Does Your Library Website Suck?
When it comes to creating library websites, lots of us don’t know what blimp we’re doing, right? If you’re like me, you get frustrated by the number of clicks it takes to land on the right information. How come we don’t design websites that are EASY TO USE!
Based on a recent webinar, I’ve put together some pointers for how to evaluate and improve our library websites.
To be usable, useful, and desirable, a website must include:
- site name, logo, navigation bar, search box, and page name (on every page)
- buttons and icons that 100% accurately match their destination’s names
- only NECESSARY content
- Less is more. Eliminate wordiness! Users don’t READ websites from top to bottom, beginning to end. They scan them for eye-catching stuff.
- Embedded hyperlinks instead of using “click heres”
- Friendly, inviting writing
- Write like a real person talks, i.e., not in a passive voice
- Basic guidance & support for what users want from libraries, which is, mostly, SEARCHING RESOURCES AND SERVICES!
The webinar presenters recommended having a single person in charge of the website. Uh oh! How many libraries out there put admin or techno-nerds in charge of the website without any input from librarians?
If there’s a single lesson I learned in library school, it was this: THINK LIKE A USER!
As with most professions, there are some librarians who are better at certain aspects of the job than others. Well, the person in charge of the library’s website and social media presence, MUST be the type who is able to put him or herself in the library-users’ shoes!
This information was extracted from an ALA 3-part-webinar entitled: Evaluate & Improve Your Website in 10 Steps... presented by Amanda Etches and Aaron Schmidt. These two have an online consulting company called Influx. Their workshop was packed with info that was in no way limited to only “10 steps.”
Thanks to them, I’m going to have to add, like, two more posts about all I learned. Stay tuned.
