05 May 08 Website Redesign Update
Welcome! The purpose of this blog post / web page is to introduce the new graphic design and information architecture for the American Library Association website, and to solicit your feedback.
ALA will unveil our redesigned website at our 2008 Annual Conference in Anaheim, CA. The site has undergone an extensive usability assessment and redesign process, with the expertise of UserWorks, Inc., a Silver Spring, MD, usability and design consulting firm. For a description of the process, please read this background document (pdf).
To view key documents produced during the usability assessment and redesign process, please visit the web planning wiki at http://wikis.ala.org/webplanning. Of particular interest are the Strategy Recommendations Report and the Information Architecture Strategy Recommendations Report.
To view sample pages of the graphic redesign, please visit the following:
(Please note that the sample pages are intended to show a journey from the ALA home page, through the awards section, to an envisioned Caldecott Medal page.)
This is a work in progress. Some of the things you will see in these graphic design samples have already been changed, though not drastically. We are still tweaking the information architecture as well, and will probably continue to do so as we move forward. We plan to implement a process of continuous improvement for the ALA website.
We welcome your input; please leave a comment, below.
Rob Carlson
ALA Web Development Manager
Reader's Comments
For a history of the entire usability and redesign process, now nearly two years old, see http://wikis.ala.org/webplanning/index.php/Main_Page
The reports of the focus groups, surveys, etc., that have led us to these current designs are all there.
Karen, Moderator, Web Editorial Board
Visually the new design is much more dynamic to view and the new way of organization is much more intuitive.
It is obvious you have put a lot of time and effort into the redesign. Great job! My one dislike is the spotlight section in the middle of the page. Having a spotlight section is fine but I find the idea of tabs there a bit disconcerting. Do you really need to spotlight so many items? I particularly dislike having to page through to see all the spotlighted items. I would rather have the entire list available on the main page and let it scroll down the screen. Thank you for allowing this input.
The difference is striking! The overall appearance is crisp and fresh. The menus and tabs are easily identifiable. I really like the background color–much calmer than the red. Also, it makes all of the images pop out. The sample pages look really sharp.
Please be sure that (rotating?) pictures can be stopped.
There is nothing worse than trying to navigate a website
and have moving graphics fighting for attention.
At least provide a way they can be stopped, if the user so chooses.
Thanks, SAP
Hi sap,
As far as I know, there are no rotating pictures on the new website. If you saw rotating graphics, can you tell me where?
Thanks, Rob
[…] more information on the redesign, click http://itts.ala.org/update/2008/05/05/website-redesign-update/. The site contains background info, as well as screen grabs from the new Web site. […]
Hi,
I like a lot of the design and I appreciate the fact that you listened to feedback to make these latest changes.
I would like to suggest that you re-think grouping reference and adult books together on the awards page. I would like to see you divide children from YA as well. Each of these four areas have very important awards that address different needs of librarians and patrons and grouping them together clouds the strengths of each. (I am guessing the text listed there is a place holder since you have it in media as well as ref/adult – but I would also suggest you query all the divisions and roundtables as well as the ALA committees to make sure you get all the book and media awards).
Let me say again that I love your content page example and think if you could add links to such things as the Today Show clip, any podcasts of the announcements, or webclips of the dinner that it would be great as well. Many of the awards have more information designed for publishers and librarians and I would like to see a link to those pages as well (I would think they should stay on the division, committee, or roundtable page but a link would be useful as librarians, ALA members, as well as the general public use the site).
I really like the top links on the front page and also would like to see links somewhere that makes sense (it is fine if it is on an inside page) that helps members on committees easily access things like the ALA Handbook and the membership directory.
I hope that the divisions and roundtables have a chance to weigh in on the template they will have to use to make their webpages before it becomes final. Are we going to get a chance to see that and suggest changes as well?
NW–
Thanks for your comments. We’ll be sure that the content developers for the various award pages hear how the collateral award information would enhance the pages. And yes, we’ll be sure to get all awards.
As for the ALA Handbook and the membership directory, these will be quickly accessible from the “About Us” and “Membership” sections, respectively.
As for the division and roundtable pages, the extent to which you’ll get to weigh in will vary from one to the next. However, some of our general findings will be applicable across the site.
Thank you for the opportunity to comment. I am chairing a task force for RUSA/Mars on continuing education and publications. Our report is not yet final; it will be submitted to the MARS Executive Committee in Anaheim. However, since you are asking for comments now, I would like to pass on to you two recommendations that will probably remain in their present form in our final report.
1. Immediately initiate a thorough re-design of the Continuing Education Clearinghouse. At a minimum, it should be much more robust (currently a search on “rusa” brings up nothing), more comprehensive in its coverage (none of the ACRL continuing education programs are included) and a browse feature should be added.
[One of my colleages here at the University of Utah pronounced the Clearinghouse dead; I countered that it wasn’t quite dead, but could be described as only hanging onto life.]
2. Provide members with a prominent and appealing gateway to all continuing education activities; “one stop shopping” should be the key to the design.
[For example, include Web 2.0 tools like the Read, Write, Connect Wiki, podcasts, PowerPoints, and handouts from conference programs, see http://www.nd.edu/~electres/preconference07/preconference.htm.%5D
Please let me know if you have questions.
Linda Keiter
The new site is coming together, great work! First I just wanted to say that I really like the idea of standardization and templates for the new IA and UI. Wherever these can be implemented, I’m on board.
Right to it then. This may be something you noticed or are working on, but if you click the left or right arrows on the feature at the top of the homepage body, the image always scrolls to the left.
As of 4pm on 6/3/08, When I visit the various Round Tables, the left nav changes. I was under the impression the navigation would be consistent throughout the site. Is the left nav under our control? Perhaps RTs have different privileges, if so perhaps we can create a way to indicate/differentiate those with unique left navigation menus.
I bring it up because I’m unclear how preserving the departmentalized sites corresponds with the decentralized, content driven IA I thought we were driving for. It seems to me then that information will still live on specific group sites. Maybe the way visitors find and access that information will be vastly improved but it makes me unclear how things are going to interact. If we do maintain independent mini-sites within the primary website, there needs to be a “home” link and icon on the top nav so we can easily return to access the original left menu.
Thanks again for all the hard work.
Linda,
Thank you for your comments. Please do see the “staging” site at http://www.ala.org/preview
The CE Clearinghouse will not be immediately updated, but the need for a single point of entry for the wide range of CE available from ALA and its unit is well noted. The new location for this will be part of the Education & Careers pages.
There will also be a calendar function as part of the Online Communities (a.k.a. ALA Connect) site (see http://itts.ala.org/update/category/online-communities/) which should bring together many of the “social” tools.
And, for good measure, we are launching, with this conference a wiki to gather the materials for all ALA presentations; see http://presentations.ala.org/
Karen Muller
ALA Librarian &
Convener, Web Editorial Board
Isaac,
You’re right the features do scroll in just one direction! Thanks for noticing … with just two for now it wasn’t obvious, but it will be when there are more.
Right now, while we’re still moving content, the content under each unit on the live site appears with that unit on the preview site. However, the revised information architecture (IA) that will be imposed on the site in the next few weeks does have the content moving out of the individual areas *when it is better located with other content.* Information about what a round table or division or office is doing, who’s in charge, and similar “about” information will remain with the unit. Bibliographies, program handouts, white papers, and the like will be in the content areas of Professional Resources, Issues and Advocacy and Education and Careers, using the usability principle of “scent of information” as a guide to determining where best to put it.
Does that help?
Karen Muller
ALA Librarian &
Convener, Web Editorial Board
I have noticed that those of us who have set our monitor displays to 800 x 600 (for readability) have a goodly portion of the web pages off the screen and have to scroll right to see them. This could potentially cause new users to miss information in the third column on the right if they don’t realize it is there and fail to scroll over to it. This situation also affects the drop down links: we can only see the first ones and there appears to be no provision for us to scroll down the list farther than the ones we can see (when I try, the list disappears, and when I try to scroll down the screen with the scroll bar, I no longer can access the drop down menu because it is no longer visible). You might want to highlight the optimal screen resolution to use with the website.
Hi,
the web site looks ok.
Are there any community building areas/functions like commenting abilities, message boards, chat, virtual reference, blogs, etc…?
The ALA web site SHOULD seek to build a community where we can communicate, collaborate, and innovate!
Thank you!
Max Macias
Hi, Max –
The redesigned website doesn’t include any of the things you mentioned, but we’re currently revamping our “Online Communities” service to be a combination of a virtual workspace (phase one) and a professional network (phase two).
All of the things you mentioned and more (well, virtual reference isn’t on the board as of yet) are planned for “ALAConnect,” the new version of Communities. You can read about it at http://itts.ala.org/update/2008/05/08/online-communities-update-with-documents/, and we’ll be posting updates and soliciting feedback here on the ITTS Update blog.
We completely agree with you that ALA should have a community site where members can communicate, collaborate, and innovate, and we’re well on our way to building that. We look forward to hearing your feedback about it, too, as we move forward with that project.
Thanks for commenting,
Jenny
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Jenny Levine
Internet Development Specialist & Strategy Guide
American Library Association
jlevine@ala.org
Max–
I missed your request for virtual reference …. we already have it!
And several ways. The ALA Library receives questions by paper mail, telephone, fax, e-mail, Meebo, Facebook, Second Life, and virtual reference, with one of the test links being on our wiki, at http://wikis.ala.org/professionaltips/index.php/Main_Page.
Ask the Librarian … and we answer … some 8,000 questions a year on ALA, ALA activities, reading and publishing, and librarianship.
Karen Muller
ALA Librarian