We first researched these two big questions. We found out libraries work in a multitude of different ways. Through research we also started to understand how libraries tend to recommend, which is usually through librarians.
Then by using divergent scenarii we started to understand that a disruptive form of recommendation might be highlighting negative reviews. This we took further into the next tool.
To start brainstorming concepts for a Library Recommendation system we used the World of Opinion. Here you can see the process of finding a concept and then critiquing it through the other worlds. This helped us become less biased.
Here we started to narrow down some of the key components of our concept.
Once we narrowed down the specifics we wrote a concept statement.
We had to compromise between the domestic and civic worlds by having everyone able to submit a review, it satisfies the civic world, but by allowing the librarian to pick what's gets seen we satisfied the domestic world view.
Our app would work by allowing anyone to submit a negative review, then this review gets seen by a librarian. The librarian then has the final say in what gets seen by the public and how. There are many options and we purposely left it open ended, as the librarian would know which form is best for their community. Whether it's through a catalog or sidewalk advertising, the librarian can choose which negative book reviews are seen.
We do believe that Negative Nancy can lead to the future of recommendations systems.
