact with members of our community with whom we wouldn’t normally interact or even know. This type of interaction allows us to feel as if we are participating in the “grand scheme of things.” The challenge, then, is to usher community into our digital space.

Go read the rest of the excerpt (or buy the book :-) ).

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Information Tomorrow has finally arrived!

by David Lee King on October 19, 2007

Information tomorrow: reflections on technology and the future of public and academic librariesCool beans! Rachel Singer Gordon’s newest book, Information Tomorrow: Reflections on Technology and the Future of Public and Academic Libraries, just came out. I know, because I received a copy in the mail today.

And why did I receive a copy? Because I wrote one of the chapters! My chapter is chapter 10, An Experience to Remember: Building Positive Experiences on Library Web Sites. It’s about… you guessed it… experience design and library websites. If you read the chapter and still want more, never fear – I’m 2/3′s of the way through a whole book on the topic. So hold on to those longings :-)

But please don’t stop at my little chapter! There are a bundle of amazing authors in this book, including:

  • Stephen Abram
  • Lori Bell
  • Steven J. Bell
  • John Blyberg
  • Robert Bocher
  • Daniel Chudnov
  • Jill Emery
  • Meredith G. Farkas
  • Megan K. Fox
  • Beth Gallaway
  • Joseph Janes
  • David Lee King
  • Jenny Levine
  • Tom Peters
  • Dorothea Salo
  • John D. Shank
  • Michael Stephens
  • Rhonda B. Trueman
  • Jessamyn West
  • Alane Wilson

Wow – just wow. I’m thrilled to see my name in this smorgasboard of emerging library delight.

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