Designing For Content Rich Sites

Designing for Content-Rich Sites
Mike Creech
Karen Reiman-Sendi
Ken Varnum
University of Michigan Library
Internet Librarian 2009

Introduction
Background
Usability Process & Design Process
Technologies Used
Observations & Lessons

Where We Started

Re-Architecting the Site
Web Team charge: allow the Dean to find stuff more easily
“Information, not location”
Harness work with VuFind, LibGuides

Seeking/Setting a Direction
Information Gathering
Surveys
Focus Groups
Advisory Groups
Drafting Blueprints
Taxonomy
User Interface
Technologies

Typical Development Process
Analysis
Maintenance &
Updating
Spec Building
Design &
Development
Promotion
Coding
Testing

Our Development Process
Data Collection
& Analysis
UI Design
Milestone
Release
User Testing & Feedback
Content Migration
SystemDevelopment

The Foundation
We  open source software
Preference for building over buying
Trend toward customization of generic tool
We have in-house capability to customize
Drupal, VuFind, Solr
But use more than open source
Still live in a vendor-driven environment
Metalib, EZProxy, SFX, Aleph ILS

Our Tool Box

Today’s Gateway

Search

Articles Search

Catalog Search

Browse

Get Help
Contact a librarian
Find documentation and guides
Workshops & tutorials

Observations
Ejournals list, not just search
QuickLinks
My Account
Being ‘green’: reusing & recycling code and taxonomy

Lessons
Top-down process can work
Legacy content is a two-edged sword
Service providers can be helpful

What’s Next?
Respond to outcomes from usability testing and patron feedback
Future tools and functionality -- i.e., article discovery
Building increasingly personalized services on top of new foundation

Q&A
Mike Creech
Web Content Manager
mscreech@umich.edu
Karen Reiman-Sendi
Digital Information Services Librarian
karsendi@umich.edu
Ken Varnum
Web Systems Manager
varnum@umich.edu
Slides
http://bit.ly/1btBWR