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,…

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…

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, 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…

(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…

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…

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…