PULEEZE check it out

Apparently I’m not done harping on the Santa Clara County Library District’s (SCCLD) notion of user interface for their online catalog. Because their product managers and UX designers just keep on giving me harp material.

My days of browsing in library stacks are largely over, for a number of reasons. My typical pattern is to hear about a book, or read a review, go to a library’s website, and (if they have it) put it on hold. When it becomes available, I borrow it. Sometimes I read reviews at the time of publication, and if I don’t reserve the book then, I’ll forget about it by the time it hits the SCCLD’s shelves. It’s just easier.

(Yeah, I could make a list. But then I’d have to keep track of it somewhere. Not happening.)

I’ve already told you about their kludgy interface—with the application just hanging like it can’t decide whether to grant your impertinent request or not. They’ve apparently fixed that, because it now completes the action and gives you an acknowledgement message.

Well, except that the other day this is what I got:

I couldn’t figure out what I’d done wrong, and that error message is not particularly informative.

So when I went to the Cupertino branch to pick up some materials on hold, I asked the guy at the circulation desk what gives. And it turns out that library patrons are limited to a maximum of 12 holds at a time. (You can check out boatloads of books, but only have 12 holds in the system.) Only when I either cancel a hold or check out something that’s become available can I put another item on hold.

Well, okay, fine.

But why could they not word their error message to tell me that? How hard is it to say, “You’ve reached the maximum number of holds allowed”? Why cite some mysterious “problem”, and tell me to “see a librarian”? A librarian can’t help, unless s/he can override their system.

And, in fact, a librarian is a highly-educated person who should be dealing with matters a lot more human than looking up my account to try to decipher something that sloppy technocrats slapped up there because they couldn’t be bothered to program in useful messaging.

IMHO.