[WEB4LIB] Re: Our usability test results distilled

[Michael]

CHRIS GRAY WROTE:
--------------
<snip>
In a nutshell, avoid the "design recapitulates bureaucracy" trap.  Give
your users good content covering their initial interests right up front
and show them how to enrich that through what the library offers.  Your
community of users doesn't live in the library, they live in a university
or a college, in a city or a town.  Think of yourself not as building a
library site but as building a site in that larger community.
Collaborate with that community.
</snip>


Again, I think what Chris suggests goes along with what I mentioned
previously about user tasks and goal requirements. If the site is dynamic,
in this case ASP or PHP, developers can help the user find what it she/he
is looking for by providing *information scents* to desired items, or
breadcrumbs if you will.


Think of this mailing list as an example where topics are presented by
posters and posters also provide individual opinions, evidence-based
research and URLs, tips-and-tricks, etc. to list members who in turn use
this information to do their jobs better.


I think by building community as Chris points out, library web developers
can help their content managers bubble content up to the surface,
revealing other information resources and services that may go overlooked
because of a site's deep hierarchy. That's my opinion.


EXAMPLES
--------
http://www.boxesandarrows.com/
http://www.adobe.com/
http://www.macromedia.com/
http://www.devshed.com/


DevShed is a good example because it's a site that gives you instructions
on how to do stuff, very much like a library site except with banner ads,
and also has an online forum to keep in touch with the topics that are of
interest to you.


-- -----


One example comes to mind when I think of this scenario is when I go to
Tower Records to browse for music. That place is a deliberate mess,
cluttered with posters and advertisement that obscures the store's
signage, forcing me to look around the store more than I need to. I also
quite can't figure how the CDs are alphabetically arranged on the shelves.
Is it by artists' first name or by last name? Either way, I spend more
time in the store than necessary. The point is Tower Records deliberately
confuses its customers because more time spent in the store may equate to
more money spent.

But for a library website, we don't want to confuse users. It's quite the
opposite.



Michael