Category: usability

Let’s be real. Most library homepages look like someone tried to squeeze the entire building onto one screen. There’s the event carousel. The newsletter signup. Program promotions. A giant banner about summer reading. And somewhere, buried deep, is the information users actually came to find — like hours, locations, or how to get a library… Continue reading Is your homepage doing too much?

As a staff person, your view (mental model) of the library’s website is incredibly different from that of a patron. It’s so very different, that you can’t even pretend to be a patron user.  It’s vital that this is acknowledged.

Why do these myths continue to be perpetuated in libraries? Perhaps because so many of us grew up alongside the web. We were initiated in the very early days, when it was truly a Wild West-type environment. Not everyone realizes that those days are truly long-gone and there’s actually real sheriffs in town.

I’ve talked about all of these before, either in various presentations or blog posts.  If you’re looking for a quick tune-up for your library’s website, you might try starting with these: Cut the text on the homepage.  Nobody’s reading it.  Honest.  If you have more than a sentence about any given item, you’re likely turning… Continue reading 5 quick fixes for your library’s website

Social media and promoting your library’s “stuff” is something I’ve written about before.  It’s still a message that I find many libraries ignoring.  Too many libraries  believe that their stuff is “cool” because they say so, and ignore one of the most fundamental aspects of promotion:  making the promotion actually relevant to the audience. I’ve… Continue reading Losing your virginity–thinking more about the payoff

So, let me tell you about what happened to me earlier this week. Our family went to Cedar Point.  I’m getting really thirsty. Hot day in August and, of course, soft drinks at the amusement park have an approximate 1000% markup*.  I want a bottle that I can re-close and store, so I can take… Continue reading Why your website’s UI should not be a special snowflake

(Today’s post is almost more of a question than anything else, so please post your thoughts in the comments.  I’m genuinely interested.) I’ve got questions. Most libraries have some form of web analytics, to measure at least the basics:  page views, number of unique visitors, time spent on the site, and so forth.  But those… Continue reading Thinking about web analytics

From a usability perspective, layout has always been important.  If the tasks people come to do the most often are hidden, people leave your site, frustrated.  Recently, with the advent of mobile devices of all kinds, layout has also taken on a different facet:  it now has to not put up barriers to those using… Continue reading Why your website layout matters

This is one of the rare occasions where I would like to simply take all of the text from someone else’s blog post and simply plunk it here.  Since I can’t really do that, I do want to share a relevant portion…in a bit. Gerry McGovern is an author and website consultant.  His focus is… Continue reading “There are no facts inside the building.”