There’s no such thing as a perfect website
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.
Your building is not your product
The building ISN'T the library, but it is part of the library's identity.
When it comes to your library’s website, are you a climate change denier?
Without data, you’re just another person with an opinion. W. Edwards Deming One of the least comfortable parts of my job as a web developer/designer is to convince library clients that certain things they may think they want are not…
Is Alexa killing off websites? Not quite.
I ran across this Medium post by tech futurist Michael Spencer the other day. In it, Spencer claims that websites are about to disappear because of AI-powered voice assistants, like Alexa. (It’s pretty short, I suggest you take a moment to…
Level up your library’s website with this one little thing
In 2016, my workplace did a study to determine the state of various issues on public library websites in Ohio. One of the numbers that was concerning was the widespread lack of a favicon. Over 45% of the 171 libraries…
What’s still missing from Ohio public library websites?
Recently, at my place of work, we decided to do a broad survey of Ohio’s public library websites for some basic functionality and features. We wanted to get an idea of just how many websites still had major problems (or…
The plural of anecdote isn’t data
A couple of weeks ago, I tweeted this: How many times have you heard “But the patrons want…” with no real data to back it up? #libux — Laura Solomon (@laurasolomon) November 5, 2015 The response to that,…
Shifting our website from promotional to actually useful
For the past several months, I’ve been enmeshed in the writing of a(nother) book, on a topic that only marginally involves websites. During my research, I read a terrific book by marketing expert Jay Baer, called Youtility. In his book, Baer…
Spring cleaning for your library’s website
Allegedly, we’re heading into some season that doesn’t necessarily involve horrible weather and the desire to hibernate. Perhaps, you might be thinking about cleaning things out after the long winter. Hopefully, that urge includes your library’s website. In that vein, I offer…
3 things you can learn from other websites
Let’s start with defining “other” here: I mean sites that aren’t library websites. If you do nothing else, I want you to get out of the habit at looking at other library sites for inspiration. No, really, I mean it.…
How well do you know your web usability myths?
Learn about more common UX myth at http://uxmyths.com/. [qzzr quiz=”26203″ width=”100%” height=”auto” redirect=”true” offset=”0″]
Carousels: time to go
Carousels have almost become ubiquitous. I am frequently asked about them when I start designing a site for a library. I often. now, make it clear that these don’t represent a good design choice. Yes, they’re convenient. They seemingly solve…
3 truths about your library’s website
I create websites for public libraries. I’ve been doing that for more than 15 years. In that time, I’ve learned a few things, especially in my current job, where I work on sites for multiple libraries. I’ve learned some hard…
Stop putting out the “welcome mat”
The temptation is overwhelming. After all, libraries are friendly places, right? We wouldn’t want our patrons to think they weren’t welcome. It’s so nice and friendly to put a big “Welcome to our library website!” heading at the top of…