[Web4lib] Academic library website design v. campus design

[Melissa Belvadi]

We have for political reasons the same list of univ-wide links across
the very top of our library web site that appear in that same position
across the top of the main univ site, immediately above a full-width
library banner design. In the two rounds of usability testing we just
completed, we found that when we removed some of the graphics from our
banner area (right below that line of links), we inadvertently increased
the noticeability of the univ links above it, to the detriment of the
subjects in the second round, who started using them to answer library
specific questions, e.g. going to the univ staff page when asked to find
the library staff page (missing the link to the library staff page that
appeared elsewhere on our page). So we've responded by making that line
of links in a much smaller font, and changing the "Staff & Faculty" link
to say "UPEI Staff & Faculty". Haven't had a chance yet to do a third
round of testing to see what impact this has had, but we're hopeful. 
http://library.upei.ca/




---
Melissa Belvadi
Emerging Technologies & Metadata Librarian
University of Prince Edward Island
mbelvadi at upei.ca
902-566-0581 



>>> On 6/16/2010 at 02:02 PM, Elisabeth Long <elong at uchicago.edu>
wrote: 

>>
>>
>> Message: 4
>> Date: Wed, 16 Jun 2010 09:07:18 -0500
>> From: "nancy" <nancy at thesmudge.com>
>> Subject: [Web4lib] Academic library website design v. campus design
>> To: <web4lib at webjunction.org>
>> Message-ID: <000001cb0d5d$3bfae890$b3f0b9b0$@com>
>> Content-Type: text/plain;       charset="us-ascii"
>>
>> Is there a trend toward or away from academic library websites
including
>> the
>> parent institution's navigation links and menus?
>>
>>
>> The most successful I have seen are ones where rather than using the
full
> navigation bar of the university, there is a thin, simplified bar at
the top
> that provides institutional context and links back to the main
university
> pages.  This accomplishes university consistency without getting too
> confusing.
> 
> See for example
> http://libraries.iub.edu/ which uses a simple maroon bar with the IU
> Bloomington logo to link back to the university pages.
> 
> or
> http://www.lib.umn.edu/  which greys out the color of the univ link
so it
> doesn't compete.  this one also does include some of the navigation
but
> rendered as plain text links (even the search) so it, again, doesn't
compete
> with the main focus being the library page's functionality.