Taylor Community Library: A research project resulting in a website redesign by Cara Amato-Wright at Coroflot.com

Taylor Community Library: A research project resulting in a website redesign

Taylor Community Library: A research project resulting in a website redesign from Cara Amato-Wright

Taylor Community Library: A research project resulting in a website redesign

This project is intended to redesign the website for the Taylor Community Library. The website currently has a lot of information, but users find it intimidating to navigate. Patrons visit the website for a variety of reasons including to find event calendars, use the online catalog, or to request community services. Each of these should be easy to find from any page on the website. The redesign was conducted through the following steps:
• User Research
• Content Analysis
• Evaluating taxonomy and labeling
• Creating wireframes of the final new designs

Project Summary: This project is intended to redesign the website for the Taylor Community Library. The website currently has a lot of information, but users find it intimidating to navigate. Patrons visit the website for a variety of reasons including to find event calendars, use the online catalog, or to request community services. Each of these should be easy to find from any page on the website. The redesign was conducted through the following steps: User Research, Content Analysis, Evaluating taxonomy and labeling, and Creating wireframes of the final new designs

User Research Summary: The Adult and Community Engagement Librarian from Taylor Community Library and the Adult Reference Librarian from Avon Lake Public Library were interviewed over the phone. The two suburban towns are similar in size and demographic and are both located outside of major cities. Both librarians gave similar insight as to how their patrons use their libraries website. The following conclusions were drawn from the interviews: The primary personas of online patrons are students and older adults. Parents with pre-school through high school aged children are a secondary persona. Those with more education are more likely to access a library website. Tasks the website should support include accessing the library catalog, logging into the online account associated with a library card, accessing various research databases, and finding events happening inside the library building. Two personas and a task priority matrix were created based on the conducted interviews.
View PDF

Navigation Structure Description: The content of the Taylor Community Library website was inventoried and analyzed to determine what gaps exist. The inventoried content was labeled "keep, rework, or archive" based on the completed personas and user research. Based on the analysis, it was determined that the Taylor Community Library website is best suited for an ambiguous classification scheme with content organized based on topic or task. An ambiguous scheme gives Taylor the freedom to define their own categories and group content in intellectually meaningful ways that will make sense to their patrons.
View PDF