The Next Frontier

Phew! Well now that I've created my very own blog I'm of course thinking of our next challenge - to create our own html page ... which then makes me think of web design and what makes a web page effective as a library tool ... yes, I'll admit it ... it is weird how my mind works or should I say how it wonders ...

One of my favourite library blogs is blogwithoutalibrary (this blog is an excellent source to read specifically about new technology in libraries and how it can be used) ... anyway, in a recent entry a couple of interesting comments on web design were made and in particular on a great term called 'scent'. This cool technological term ... 'scent' ... is the links or trigger words that users are looking for when they go to a web page that helps them find what they are looking for ... so for example I might go to the University of Victoria home page looking for information on the MLIS programme (oh how many times I did this!) and my first thought would be to look for a link on post graduate programmes offered or anything to do with library studies ... no luck ... and just to save time I'd type some keywords into the search box ... still no luck ... and this is when I start to doubt my ability to find information for myself let alone for my future library customers ...

Something else that affects useful experiences on web pages for me, is when there is what I would call a 'header' i.e. something like 'list of helpful websites' that I can click on to go to another web page ... only, and this really frosts my cookies, not only is there a drop down menu which I'm quite comfortable navigating but if you hover the mouse over 'list of helpful websites' there's a different menu for me to use ... so, how would I know it was there? I can't be the only one who wants information on a web page to be easily identified and accessed. It seems to me that this is a cool trick that gets in the way of users effectively using web pages to find the information they need.

But, back to the post on blogwithoutalibrary, it was also mentioned that the '3-clicks-to-connect' theory is unfounded, as long as the user feels that they are making progress towards their goal of finding their information on a web page, they don't mind how many clicks it's taking them to get there ... this is a very positive finding as quite often it takes awhile to find specific information particularly on a library web site.

So there, in no particular order, are a few of my recent thoughts on web design as I embark from making a blog to making my first html page.