Not Just a Facelift: The Michigan elibrary Gets a Complete Redesign with Powerful New Functionality

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1 1 Not Just a Facelift: The Gets a Complete Redesign with Powerful New Functionality Sheryl Mase Sonya Schryer Norris Library of Michigan Elaine Meyer Midwest Collaborative for Library Services

2 2 Mission of MeL: the, Michigan s 24/7 Library Administered by the Library of Michigan in partnership with Michigan's libraries of all types, the ( will provide all Michigan residents with free access to online full-text articles, full-text books, digital images, and other valuable research information at any time via the Internet; and provide an easy-to-use interlibrary loan system to allow Michigan residents to borrow books and other library materials for free from participating Michigan libraries.

3 3 What We Wanted in the RFP Upgrade CWIS - Collection Workflow Integration System - our Content Management System, to most recent version (2.4.0) CWIS is a PHP/MySQL product To carry through the previous upgrades over the past seven years including social networking capabilities Cheat sheets for PHP programming for my ease of maintenance after product is finished

4 4 CWIS Enhancements Includes supervisory tools for employee users A way to review materials added/ updated by each user A way to double check what materials you have in Not viewable or hidden status Additional, efficient ways to edit individual records from every screen

5 5 RFP cont. Responsive design for Smartphones and tablets Professional graphic design entirely new look and feel with multiple new graphics The only thing we kept was the logo, even that we enhanced

6 6 RFP Responses We brought in the two top bidders for an in-person pitch. We chose Courtland Consulting/ StrudellStudios The bidders were provided with our wireframes before the pitch and Courtland came prepared with two designs in Photoshop based on our ideas-to-that-point. Some of that work made it through to the final iteration.

7 7 Wireframe Process

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11 11 Applying Information Architecture and User Experience Design to MeL There s a lot I could tell you about the redesign. I m going to cover what could help YOU in redesigning your own sites.

12 12 Some web sites "work" and some don't. Good web site consultants know that you can't just jump in and start writing HTML, the same way you can't build a house by just pouring a foundation and putting up some walls. You need to know who will be using the site, and what they'll be using it for Overall, you need a strong, cohesive vision for the site that makes it both distinctive and usable. The job of the architect is to set up the framework for the site to make it comfortable and inviting for people to visit, relax in, and perhaps even return to someday. --from Information Architecture for the World Wide Web by Peter Morville and William Rosenfeld

13 13 Information Architecture

14 14 Our context 90% of designing a Website is political Requirements of our parent organization, the State of Michigan, and the federal government 20 years of history

15 15 Our content Discovery service/search box We identified our primary deliverables and placed them in the global navigation: MeLCat Michigan Online Resources for Educators MeL Databases Michigana We used valuable homepage real estate for subject gateways We don t have a consistent left navigation due to software limitations

16 16 Our users Expectations of Citizens Library staff Children/students born digital Subject-specific information seekers such as college professors and graduate students, genealogists, job seekers, and entrepreneurs.

17 17 Incorporating User Experience Design User experience librarian Elaine Meyer from the Midwest Collaborative for Library Services (formerly of Proquest) worked with us on the design

18 18 Orienting the user where am I? Current MeL.org navigation No indication of what page users are on no change in color Future MeL.org navigation Current page is highlighted with green background, and black text

19 19 Move home links to global nav

20 20 Keep labels simple, yet meaningful MeL Databases Databases MeL Michigana Michigana Michigan Online Resources for Educators Teachers

21 21 Lowercase easier readability

22 22 Putting Search in the spotlight SEARCH is in all caps Big font for SEARCH Black background behind SEARCH Green arrow Green search button Moving down the search box Large search box

23 23 Footer as a sitemap

24 24 Unique color for each MeL.org page

25 25 Branding MeL.org page title MeL.org logo Subject gateways

26 26 Subject Gateways

27 27 Collection Development Policy Definition, Goals and Criteria of Selection Scope of Coverage Authority Objectivity Accuracy Timeliness Cost and Promotional nature Endorsement Functionality Resource Types

28 28 Two rounds of user testing Round one: wireframe testing. Round two: with user experience librarian Elaine Meyer We tested High school and college students Public, college and school librarians as well as library staff Members of the public Government employees Users and non-users

29 29 What did we learn? Our internal vernacular is not helpful on the site the term MeLCat was not understood by non-users. The term/link gateway was completely ignored. Words like government business and legal have wide appeal and wide understanding. Use common language so you will be commonly understood.

30 30 What else did we learn? MeLCat is beloved but too often not intuitive, especially when it comes to finding materials in a particular format and limiting search results The new graphics were well liked by those who knew the old MeL and those who didn t That search box has some high expectations!

31 31 What Else Are We Going to Get? Kids and Teens portals!

32 32 New MeL Kids Site

33 33 Expected Go-Live Date Fall, 2013