Perhaps one of my most complicated projects, this series of wireframes for the BLUEcloud Cataloging web app took about a year to create, from winter 2012-fall of 2013. Part of what made it so complicated is the subject matter. In case you’ve never had the pleasure, MARC records (used to catalog library materials) are incredibly convoluted. With 999 different information fields, and rampant custom uses, they are hard to make, hard to use, and hard to maintain. Most people get a masters degree to learn how to use them, and I had to pick it up in the sub-context of 100+ meetings. This project was further complicated by the long list of undefined expectations various customers and shareholders had for the product. To top it all off, I came at this project as an emergency transplant. The sole user interface designer quit and they lured me from marketing to engineering with the promise of a company phone. Therefore, for the first little while I was trying to fill UI needs for 60+ developers completely alone. You can therefore imagine my elation at the success of this product, as you can see by it’s reception on Twitter when unveiled at the SirsiDynix COSUGI conference.
