(ALA) - Breaking Free: Recreating your Library web site from A-Z

Citation

Mill, C. and Yu, H. (2003), "(ALA) - Breaking Free: Recreating your Library web site from A-Z", Library Hi Tech News, Vol. 20 No. 8. https://doi.org/10.1108/lhtn.2003.23920hac.005

(ALA) - Breaking Free: Recreating your Library web site from A-Z

American Library Association (ALA) Annual Conference

Breaking Free: Recreating your Library web site from A-Z

Catherine Mill and Holly Yu

The pre-conference held Friday, June 20, 2003, titled "Breaking Free: Recreating Your Library Web Site from A-Z", sponsored by the Internet Resources Interest Group, Library Information Technology Association (LITA), was jointly presented by the Toronto Public Library (TPL), California State University, Los Angeles (CSULA), and University of Wisconsin, Stevens Point (UWSP). The presentation included sessions on both public and academic library Web projects to give the audience both perspectives on library Web redesign. The sessions were filled with practical advice, Web design, and development strategies and techniques from presenters experienced in the area of library Web redesign. The audience experienced the processes involved in three complete library Web design and redesign projects. The day was divided into three sections, with presentations grouped by Web projects and Web accessibility discussion.

Toronto Public Library Session

In the morning session, staff from Toronto Public Library (TPL) and ecentricarts inc described some of their experiences in applying user-centred design principles to creating Web resources. They focused on two design scenarios:

1. 1.

   Scenario 1. Design a new Web site for the TPL to integrate the Web presence of seven library boards after a municipal amalgamation in 1998. The target audience for the TPL Web site is an extremely broad one – the people of Toronto, a dynamic audience made up of many diverse groups.

2. 2.

   Scenario 2. Expand existing Web links to small business information from a subject directory on TPL's Virtual Reference Library into a gateway called SmallbizXpress. The target audience here is more focused – people in Ontario with an interest in small business.

Catherine Mill, VRL/Electronic Services Coordinator, introduced the TPL session, briefly describing the environment in which these projects were developed, the projects themselves, and outlining TPL's project methodology. Andrew Lofft, Electronic Services Specialist from TPL, and Franca Pernatozzi, project manager for ecentricarts inc described the TPL Web site redesign project with a particular emphasis on the client/vendor relationship. Margaret Wigglesworth, former SmallbizXpress Coordinator, discussed the design of SmallbizXpress, focusing on determining the target audience.

Highlights of the presentation

TPL's methodology

The Library has evolved its own Web design methodology through the experience of developing a number of Web resources.

Indentify a need:

• •

  solicit feedback from staff and customers;

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  prioritize projects based on customer need, corporate strategy, technical feasibility and funding prospects;

• •

  develop proposals to meet the needs of the project and potential partner/funding program.

Secure funding. The library secures funding for new projects, either from its own budget or, more often, from the private sector and/or other levels of government.

Use a team approach. A wide range of skills is required – technical, subject- and content-based, and at a planning and service delivery level.

Incorporate user-centred design:

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  target audience and its goals determine the site content and organization;

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  conduct a user needs analysis;

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  examine current environment, gather feedback from staff and users, establish assumptions and document findings;

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  review and revise when necessary; and

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  revision and change are accepted parts of the process.

Hire Web developers:

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  provides access to experienced java programmers and strong graphic designers for the Web; and

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  for project scheduling, the aim is to have developers ready to work at the same time as librarians have completed their needs analysis and initial concept design.

Incorporating user-centred design and hiring external developers

Incorporating user-centred design and hiring Web developers were two of the key steps in both projects.

TPL Web site

In the initial planning stage, the TPL web site team consulted staff around the system, reviewed public and staff feedback, studied usage statistics and after a lot of meeting and discussion produced three documents:

1. 1.

   an Initial Usability Assessment included a list of considerations for redesign and recommendations on content, information structure and next steps;

2. 2.

   a Concept Description provided a high level outline which included a list of user-centred design objectives and a textual description of the basic information architecture;

3. 3.

   a Site Content Outline included more detailed outline of the proposed new information architecture, with no graphics.

The following are some of TPL's recommendations for documentation when working with an outside vendor:

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  match the project's goals with organizational goals;

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  define the target audience;

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  specify a minimum delivery environment for site visitors;

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  lay out clear expectations on visual design, functional requirements and future directions;

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  list specific types of skills the successful vendor should have (e.g. programming, graphic design, database development, back-end integration);

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  include requirements and goals for staff skill development – what do you want your staff to know after the project?;

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  look for a "good fit" between what vendors can offer and your organization's specific needs;

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  specifically request full ownership of source code and graphics to avoid potential legal problems; and

• •

  ecentricarts inc was selected for the TPL Web site redesign. Franca Pernatozzi outlined some of the benefits and shortcomings of working with a vendor.

Benefits of hiring external developers:

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  they bring a level of candor and clarity to the project;

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  they are outside the institution's politics; and

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  they have access to a wider range of skills and expertise.

Shortcomings of hiring external developers:

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  there are cost and knowledge transfer considerations; and

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  too many vendors working for one organization can carry risks.

Franca also underlined the importance of defining the scope of the work – what is expected of the vendor and what is expected of the client. TPL's detailed documentation facilitated the success of the project from the start.

SmallbizXpress

The SmallbizXpress presentation focused on the user needs analysis for a small business gateway on TPL's Virtual Reference Library (VRL). The VRL is a Web-based online research and reference library with a subject directory of over 17,000 Web pages selected and indexed by library staff. Gateways like SmallbizXpress are an integral component of the VRL. They provide a focus for specific subjects or audiences and bring together a range of information resources and value-added features like personalization.

One of the activities the SmallbizXpress project team used in the user need analysis phase was to lead three discussion groups of people selected to represent the end users – librarians from TPL, library professionals from across Ontario, and representatives from small business organizations and associations. Each group was asked a series of questions designed to elicit information on small business information needs.

Some of the questions asked were:

• •

  Who is the target audience?

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  What resources do small business people use most and why?

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  What sites do they find least useful?

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  About what do small business people ask you most?

• •

  With what resources do people have the most trouble?

CSULA session

Scott Breivold opened CSULA's presentation in the afternoon with an overview of the reasons why CSULA initiated its library Web redesign project. Team presenters Chad Kahl, Holly Yu, Romelia Salinas, and Stephen Sottong then took the attendees through the process of conducting usability studies, testing ADA compliance, analyzing Web usage statistics; examining Web site architecture, exploring principles of Web design, using JavaScript and dynamic Web design.

The overview Scott Breivold provided indicated that the old CSULA library Web was difficult to navigate, as it was developed over a long period of time dating back to 1993. Over the years, new information had been added, and bits and pieces of new designs were created, but it lacked an overall coherence, and there was no navigational structure in place. The homepage, with more than 40 links, was too crowded to accommodate any modification gracefully, and it had reached a point where it had become cumbersome to maintain as well. Most importantly, the library Web site had grown in both size and complexity over the years without a corresponding growth in the sophistication of the underlying technology. Breivold then described how a consensus was reached that new features needed to be integrated to facilitate the navigation and overall usability. The library needed a new site with a greater overall consistency, user-centred design, and a new database-driven technology to increase interactivity and to reduce the workload on Web developers.

The Web Team conducted a user-centred and evidence-based library Web redesign, meaning that they needed to base their Web redesign principles on empirically gathered data from their users. They intended to design the library Web site from the outside in: that is, from the end users' needs and abilities to the eventual implementation of the site. Chad Kahl, leader of the Usability Study Subgroup of the Library Web Team, illustrated the whole process of conducting a formal usability study from recruiting test participants, drafting documentation, training test observers, pre-testing the test, scheduling sessions, administering tests, and, finally, analyzing data. He explained how they used a survey to select the usability study participants. CSULA has one of the most diverse student populations of any US university, and an overwhelming majority of the CSULA students were raised in homes where they spoke a language other than English. They wanted their test participants to reflect their student population make-up. An online survey was posted on the library Web, and a print survey was also distributed at each service point in the library. Chad Kahl then illustrated the reality they faced in selecting candidates and administering the tests before he summarized some of the key findings of the usability study:

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  confusing language and terminology;

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  too busy/text heavy/link heavy;

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  lack of consistent look and feel on all pages;

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  no search feature;

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  no navigational structure in place; and

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  "What's New" graphics viewed as ads and ignored.

Holly Yu, Library Web Administrator, discussed how they conducted accessibility assessment of the library Web following the World Wide Web Consortium's (W3C) Web Content Accessibility Guidelines, and the process of evaluating the library Web site using available evaluation tools, such as Bobby and LynxViewer. She addressed the importance of getting assistance from the campus' disabled community. The Usability Study Subgroup enlisted staff members from the Office for Students with Disabilities (OSD) for their experience and expertise on student abilities. They tested main pages on the library Web using JAWS 3.7 (Job Access for Windows, a screen reader). Although the initial Bobby and LynxViewer tests indicated that the library Web was Bobby-approved, the JAWS testing result indicated problematic areas that were not identified by the Bobby evaluation. Holly illustrated these problem areas: acronyms, jargon, graphics, and labels, and then showed how needed repairs were implemented. She emphasized that identifying problems and implementing repairs were two main elements of a Web site accessibility assessment. One way to ensure that a self-evaluation is carried out is to recommend its inclusion in the institution's Web planning and design process. Another is for the institution to develop its own check-lists, or to follow the most up-to-date guidelines published by the W3C. Holly then showed how the CSULA group employed usage statistics in the design of the navigational structure. Usage statistics provided them with indicators of the volume of various usages, the types of pages requested, highest use pages or documents, how long visitors stayed, etc. Based on these statistical data, they decided to make access to article databases and the online library catalog more prominent, and provided access points to these essential research tools on every page on the new navigational structure.

Information on the library Web is heterogeneous, containing links encompassing a wide range of contents and formats. Sorting out the navigational structure and site categories proved to be the most complex process. Romelia Salinas, leader of the Structure Subgroup of the Library Web Team, described the objectives and methods used in prioritizing, streamlining, and reorganizing content. She noted the four main issues identified in the usability study that drove the content reorganization process: reducing the number of links and eliminating confusing language, reducing redundancy in content, prioritizing information, and providing multiple paths when appropriate. She then explained how the category chart- and card-sorting techniques were utilized to streamline the content.

The design phase of the project was presented by Scott Breivold, leader of the Design Subgroup of the Library Web Team. He vividly described how the team approached the challenges of page layout, the use of color and graphics and the creation of a consistent look and feel throughout the site. He also listed the process they used to arrive at the new page design and discussed how factors such as usability test results, university Web guidelines, and other factors steered the aesthetic direction of the new site. He showed some of the academic and commercial Web sites they studied, and samples of over 80 homepage mock-ups they developed.

Stephen Sottong, the person behind the scene of all these designs, highlighted the technologies used to give their Web site a consistent look and feel, to ease navigation and to make the site easier to maintain. He presented tips and tricks for the design of the headers that fit any screen size using dynamic picture resizing. He also discussed the use of JavaScript for roll-over menus to maximize the information on the page, while minimizing clutter. He then illustrated the steps in creating a cross-browser page and the techniques used for roll-over menu and dynamic examples in the library online catalog (www.calstatela.edu/library/opac/catalog. html). Sottong talked about the use of "client-side includes" that allow use of a common header and footer on all pages, which can be modified by changing only one file, thereby greatly reducing maintenance workload for library Web developers. Finally, he discussed a new technology he had developed for database-driven Web pages using only JavaScript.

Codes for these technologies used for the library Web were also presented and are freely available from the CSULA library Web site at: http://www. calstatela.edu/library/

For PowerPoint of the CSULA presentation, hand-outs, and speaker information, please visit the Web site at: www.calstatela.edu/library/ALA

Between the TPL and CSULA sessions, Dr Axel Schmetzke of the University of Wisconsin, Stevens Point, discussed legal mandates for library Web ADA compliance. He indicated that ADA compliance is not limited to the physical world, but applies equally to the online environment. The empirical studies he conducted recently revealed that the Web sites of both Canadian and US libraries tend to be fraught with access barriers. After providing an overview of these studies, he introduced and demonstrated some of the important tools that librarians can use to evaluate the accessibility of their existing Web sites. He also provided hand-outs covering an extensive list of the ADA evaluation tools.

Owing to a sudden change in University policy on traveling to Toronto, the CSULA Library Web Team presented their portion of the presentation on a pre-recorded PowerPoint narration. With only a few minor technical glitches, the presentation overall went smoothly, and the audience reacted with great enthusiasm.

Catherine Mill (cmill@tpl.toronto.on.ca) is VRL/Electronic Services Coordinator at the Virtual Reference Library of Toronto Public Library, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.Holly Yu (hyu3@calstatela.edu) is Library Web Administrator/Reference Librarian at University Library, California State University, Los Angeles, California, USA.