Michigan eLibrary
Not Just a Facelift: The
Michigan eLibrary Gets a
Complete Redesign with
Powerful New Functionality
Sheryl Mase
Sonya Schryer Norris Library of Michigan Elaine Meyer
Midwest Collaborative for Library Services
Michigan eLibrary
Mission of MeL: the Michigan eLibrary,
Michigan’s 24/7 Library
Administered by the Library of Michigan in
partnership with Michigan's libraries of all
types, the Michigan eLibrary (http://mel.org) will provide all Michigan residents with free access to online full-text articles, full-text books, digital images, and other valuable research information at any time via the Internet; and provide an easy-to-use
interlibrary loan system to allow Michigan residents to borrow books and other library materials for free from participating Michigan libraries.
Michigan eLibrary
What We Wanted in the RFP
Upgrade CWIS - Collection Workflow
Integration System - our Content
Management System, to most recent version (2.4.0)
CWIS is a PHP/MySQL product
To carry through the previous upgrades
over the past seven years including social networking capabilities
Cheat sheets for PHP programming for my
ease of maintenance after product is finished
Michigan eLibrary
CWIS Enhancements
Includes supervisory tools for employee
users
A way to review materials added/
updated by each user
A way to double check what materials
you have in “Not viewable” or hidden status
Additional, efficient ways to edit
individual records from every screen
Michigan eLibrary
RFP cont.
Responsive design for Smartphones and
tablets
Professional graphic design – entirely new
look and feel with multiple new graphics The only thing we kept was the logo, even
that we enhanced
Michigan eLibrary
RFP Responses
We brought in the two top bidders
for an in-person pitch.
We chose Courtland Consulting/
StrudellStudios
The bidders were provided with our wireframes
before the pitch and Courtland came prepared with two designs in Photoshop based on our
ideas-to-that-point. Some of that work made it through to the final iteration.
Michigan eLibrary
Wireframe Process
Michigan eLibrary
Michigan eLibrary
Michigan eLibrary
Michigan eLibrary
Applying Information
Architecture and User
Experience Design to MeL
There’s a lot I could tell you about the redesign. I’m going to cover what could help YOU in redesigning your own sites.
Michigan eLibrary
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Some web sites "work" and some don't. Good web site
consultants know that you can't just jump in and start writing HTML, the same way you can't build a house by just pouring a foundation and putting up some walls. You need to know who will be using the site, and what they'll be using it for … Overall, you need a strong, cohesive vision for the site that makes it both distinctive and usable.
The job of the architect is to set up the framework for the site to make it comfortable and inviting for people to visit, relax in, and perhaps even return to someday.
Michigan eLibrary
Information Architecture
Michigan eLibrary
Our context…
90% of designing a Website is
political
Requirements of our parent
organization, the State of
Michigan, and the federal
government
20 years of Michigan eLibrary
history
Michigan eLibrary
Our content
Discovery service/search box
We identified our primary deliverables and
placed them in the global navigation: MeLCat
Michigan Online Resources for Educators
MeL Databases
Michigana
We used valuable homepage real estate
for subject gateways
We don’t have a consistent left
navigation due to software limitations
Michigan eLibrary
Our users
Expectations of
Citizens
Library staff
Children/students “born digital”
Subject-specific information seekers
such as college professors and
graduate students, genealogists, job seekers, and entrepreneurs.
Michigan eLibrary
Incorporating User
Experience Design
User experience librarian Elaine Meyer from the
Midwest Collaborative for Library Services (formerly of Proquest) worked with us on the design
Michigan eLibrary
Orienting the user – where am I?
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No indication of what page users are on –
no change in color
Current page is highlighted with green
background, and black text
Current MeL.org navigation
Michigan eLibrary
Move home links to global nav
19Michigan eLibrary
Keep labels simple, yet meaningful
MeL Databases → Databases
MeL Michigana → Michigana
Michigan Online Resources for
Educators→ Teachers 20
Michigan eLibrary
Lowercase – easier readability
Michigan eLibrary
Putting ’Search’ in the spotlight
‘SEARCH’ is in all caps
Big font for ‘SEARCH’
Black background
behind ‘SEARCH’
Green arrow
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Green search button
Moving down the
search box
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Footer as a sitemap
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Unique color for each
MeL.org page
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Branding MeL.org
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Michigan eLibrary page title
MeL.org logo
Michigan eLibrary
Subject Gateways
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Collection Development
Policy
Definition, Goals and Criteria of Selection Scope of Coverage
Authority
Objectivity
Accuracy
Timeliness
Cost and Promotional nature
Endorsement
Functionality
Resource Types
Michigan eLibrary
Two rounds of user testing
Round one: wireframe testing.
Round two: with user experience librarian
Elaine Meyer
We tested
High school and college students
Public, college and school librarians as well
as library staff
Members of the public
Government employees
Users and non-users
Michigan eLibrary
What did we learn?
Our internal vernacular is not helpful on
the site – the term “MeLCat” was not understood by non-users.
The term/link “gateway” was completely
ignored.
Words like “government” “business” and
“legal” have wide appeal and wide understanding.
Use common language so you will be
commonly understood. 29
Michigan eLibrary
What else did we learn?
MeLCat is beloved but too often not
intuitive, especially when it comes to finding materials in a particular format and limiting search results
The new graphics were well liked by those
who knew the “old” MeL and those who didn’t
That search box has some high
expectations!
Michigan eLibrary
What Else Are We
Going to Get?
Kids and Teens portals!
Michigan eLibrary
New MeL Kids Site
Michigan eLibrary
