Please, for the life of Brian, give adequate thought to creating image maps (images that contain multiple links, mapped to different areas of the image.) While they can be useful, and even creative, they can also be confusing. (The one in the linked Wikipedia entry is a good example of a creatively-designed image map, that… Read more »
Posts Categorized: interfaces
Just one more thing…
One thing I forgot to mention in yesterday’s post on Harvard’s library site… They have a really sleek user feedback system. When you click on the “Tell Us” button at the top of the page, you get the following javascript pop up: I love that it not only gives you a place to provide feedback,… Read more »
Bridging the gap from Wikipedia to scholarly sources: a simple library bookmarklet
So I know I have been alluding to a fancy-shmancy “project” for awhile now, and it’s finally at a point that I can show it off! Barbara Arnett and I (mostly Barbara, but I set the project in motion, so that counts for something I guess) have created a javascript bookmarklet that can be used… Read more »
Viewing e-books on an iPad
This month, my library purchased an iPad for the staff to try out. We were contemplating initiating an iPad lending program for students, and wanted to play around with one ourselves before committing to such a large purchase. A large part of the discussion about whether or not to invest in the program was if… Read more »
Panic, Setting In…
Well, it’s already two weeks into August, and I’m officially starting to freak out. I can’t believe the fall semester starts in two weeks! On top of planning our library instruction sessions for the term, as well as our outreach and promotion, we just found out that we are a go on the new website,… Read more »
Hakia: Semantic Search Engine
From ars technica: Search engines generally don’t understand either content on the Web or the content of user queries; they work through keyword analysis, link weighting, and other statistical methods that allow an engine to produce more or less relevant results without ever needing to understand the implicit question in the search query. [Hakia] recognizes… Read more »
Why My Library Should Invest in Overhauling Its Online Presence
How is it that, in today’s technological atmosphere, where users expect to be able to access virtually everything online (no pun intended, but a good one nonetheless, haha…) it is such a struggle to get the administration to realize the importance of our website? Why am I practically begging for them to at least provide… Read more »
Designing for the New Web
Ok, I am officially going crazy. The other night I was up until 3am because I couldn’t stop my brain… With my library’s proposed website redesign (which I am somehow in charge of, simply because I suggested that perhaps an institute of technology should not have a library website that looked like it was done… Read more »
If You Build It, Maybe They Will Come…
http://acrlblog.org/2007/05/14/formula-for-academic-library-success/ My library has heretofore been focusing on outreach, but my position is this, we need a user-friendly, intuitive product to promote, or all the awareness in the world is not going to help us. Users have been known to simply ignore software and apps that they find difficult to use. And facing such popular… Read more »
I Dreamed a Dream…
My coworker and I were discussing online services the other day, and we decided to get all wacky, and describe the attributes of our dream academic library website. So, here goes… 1.) Authentication through username and password, NOT a proxy server that requires you to configure your browser or a VPN. I know this is… Read more »
