Matching the System and User Activities
Organize your site based on users' tasks and their frequency
"The biggest mistake library websites make is not giving enough space to the task 85% of people come to the sites for — finding research materials like journal articles."
— Chris Jasek (2004),
User Centered Design Group Manager, Elsevier, Miamisburg, OH, USA”
Organize your library website as a one-stop shop to meet users' research needs and not to reflect the administrative structure of the library (Crowley, Leffel, Ramirez, Hart & Armstrong, 2002). Too often library websites are organized from the perspective of librarians, who know the structure of their sites in great detail.
Research conducted by Elsevier's User Centered Design Group suggests a library website should be organized around the following user tasks. These are listed according to their importance to users or the frequency with which users engage in these tasks.
- Conducting research to find materials such as journal articles and books
- Finding course materials such as lecture notes, reserved books, or other materials or links related to certain classes
- Finding user account information such as checked-out books or fines
- Finding library information such as locations and hours of operation
- Getting help in using a library and library website
An academic library website designed to facilitate tasks listed above would assign the most space and prominence to the first task, conducting research. The design of the University of Rochester's River Campus Libraries homepage shows the number-one priority is helping users meet their research needs.
Most users visit a library website to find articles, journals, books or other materials. Devoting most space on your library's website to helping your users find information and perform research shows you understand their needs. The University of Rochester's River Campus Libraries site demonstrates such understanding at
www.lib.rochester.edu
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