Making Effective, Usable Research Guides Joshua Welker University of Central Missouri

About Me I’ve been working at the University of Central Missouri for three years. I am in charge of the library’s IT infrastructure, ranging from computer labs to websites to proxy servers to database administration. I’ve done extensive research on web usability in the context of library websites and recently wrote a book chapter on the subject in Integrating LibGuides Into Library Websites. I learned a lot on the subject and look forward to sharing it with you! There are common mistakes in many guides that can be prevented easily but cause big problems for students.

Moving on...

“If a page does not appear relevant to the user's current goals, then the user will ruthlessly click the Back button after two to three seconds.” Nielsen, Jakob. “Is Navigation Useful?” Nielsen Norman Group. 9 January 2000.

Information Scent

A student’s point of view http://guides.library.ucmo.edu/gis This is notes

Navigation

"I look at that and I'm like too many tabs, it's too busy, I want no part of that." Ouellelte, Dana. “Subject Guides in Academic Libraries: A User-Centred Study of Uses and Perceptions.” Canadian Journal of Information and Library Science 35.4 (2011).

Tall and Distinguished http://guides.library.ucmo.edu/best-practices

Page Length

On home pages In 2006, before the iPhone Only 23% of users scroll!*† On home pages In 2006, before the iPhone Nielsen, Jakob and Hoa Loranger. Prioritizing Web Usability. Berkeley: New Riders, 2006.

Mobile users expect to do it.” “After more than 20 years of web use, people are accustomed to scrolling. Mobile users expect to do it.” Levinson, Deborah and Tania Schlatter. Visual Usability. Waltham, MA: Elsevier, 2013.

Information Scent

Headings

HTML Heading Hierarchy

Hierarchy In Action https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Rome

Don’t Be Bold ...or underlined ...or italic ...or colorful http://guides.library.ucmo.edu/worst-practices

Body Text

*Actual Graduate-Level Assignment

The Internet Never Forgets https://web.archive.org/we b/20121113001933/http://g uides.library.ucmo.edu/clf

Plain Text Is Happy Text Short, plain paragraphs are easy to read. Just don’t make text walls. Use bold sparingly. Bullet points are also easy to read. Use HTML list bullets, not hyphens or asterisks. No colors!

Layout

Which Direction?

Good Bad http://guides.library.ucmo.ed u/best-practices http://guides.library.ucmo.ed u/worst-practices

Integrating LibGuides Into Library Websites Sittler and Dobbs, 2016

Questions?