Call out to Bibliophiles, especially those of you with library sceince degrees...

[siouxiequeue]

I'm learning web design in a rather awesome progam (Web Foundations Fast Track) at Cascadia Community College - and I'm on a team that will be redesigning the Everett Public Library website (eee!)... this is their site now: http://www.epls.org/ - it's *not* an online library, but has a catalog

Comments

[leannan_sidhe]

Main page too cluttered...... bad
One click to use basic catalog search............good
My account should be at top of page, that's where most sites have it.

Public libraries have three things going very strongly for them... the collection, education, and community involvement. As long as the catalog is easy to find and use online, I would think focusing on the other things a library has to offer the community would be good. The more the community knows the library has good things to offer besides the books, the more likely they are to support the library when it needs more funding.

[siouxiequeue]

awesome feedback, and well written - thank you!!

[laffingkat]

I may be too late to be useful, but my first reaction to that site was sheer panic at all the information and flashing things and too many colors and clashing styles. Immediate sensory overload! But for kids nowadays, perhaps that's not a problem.

The things I usually want to find quickly are 1) where is the library, 2) what hours is it open, 3) what do I need to do to check out books, and 4) are there any books available that I actually want to check out. The site actually does a pretty good job making that information easily available once I got over the initial shock. The "How do I?" prompt is not a bad idea.

I think a clean, simple design and persistent navigation (preferably with breadcrumbs) are probably the most important aspects of any website design. I hate sites that overwhelm me with too much information or multimedia or that make it hard to figure out where I'm at or to move around the site.

[siouxiequeue]

You're not at all too late; we're still in assessment and analysis phase - thank you!
this actually lines up with many of our own observations, and so is affirming and quite helpful!

Thanks!!