If you look closely, you will notice that the mockup includes small changes to the Carrier Front Page. These changes were based on input received from L&ET, WebTrend statistics, and a review by an Elsevier usability staff. Find details on the Carrier Front Page Review Project Page.
We would like to introduce these changes before the Fall semester.
These changes to the Carrier front page could inspire changes to the other front pages, depending on the needs and desires of CISAT, Media Resources, Music Library, and Special Collections.
What do you think? Click on "Comments" below to read other comments and leave your own.
27 comments:
Quick note on something that I think some of you will wonder about.
I heard and considered the suggestion made by a few people that we move news down on the Carrier front page, bringing more of the research and help areas "above the fold."
Looking at the visits to each of the pages that have links on the Carrier front page, I discovered that the content in the Research area, even "below the fold," gets a very large number of visits. And, so does the news area.
Users are influenced by all kinds of things as to where they look first and most often. A rule of thumb that some people follow is that the top left corner is hot real estate. That's frequently where a logo goes, as on our site.
The next most popular is sometimes the right side of the page, partway down the screen. That's smack in the middle of our Research area.
Studies have found that people actually concentrate on lots of different places on the page depending on graphics, search boxes, and text.
The news area placed high on the page gives research, services, and instruction all a turn at being near or in a likely high-impact area (since we have news about all of those things). And, it doesn't appear to hurt the visits to the Research area. So, that's why the news area hasn't moved in this mockup.
Questions or follow up thoughts on this issue? Post 'em here!
I like a lot of the sorting that's been done of the two categories "Help" and "Services." (this is the aspect I focused on most) I like the FAQs in the drop down. I don't know that folks will click on the Service Departments drop down, tho - how do users know what these departments do?
I don't think users looking for Help would want to go through Go For the Gold as their first option -- so I don't really like the prominence of the GFTG button under Help.
I miss some of the links under Services, like Course Reserves. I disagree with the idea of there being too much text on the page -- if you look at CNN, ESPN, Amazon, other popular sites, there is way more text.
This is all IMHO of course!!!
I just said, "I miss some of the links under Services," but upon returning to the mockup to review, I think it is just Course Reserves that I miss.
Another thought about Ask a Librarian - I wish somehow on the Ask A Librarian page, the phone numbers could be right there - or maybe if http://www.lib.jmu.edu/reference/carrierref.aspx had the information users want up higher, that would be helpful. I feel like the Ask A Librarian button is really prominent and so we should put some real good stuff under there, and right now the pages it links to are kind of tedious for the user who wants to talk to someone now!! Maybe the Ask A Librarian could be dynamic based on the time of day, and if it is reference hours, it displays phone numbers -- basically it offeres the *best* way at that moment to contact a person *now*. I nkow this is off topic for the front page redesign - sorry - but sort of related.
If content below the fold gets a large number of visits, then it doesn't seem it would be a problem to move News down, at least as a test. Often news items are not about our core tools and services. Another alternative would be to make the News box smaller.
All in all, I like the layout and content of the Carrier home page. I think it is a good idea for the page to serve as a "portal," allowing users to immediately get to whatever resource or service they need.
I also think it's a good idea to have mostly static elements on this page so that once users know where on the page a link exists, they can easily find it again on return visits to the site.
That said, I think there is room for at least one or two dynamic elements. Why not have one "box" contain rotating or regularly replaced content. This would offer a way to highlight new resources or services or promote under-used, lesser known ones.
Lastly, strictly from an aesthetic standpoint, I'd like to our current banner replaced with a photographic image element. Perhaps a nice shot of the bluestone section of the building as a horizontal ribbon across the page.
I know I'm biased but please, please, please bring back the Course Reserves link under "Services".......
I feel "Borrow from another Library" is going to imply this is a link to the delivery service's intralibary request feature. I think our borrowers are familiar enough with the term Interlibrary Loan that it should continue to be used to distinguish that this link is for requests from another institution
I like some of the changes to the library web page. I like the way CheckCite and other citing sources appear below Research Tools. I also like the way Research by Subject has been moved to a more prominent location.
I don't like the way News and the Poll have more prominence than
Services, About Us, and basic tools, such as Periodical Locator, which I have to scroll down to see. I'm completely missing Course Reserves anywhere. I was hoping it could be on the widget. At the very least it should be displayed under services. I think we should call Interlibrary Loan by its name. If students don't know that term, it would be good for them to learn it. Library instruction is not visible anywhere. I have to scroll down to get to Go for the Gold. I wish it could be visible on the screen. Our firt year students may have a hard time finding it.
I would like to see the whole Research sextion moved up to the position where News is. News, Poll and Feature could all be down at the bottom. This would allow our important sources and services to be more visible.
I wonder if we would be serving our users better by putting the Research area where the News area is currently. Since one of our primary purposes is to support student and faculty research, it makes sense to put the research information in the prime real estate section of the screen.
One possible organization could be to have Research and the widget on the top, with Help and Services directly underneath.
I second what Melissa says about putting Research tools next to the widget at the top of the page. It would be more helpful for novice users and would facilitate using the front page in library instruction.
In looking over the front page mockup rather late in the day after other comments...
I too would like to see, under the "Services" section, Course Reserves reappear.
Also, how about Library Delivery? Its presence would help clarify that Borrow from Another Library is about ILL. But a slight service rephrase might be appropriate to help (On-Campus Library Delivery, or the like?).
Can we have music start playing too? So students will feel at home.. like when they go to a myspace page?
{suppressing snarkiness}
Alright.. I like the look/feel of the new page.
I'd like to mimic the concerns about Library Delivery as well as Course Reserves since those are two basic questions we get at CISAT (maybe the new front page applies to Carrier), but those box locations might be mimicked over at CISAT (however as I type this, I see we have bumped News way down on the page and moved the other boxes around.. so maybe I don't get a vote on this one.) I like Jason's idea about an image in the banner of the bluestone (though I realize that those are not the kind of comments you were looking for.)
Overall, I like the layout on this page and think that continuity in branding should be a high priority.
Thank you everyone for such wonderful comments on the front page tweaking!
For the "services" box... A bunch of you lamented the lack of Library Delivery and Course Reserves. Agreed!
Also, I see one comment on Library Instruction being missing, another on Interlibrary Loan not mentioned by name, and another one about folks not likely using the drop down box (which is where Library Instruction and Interlibrary Loan both are). Points proven!
In analyzing old email reference questions from last year, I noticed that we reduced the number of questions we were getting about renewing checkouts (yea!) but still had just as many about interlibrary loan. Many of them didn't seem to know that phrase (i.e. they asked how to borrow books from another library). Others did.
Greg and I will work a bit more on that section to see if we can get both our department/library language in there, and an explanation for users not in the know.
If anyone has examples for others who have done that well ... please offer!
re Jason's comment about dynamic content....have you noticed the "Feature" box and is that what you are thinking of?
Re: placement of news
I'm really torn here. Three of the 8 commenters in this comment area are suggesting that news be moved down on the page. That makes me really do some soul searching! I keep coming back to the same placement for news, though. I have a few reasons...
Reason 1:
What I've read about eye tracking studies leads me to think that moving the "research" area to where the "news" area currently is actually demotes "research" to a less viewed area.
Here's what the theory says, as I understand it.... All things being the same, users tend to look at the top left corner first. On the Carrier page, that's not the news area. It's the logo. Yes, all the way up there.
Second place that users tend to look is midway down on the right side. A zigzag from left to right. That's where our "research" box is.
All things aren't equal, though. Color, search pages and graphics also draw first and repeated looks. That would draw users to look at the search widget first. Their eye just needs to drop down a little bit, then to see the "research" box.
All this is just theory...I'd love to get some eye tracking software to test this (and then some staff to do it). Based on it, though, I'd hate to move "research" out of that prime spot.
Reason 2:
To me sending news to the bottom of the page doesn't make sense. I suspect that users with the time/interest quickly glance over the news area to see if it's anything that they need/want to know and then move on. That news area is our space to make announcements about service interruptions, promote collections and instruction.... Moving it down on the page takes away that quick glance option.
I'd like to hear from others on the placement of the news area. Am I a voice in the wilderness on this one?
I'm thinking that the gentle tweaks to the services, research, help and about us areas will be ready after Greg incorporates your suggestions.
Barring any dramatic comments here in the next few days, look for these improvements to go live next week.
I just noticed Jennifer's comment that the new library web page may go live next week. I have two library instruction sessions scheduled for doctoral students next week (the week of August 20) when this new release is planned, and I believe new faculty and graduate student orientations are also scheduled for that week by other librarians. Is there any reason changes to the library home page must be made the same week that we begin instruction and orientations? Right now we don't know what will be available on the home page and what won't. I was not even aware that a new library home page was in the works until very recently. Please, please consider instruction when planning these changes!
I always forget about that instruction that pops up before classes actually start! Thanks for the reminder.
There's no specific hurry on these changes other than trying to make life easier for our users. I think the proposed changes are pretty subtle whereas moving news to a new spot is much larger.
Any suggestion as to how long lead time folks would need for updating instruction?
Speaking strictly as a person viewing a web page, moving the news down on the page would be counter intuitive to the way I like to see content. Almost all the web pages I use have the most recent content (breaking news headlines, new projects, etc.) around the top of the page, either left or center. I want to see at a glance what's changed since the last time I visited the page, and the top of the page is where I look. As a regular user of the sites I already know where the other things are if I want to browse further because their positions generally remain static. My feeling is that if you have an important *change* in services or an announcement of a new service, presented to a user who used to know where or what the service was, you'd want that information to appear in the first place people look, otherwise it's going to get missed more easily.
While this is somewhat off-topic and not necessarily part of the current discussion, the way many sites have tackled this issue is to move to a 1024x768 two and three-column format. My belief has always been that you get max coverage and more area of prime space. If we spread -out- instead of down you have room to satisfy all the concerns. I would offer CNNs web site as an example, which is also a good example of a site that completely "table-less" with the use of CSS styles and therefore is very accessible.
FYI -- The "summer hours" poll that had been on the current home page and the mockup home page (below "Research" in the right column) has been removed. Since summer is drawing to a close, the poll is no longer relevant. In the future, we may feature other polls on the home page.
I'd like to hear what others think about what's an ideal time to make changes to the library web page and still allow enough time for everyone to update instructional materials, research guides, etc. I think August 1st would be pretty good. That would allow 2-3 weeks before we start using our instructional materials. I would hope that big changes could be made even earlier in the summer.
I applaud Digital Service for trying to integrate more instruction into the widget, but I believe the mousovers go a little too far in this direction. I think it is adequate and more aesthetically pleasing to put instructional text in the area just above the search box. Here is the shorter language I would suggest:
LEO Catalog
Find books, videos, music and more in JMU libraries
Periodical Locator
If you have an article citation, find the text in a journal, magazine, or newspaper online or in the library.
I applaud Digital Service for trying to integrate more instruction into the widget, but I believe the mousovers go a little too far in this direction. I think it is adequate and more aesthetically pleasing to put instructional text in the area just above the search box. Here is the shorter language I would suggest:
LEO Catalog
Find books, videos, music and more in JMU libraries
Periodical Locator
If you have an article citation, find the text in a journal, magazine, or newspaper online or in the library.
regarding the mouse-overs, i agree that the current text could be made shorter, but the concept is one that i like and that i remember the student participants endorsing in our meeting earlier this summer. personally i like mouse-overs because they preserve a cleaner look while making the info available at the point-of-need. my .02 jenne
I like Bill's suggestion to make 3 columns to allow us to use our home page real estate better. That would still allow news to be high up, but would also allow us to make our most important research tools and services more visible.
The mouse-overs in IE 6 have a hole in the middle occupied by the "keyword" pull down. Am I the only one? It doesnt happen in FireFox.
Also, Bill's idea about three columns sounds like it might be worth pursuing.
I also agree with Lynn the August 1st would be a better time to release an enhancement/change. Ideally, for BIG releases affecting many areas, May be a great time, as that would give us all summer to incorporate these into our other pages and apps. That would however mean testing in spring during the busy semester hustle and bustle. Moral: there IS no perfect time.
As for the front page project, I wonder if we could get together as the mock-up nears its final stages, to discuss any remaining questions/comments. This blog is great (I've learned a lot!), but not everyone has participated and for such an important tool in ours (and our users) work environment it would be nice to have that final Good Housekeeping seal of approval.
Thanks, Jennifer and DS, for being so responsive to our blog entries.
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