We Are Not Our Patrons

This phrase is very important to remember as the content gets written and excluded from the new website. The content needs to support the tasks that people need to accomplish. INFLUX created persona’s that identify the people who uses the College Libraries website.

Information Architecture – Web Pages

The web pages that have been identified came out of the iterative process that has been used to create the new website. By creating a lists of questions that people expect the website to answer will support the tasks they need to complete. The research that INFLUX did at the start of the new redesign project set the foundation for the card sort, sketching, wire-frame models, and interactive prototypes that have been created.

Through testing and retesting it has become very clear that the web pages that have been created for the new website will allow a person to accomplish a task or find the information that they need.

“Getting rid of all those [excess] words that no one is going to read has several beneficial effects:

• It reduces the noise level of the page.
• It makes the useful content more prominent.
• It makes the pages shorter, allowing users to see more of each page at a glance without scrolling.” (p. 45)

– Steve Krug

If we start adding additional pages and content it will just get in the way, preventing people from doing what they need too.

Target Audience Overview

• Guidelines – discusses target audience, requirements of new website, and explains how the current website has failed to meet the needs of the SUNY Potsdam Community
• Gathering Information – lists most common questions asked at circulation desk.
• INFLUX Presentation – talks about persona’s and a list of items that people at SUNY Potsdam are doing.

Reference

Krug, S. (2006). Don’t make me think!: A common sense approach to Web usability (2nd.). Berkeley, CA: New Riders.