[WEB4LIB] The Bad Design Election

[GRAY, PAUL]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Jerry Kuntz [mailto:jkuntz at rcls.org]
> Sent: Friday, November 10, 2000 10:48 AM
> To: Multiple recipients of list
> Subject: [WEB4LIB] The Bad Design Election
>. . .
> Should we feel fortunate that it would take some tortuous 
> HTML/CSS coding to
> reproduce a web-based "butterfly" layout of alternately-aligned menu
> options? 

Yes

> Or are we guilty of producing or accepting other navigational
> atrocities?

Yes

> Should we be devising some methodologies for field-testing 
> the usability of
> library, catalog, and database interfaces?

Yes - definitely

> Should we be 
> demanding usability
> field-test evidence in our contracts with database and 
> catalog vendors?

If not demanding - at least hoping for and including that in purchasing
decisions.

> Should the web pages we produce ourselves be subject to some 
> sort of peer review for usability?

NO ---
That has been one of the major design problems all along - 
People with a particular group - with a particular mindset and skill level
(computer techs, library professionals, whatever) design a tool - then have
other people with the same mind set and skill level (their peers) judge it
and tell them how wonderful it is -
forgetting that the average end-user is coming from an entirely different
mind-set and has a very different skill level.
Have it reviewed for usability? YES
By our peers? - NO  -- or at least not exclusively.
The real usability test is whether the people who are going to be using the
tool find it usable.

> Jerry Kuntz
> Ramapo Catskill Library System
> jkuntz at rcls.org

Just my .02

Paul H. Gray,Manager - Library LAN & CLC
TCC Northeast Campus Library
Hurst, TX
817-515-6623
"Those Williams boys they still mean a lot to me - - - Hank and Tennessee"
>