Valerie Forrestal

vforrestal@gmail.com vforrestal.info

Web Services Librarian Candidate Presentation ● College of Staten Island ● 12/3/12

Clear, concise and logical navigation Simple, elegant design Advertise news and upcoming events Central search box for finding resources Repository for forms, policies, hours and

contact information

User testing Layout Navigation User testing Content User testing

Define all relevant audiences • Undergraduates/Graduate students • Faculty/Staff • Potential students/donors/local residents/parents/etc

Create “user stories” or “use cases” for each audience which define common tasks and their steps for completion

Consider # of steps for users to complete desired tasks in mind when organizing navigation/content

CMS/template restraints: • Logos/colors • Required links from school

General layout: • Items for homepage, subpages, or to be included

on every page • Header, footer, columns

Navigation levels

How many templates will you need? 1 vs 2 column design

• Right-side columns good for contact info, links or widgets

• BUT- you don’t want to force it! Avoid empty or redundant side columns

• How will your mobile version handle right column? Drop it? Stack them? (This influences how you structure your content-see LibGuides mobile site.)

Responsive design uses CSS to format the site based on auto-detected screen size/orientation.

Desktop/laptop Mobile

device/tablet vs.

4 1

3

5 2

6

4

5

1

2

3

6

Guided navigation for new users (on homepage only)

Logical hierarchical navigation for normal users (on left-hand side of each page)

Quicklinks – direct to resources – for expert users (on top or bottom of every page

Deep footer with related links from school/other departments (academic calendar, writing center, staff directories, registrar, IT, etc)

Flat vs. Hierarchical organization of pages • Flat design can lead to a sprawling, out of control

site. • Will your page groupings make sense to users? • Deep hierarchical design may require extra

navigation, such as secondary nav menus and/or breadcrumb links

• Folder structure will also affect how links look (see next slide)

From: “How to Create a Directory Structure Search Engines Rock To” by Stoney deGeyter (http://www.searchengineguide.com/stoney-degeyter/how-to-create-a-directory-structure-sear.php)

Create annotated sitemap for old site Identify content that does not need to be migrated Identify content that would benefit from “object”

approach (ie-forms, policies, contact info) • This content will be pulled into “blocks” which can then be

reused • For consistency, edits are made in one place and pushed

to pages that contain the blocks Identify content that needs restructuring, or that

would benefit from additional sub menus that template doesn’t provide.

Identify content to be pushed into 3rd party software (like LibGuides.)

Will the site be locally or remotely hosted? • Drupal requirements: http://drupal.org/requirements • Joomla: http://help.joomla.org/content/view/1938/310/ • WordPress: http://wordpress.org/about/requirements/

Follow proper folder structure and use relative links, so entire site can be moved without link breakage

Compatibility with services located on other servers: • Ezproxy server • Catalog • Link Resolver

Staff should be trained on new CMS before site launch Documentation should be created to identify roles of

staff in maintaining content • Who owns what content? • How often should updates be made or content/links

checked? • Are approvals of content necessary?

In theory, a CMS makes it possible for all/most staff to contribute to site maintenance, however, in practice this is not always the optimal scenario. Key personnel must be named and held responsible for checking the content remains up-to-date.

Realistically, migration can take place in under a semester.

Ideally, user-testing should be done during fall semester, site design over spring semester, and content migration over the summer, for minimal inconvenience to users.

If agile methodologies are preferred, user testing and site design can be done in the same semester, site launch over winter or summer break, and follow-up user testing and design tweaks in the following semester.

Although the redesign of any website inherently carries some risks, probably the most notable of which is making major changes to a resource that is already familiar to its users, the ever-evolving nature of the internet sometimes makes an update necessary. Website success can often be traced back to several important concepts, including simplicity in design, logical organization and navigation, media richness, and interactivity2. In that vein, a homepage needs to be intuitive to navigate, and organized to facilitate ease of finding information for all levels of user experience. There should be a focus on technologies enabling communication and interactivity throughout the site, and access to resources and services should be seamless3.

Sources: [1] McFedries, P. (2006). The Web, Take Two. IEEE Spectrum, 43(6), 68-68. [2] Palmer, J. (2002). Web Site Usability, Design, and Performance Metrics. Information Systems Research, 13(2), 151-167. [3] ACRLog: Formula for Academic Library Success (http://acrlblog.org/2007/05/14/formula-for-academic-library-success/)

Source: Stephen Abram- http://www.sirsidynix.com/Resources/Pdfs/Company/Abram/ny metro.pdf

Service CSI Service-provider SIT Service-provider

CMS Joomla Typo 3/Drupal

Catalog Ex Libris Sirsi Dynex

Federated Search/DS Ebscohost Integrated Search EDS/Summon

Room/Equip. Reserve ? -

Authentication EzProxy EzProxy

Repository Software ? CONTENTdm

Integrated Catalog Search IDS-OCLC -

Chat Reference Library H3lp LibChat

Research Guides LibGuides LibGuides

Events Google Calendar/Docs EventBrite

ERM Serials Solutions Serials Solutions

Citation Management RefWorks RefWorks

Blog WordPress Blogger

Course Management System Blackboard Blackboard/Moodle

Printing Web-based? UniPrint (drivers required)

What technologies are the students and professors already using? Bring the library to them, wherever they are.

Facilitate professor involvement (can they contribute to resource guides or create curated course resources?)

How can we get the users to the content they need, as quickly as possible? Are we supporting all levels of users, without getting in the way?

Appification/responsive design (mobile-friendly versions are no longer optional)

flexible display of content to allow users to construct/organize information according to their own understanding/project/learning-type/subject-specialty (customized/customizable information aggregation/user tagging)

Seamless integration of services provided by 3rd party vendors W3C issues: ADA and semantic web compliant