Windmill: The Social Library.

Windmill is the result of my investigation into how the social life of the library could be enhanced using a simple yet smart technology and appropriately designed intervention.

One of the things I found lacking in libraries was interaction between library users. I decided to give the library users an incentive to talk to each other and share information.



During my field research, I noticed that taking notes and noting the detailed bibliographic data for quotes is viewed as a chore by most students.



1. I sought to simplify the act of making citations, by allowing users to scan the quote directly from the book along with the ISBN number using a handheld scanner.



2. Windmill then allows users to share these quotes with one another via a simple web based interface.
Bibliographic data is automatically filled in via a request to Amazon.com and numerous options exist with regards to viewing and subscribing to books.


3. Alternative interfaces to these quotes stored on database and interesting interaction design possibilities would be the way this project could develop in the future.

One example of such is given on the 13th August at the Centre of Excellence MA Degree show.


Windmill in action.

You can see images of Windmill as it was installed t my MA show the online prototype was active between 2005 - late 2007. Due to the Amazon API changing significantly and issues with spam it was not subsequently reinstated.

Comments and feedback?
iman@organised.info.