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What Does This Mean to Me, Laura?

What Does This Mean to Me, Laura?

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Category: websites

A fairy tale castle in the distance as seen through a partial frame of green grass, roses and an overhanging tree

There’s no such thing as a perfect website

Posted on August 19, 2024 by Laura

When we look at a library website, there are a multitude of decisions that likely went into its creation, and it’s not always easy to discern why or how those decisions were made.

Posted in websites
Library interior design with massive bookshelves, concrete floor and city view. 3D Rendering

Your building is not your product

Posted on April 4, 2019April 4, 2019 by Laura

The building ISN’T the library, but it is part of the library’s identity.

Posted in websitesTagged buildings, websites
Woman with fingers in her ears

When it comes to your library’s website, are you a climate change denier?

Posted on September 25, 2018 by Laura

Without data, you’re just another person with an opinion. W. Edwards Deming One of the least comfortable parts of my…

Posted in websitesTagged data, usabililty, websites
Woman with voice sound waves

Is Alexa killing off websites? Not quite.

Posted on June 12, 2018 by Laura

I ran across this Medium post by tech futurist Michael Spencer the other day. In it, Spencer claims that websites are…

Posted in websitesTagged ai, voice assistants, websites
Browser address bar showing the beginnings of a URL.

Level up your library’s website with this one little thing

Posted on February 8, 2018October 2, 2025 by Laura

In 2016, my workplace did a study to determine the state of various issues on public library websites in Ohio….

Posted in websitesTagged favicon, websites
MISSING

What’s still missing from Ohio public library websites?

Posted on June 6, 2016 by Laura

Recently, at my place of work, we decided to do a broad survey of Ohio’s public library websites for some…

Posted in websitesTagged accessibility, usability, ux, websites4 Comments on What’s still missing from Ohio public library websites?
Charts and graphs

The plural of anecdote isn’t data

Posted on November 16, 2015 by Laura

A couple of weeks ago, I tweeted this:     How many times have you heard “But the patrons want…”…

Posted in websites3 Comments on The plural of anecdote isn’t data
Useful and useless street signs

Shifting our website from promotional to actually useful

Posted on October 2, 2015October 26, 2015 by Laura

For the past several months, I’ve been enmeshed in the writing of a(nother) book, on a topic that only marginally involves…

Posted in websitesTagged usabllity, webdesign1 Comment on Shifting our website from promotional to actually useful
cleaning a window

Spring cleaning for your library’s website

Posted on March 6, 2015March 6, 2015 by Laura

Allegedly, we’re heading into some season that doesn’t necessarily involve horrible weather and the desire to hibernate.  Perhaps, you might be…

Posted in websites
What can you learn from looking at other websites?

3 things you can learn from other websites

Posted on December 4, 2014July 28, 2017 by Laura

Let’s start with defining “other” here:  I mean sites that aren’t library websites.  If you do nothing else, I want…

Posted in Keeping Up, usability, websitesTagged usability, websites
Take the UX quiz

How well do you know your web usability myths?

Posted on November 20, 2014July 20, 2015 by Laura

Learn about more common UX myth at http://uxmyths.com/.   [qzzr quiz=”26203″ width=”100%” height=”auto” redirect=”true” offset=”0″]    

Posted in Keeping Up, usability, websites
Carousels: time to go

Carousels: time to go

Posted on July 10, 2014January 29, 2015 by Laura

Carousels have almost become ubiquitous.  I am frequently asked about them when I start designing a site for a library. …

Posted in Design, Keeping Up, usability, websites
3 truths about your library's website

3 truths about your library’s website

Posted on May 8, 2014September 13, 2021 by Laura

I create websites for public libraries.  I’ve been doing that for more than 15 years.  In that time, I’ve learned…

Posted in Design, Personnel, websites3 Comments on 3 truths about your library’s website

Stop putting out the “welcome mat”

Posted on October 27, 2010October 27, 2010 by Laura

The temptation is overwhelming. After all, libraries are friendly places, right? We wouldn’t want our patrons to think they weren’t…

Posted in usability, websitesTagged usability, websites, welcome3 Comments on Stop putting out the “welcome mat”
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