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Welcome to Liblog 1 - a weblog of current web sites and stories dealing with the interface between technology and libraries. Sometimes the connection to the sphere of the library is tenuous... but in today's world, everything has an impact on libraries, on librarians... and on library users. If you find this weblog of interest, you may enjoy these other library weblogs as well.
Monday, October 29, 2007
New Rules Of Web design
Jeff Wisniewski, University of Pittsburg
Wisniewski offered a look at the "old" rules that have now been replaced by the "new" rules:
Old Rule:Simple is better - New Rule: Complex information often requires a complex, feature rich site.
Old Rule:Content is king - New Rule: Design matters. In fact, a strong design can sometimes keep people on a site despite usability problems. Best designs are aimed to reinforce what users are doing.
Old Rule: All content is created equal - New Rule: Some content is more important, and it should be emphasized.
Old Rule: Rule of Seven (top level categories) - New Rule: Good organizations and good labels. 5-9 top-level categories is often best, but a well designed site can break this rule and still be successful.
Old Rule: 3 Clicks, No More - New Rule: If users believe that they are getting closer to what they want, they will click until they reach their goal.
Old Rule: 800 x 600 Screen Size - New Rule: 1024 x 768... but given the many possible ways that people may view your site, flexibility is best.
Old Rule: Web-safe colors - New Rule: Most people can use at least 24 Million colors now.
Old Rule: Provide text-only version - New Rule: Use properly designed xhtml and CSS and older browsers, others will be able to navigate your site.
Old Rule: Avoid CSS - New Rule: Use CSS properly, for layout.
Old Rule: Avoid Flash - New Rule: Avoid Flash Intro pages; but Flash can be very useful for doing tutorials and animations.
Old Rule: Mouseover Menus - New Rule: Only use if absolutely necessary - there are usability issues.
Old Rule: Never open new windows - New Rule: If you tell people you will be doing it in advance - like for external resources - it's okay.
Old Rule: Scrolling is bad - New Rule: People will scroll a long time if they feel that there is something worth scrolling to.
Old Rule: Above the fold - New Rule: Yes, the most important stuff should be. But see above.
Some old rules remain powerful, however. Basics such as having a home link in the upper left, a clickable banner, a contact us link on the top left - these are basic means of ensuring usability. Pop-up windows are still bad, and are blocked by default by most browsers today. And while there more broadband users than ever, people are still impatient... and there are still lots of people on slow networks. So designing a site to load quickly is still a good idea.
When redesigning your site, certainly look at other libraries... but be sure you look at sites outside of library land too! And don't think about redesign as something you do every couple of years. Major changes are tough on users, so an iterative, constantly being tweaked approach is one he recommends. He also recommends testing by putting up one design, getting feedback, then putting up a slightly different design and getting feedback on that. Comparing the two to see what users prefer.
Recommends a "graded" browser support, by tweaking CSS to display different levels of content based on the browser being used. This allows for basic, essential content to be displayed for all browsers, with additional content displayed based on the capability of the browser.
Recommends adding identified pictures of people to the site - this helps users make a connection to the library, and by identifying the people it helps to increase trust.
Inspiration For Your Website Redesign
Bennett Ponsford, Christina Hoffman Gola, Texas A&M University on usability testing and web 2.0 techniquews to spark conversations about the website.
Questions asked of users - how would you re-do our site?
What types of items desired? What formats? How do you discover new resources?What to do about subject and study guides/pathfinders? Students are doing more interdisciplinary projects now, and are finding the subject guides too specific. How to provide both connections to mother guides while still providing some depth.
Interesting result from survey - users said that they wanted the library website search to default to either books or everything. But when asked what the last things they searched for were, the answer was articles. Is the Library brand (books) so strong that they want it represented in the search even if that isn't what they normally look for?
Faculty are going to Google Scholar BEFORE going to the Library's databases.
People wanted systems integrated - only login once to access every resource.
Survey found that people want more ways to allow self-discovery and to share knowledge.
Survey says: Visual and "sexy" is good!
Survey - desire for personalization tools. Want customization of the web site - "my databases", etc. Asked for pictures of librarians too - want to know who can help them.
Less than 10% of students wanted to communicate with the Library via Facebook.
Recommendations:
Help them find stuff, then get out of their way!
Reaffirmed traditional design rules. Let users control the interface.Lessons from 4,000 years of art: design, philosophy, change, and endurance (Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO.) - Johnson County Library
Erica Reynolds, Johnson County Library
Lesson 1: Have a back-up plan.
Lesson 2: Be bold. Be dynamic. Be human. - www.jocoteenscene,org - skins selectable by users
Lesson 3: When you paint to sell, you paint people. - So let people express themselves! - www.jocokids.org. Put a kids picture on your website and the family of that kid will send that link EVERYWHERE!
Lesson 4: Enliven your collection through reorganization and presentation.
"Need a story" vs. "Novelist" - Lots more hits from the former! Adapt your interfaces when the default does not work.
Need to fight the "Librarian gene" to throw everybit of information at someone.
Lesson 5: Technology changes everything.
Lesson 6: Experiment with small studies and prototypes. - Used card sorts when choosing terminology. Paper prototyping of user interface(s). (Test with audience you are aiming for.) Usability testing.
Lesson 7: A desire for beauty and serenity endures. - Keep things simple!
Lesson 8: We like surprises. And anticipating the surprise is even more delicious. - Have a button called "surprise" on the front page of the site. Led to things like "Did you check out one off 6 million items last year."
Lesson 9: A good guide enhances the experience exponentially.
www.jocolibrary.org/usability - slides etc. available
Lesson 10: (W W - anyone who has scored a baseball game can relate, I'm sure :-)
Lesson 11: Never stop innovating
Lesson 12: Be both prestigious and playful.
Labels: Bennett Ponsford, Christina Hoffman Gola. Website Redesign, Erica Reynolds, IL2007, Jeff Wisniewski, Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Rules, Website Design
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Other web logs with links to library issues:
- Lori Bowen Ayre's Library Technology Musings provides "Hopes, dreams, wild ideas and practical solutions for libraries."
- Marylaine Block's Neat New Stuff I Found This Week (and her Ex Libris E-Zine for librarians.)
- Tara Calishain's Research Buzz, "news about search engines, databases, and other information collections."
- Blake Carver and Steve Galbraith's LISNews.com, focuses on (as the subtitle puts it), "news for information professionals."
- Steven M. Cohen's Library Stuff, provides readers with information on the wonderful and exciting world of librarianship.
- Gary Frost's Future of the Book, looks at "preservation and persistence of the changing book."
- Michael Gartenberg (an analyst with Jupiter Research, a market research and advisory firm focused on emerging technologies and the Internet) is one of several Jupiter researchers producing an Analyst Weblog.
- Brend Hough and Liz Rea's NEKLS Technology Weblog, "50 Feet From the Cutting Edge in the Northeast Kansas Library System."
- Sarah Houghton's Librarian In Black, has "resources and discussions for the 'tech-librarians-by-default' among us..."
- Jenny Levine, the original bloggin' librarian, is back with the Shifted Librarian, working to make libraries more "portable... to serve our remote patrons."
- Alex Soojung-Kim Pang (one of the Institute for the Future's research team) is producing Future Now, which looks at emerging technologies and their social implications.
- Gary Price and Shirl Kennedy's ResourceShelf has "resources and news for information professionals" (including the latest scoops on what's what with the invisible web).
- Michael Stephens' Tame the Web includes, "current technology uses in libraries, training tips and various other interests concerning library settings."
- Sandra Stewart at San Jose Public Library is producing a Library Tourguide to Blogs and Technology.
- Jessamyn West's librarian.net, keeping track of the nifty reference sites - and library references - she finds.
- Stephanie Wright's TechnoBiblio, where librarians and technogeeks speak the same language.
Not a weblog, but a very funny look at libraries:
- Unshelved - Bill Barnes' and Gene Ambaum's library comic strip (formerly known as Overdue.)
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