After consulting with WJ members and partners, we have been working with ForumOne, our esteemed design advisors, to determine the core elements of our planned WJ site refresh. We’d love to get your thoughts too! Please feel free to comment on this post or send them to content@webjunction.org. We are rapidly moving toward translating this into “wireframe” diagrams, so we would appreciate your feedback by Friday, October 6.
1. Enhance the usability of WebJunction.org
- Update site taxonomy (based on the card sort, of course!)
- Update graphical presentation
- Address audience issues (that is: we address a number of distinct but overlapping audiences: we need to create audience-specific entry pages and simplify the user experience for everyone)
- Improve discovery (how could we be an OCLC project and not “improve discovery”
?) What ForumOne specifically recommends is: (1) Adding a facility for �key resources� (2) Increased usage of �related resources� (3) Better prominence and access to search functionality.
2. Better align the site with WJ’s mission
- More effectively feature eLearning and community content on the home page.
- Highlight key partners (state library associations and others) on the home page.
- Improve traffic by enhanced synergy with the WJ newsletter.
3. Maintain and enhance the sense of community at WJ
- Homepage message: make it clearer who we are and what we do.
- Homepage interactivity: feature more dynamic and interactive content.
- Liveliness and attitude: emphasize the spirit of the community, including interactivity, creativity and whimsy.
How about giving the words Library and Libraries more prominence?
Excellent goals. I have three comments:
1. I love “we need to create audience-specific entry pages and simplify the user experience for everyone”. Be specific how that should be accomplished. For example, make the pages accessible (i.e. Section 508 at a mimimum), simple, and use language that is concrete, easy to understand, and brief. I’ve always disliked labels like “Areas in this Section” and “Related Resources”, for example, because they seem so meaningless.
2. I also like your implied goals for the Home Page. Simple, discovery-minded, and “dynamic and interactive”. That will be a challenge. My hope is to see a Home Page that looks different than the other pages and should not look like a commercial site that has to push ads into every corner.
3. Be careful with “whimsy”!
Thanks so much Bill and Tom! These are all great points and we will take them into account through the design process.
Bill, one of the things we are working on is new names for our tabs; we’re headed toward something like “Library Management”, “Library Technology”, “Library Services”, “Library Learning”, “Library Community”. One of the debates has been whether that’s too repetitive, but given your point perhaps not.
We are in the midst of defining some 508 remediation work, so that comment is very pertinent, Tom. Your point about language is also very well taken and we plan a serious overhaul. It’s not technically difficult, of course, but it takes a serious occasion like this refresh to take action…
We’ve had quite a debate among the staff about “whimsical” and “professional”. Our sense is that we should create some room for whimsy within a largely serious and professional site. We look forward to finding the right balance.
I agree with Tom that the goals stated head us in the right direction.
My hope is the home page can be, as Tom says, simple, discovery-minded, and “dynamic and interactive”. I would add inviting. I hope that “simple” means clean and not cluttered. From my view, too much navigation (or redundancy)is not necessarily helpful or attractive. For an example, look at the Fresh Features page at http://webjunction.org/do/Navigation?category=12352
Facilitating access is important, of course, but I hope that the site can accommodate a high level of browsability as well as quick access to “audience-specific entry pages”.
Labels have always been a challenge for me. Working to keep them concise but descriptive is a difficult task, but I agree with Tom that they need to have some meaning for their audience.
I like whimsy if it doesn’t get in the way and I hope that the website can encourage creativity as well as demonstrate it.
Thanks for your work to make WebJunction an exciting gathering place for librarians. I look forward to further developments.
P.S. I admit my ignorance. What is Section 508?
I haven’t been up to much lately. I’ve basically been doing nothing , but it’s not important. I can’t be bothered with anything recently. I’ve just been letting everything happen without me lately.