A User-CenteredWebsite Redesign

Ray HeigemeirStanford Music Library

Music home page, 2001Those were simpler times

Music home page, 2004Using Dreamweaver

Stanford Libraries home page, 2004Why caution can be a bad thing

Music home page, 2007Let’s move links around!

The search featureHow does it work?

Problems

• Flat--no visual hierarchy• Bloated with links• Stagnant, redundant content• Poor searching• Unattractive

High-level goals• Increase usage of the library website by Stanford scholars.• Enable Stanford students, faculty, and others to discover and access relevant

and timely information, resources, and library services.• Convey the depth, breadth, and uniqueness of our collections and services.• Establish the SUL website as a gateway for tools needed for deep scholarly

engagement.• Promote a strong, unified, coherent identity for SUL, establishing our website

as an exemplar that binds the main library system, the branches, and enterprises, while acknowledging the uniqueness of individual units.

• Inspire support for SUL and its many activities among Stanford scholars, alumni and other donors.

• Commit to long-term website improvements through usability testing, web traffic analysis, and user feedback.

• Make content creation and maintenance significantly easier for library staff.

Gathering information

• Surveys & interviews• Personas• Card sorting• Web tools (heat maps, mouse-overs)

Challenges

• Consistency across all pages important• Writing for the web is hard! Less is more• Banishing library lingo; choosing meaningful

headings• Keeping content fresh

Measuring success

• Analytics• User feedback

Stanford Libraries home page, 2004

SUL home page, 2014The search box gets the prime real estate

Music home page, 2007

Music home page, February 2014The center column hosts changing content

Lessons learned

• Digital content for music research– are we reaching critical mass?

• Be prepared to confront outdated policy and procedure

• Writing for the web is hard for librarians• Challenging to move away from silo mentality• People love streaming media!

What’s ahead?

• Branding effort• Revamp of our catalog interface to be more

like website• Making smart use of social media to promote

unique resources• Keep analyzing user behavior and feedback• More media

Thanks for listening!(obligatory cute animal pic)

Resources

• http://library.stanford.edu/music• Redesign blog:

http://library.stanford.edu/blogs/library-website-redesign

• Content Creation Guide & resources for authors:• http://library.stanford.edu/resources-sul-web-auth

ors• Steve Krug. Don’t Make Me Think! (2nd ed. -

Berkeley, Calif : New Riders Pub., c2006)• Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine: http

://archive.org/web