The book and literature sectors are undergoing major changes. So NBD Biblion – a major player in the Dutch library world – is changing as well. Their goal? To provide the best possible service to their customers. For this reason, NBD Biblion are taking steps to transform their online databases LiteRom and Uittrekselbank. They are planning database changes, as well as new web interfaces. And our developers are playing an important role…
New policy – Customer centric
NBD Biblion have drawn up a new policy where they focus even more on customer satisfaction. This means that they are adapting their products to more closely mirror their customers’ needs. As a result, NBD Biblion aim to create products that will retain existing customers. And attract new ones too. Alongside the creation of new products, they are using panels of (potential) users and interface experts to review existing products. The results show that there is substantial room for improvement. NBD Biblion have decided that the LiteRom and Uittrekselbank online databases should be the first to undergo this process. Which is why they have now started a project that focuses on optimizing both websites.
Reviewing the online databases
The name of the project is ‘Reviewing Online Databases’. It’s an Agile project, using Scrum. Multidisciplinary teams define and carry out short sprints of two weeks. During the first few sprints, the marketing, ICT and editorial teams have created user stories – these are short descriptions of what users want to adjust and/or add to the products. On the basis of these stories, a design bureau created new visual designs. A representative group of end users then tested these designs. The scrum team used this input to make revisions, and to create more user stories. They next combined and categorized these ’stories’ into areas like: content strategy, marketing, CMS (content management) and Front-end.
With these descriptions in hand, the first development sprints started in January. The scrum team first selected the most valuable users stories at the start of each sprint. These were subsequently developed, tested, reviewed and rolled into a new release. As a result, the databases are gradually being improved. Alongside these developments, NBD Biblion is improving the availability and quality of the websites. Website users will see the changes reflected in a more attractive and productive design. In other words, a new high-quality website experience.
“As an editor, I want to improve the presentation of an excerpt by better styling the contents (including more prominent headlines) to improve readability and user-friendliness.”
The role of BSL
To make this project run as smoothly as possible, NBD Bibion created a Scrum team. This team of experts includes our developers, web-designers and system designers. Not only because of BSL’s long-term relationship with NBD Biblion. But also because of our rich experience in developing online databases. Within the team we take on technical design duties. But we play a creative role too. In addition, our developers are responsible for the software development. New features are delivered during each sprint. This means that each release further improves NBD Biblion’s databases and websites.
Interested?
Do you have an idea for a new software development? Or perhaps your current websites deserve some TLC? Our experienced and professional developers would love to help you. So feel free to contact us. We’re happy to provide you with advice, and development support.
