Week 6: Web Design
I have chosen Campbelltown Library website for my examination. Campbelltown Library website is located within the Campbelltown City Council Website. The URL is https://www.campbelltown.sa.gov.au/library
Organization Scheme
The website’s organization scheme is a hybrid (exact and functional ambiguous) scheme. The majority of pages show the range of functions the library offers, for example, library catalogue, toy library, housebound service. However, there are a few pages which include exact information, for example, hours and location. The website is quite easy to follow as the exact sections are discrete, and fit in well with the remaining functional ambiguous organization.
Website Structure
The website is structured as a broad and shallow hierarchy. Even though there are seventeen navigation buttons on the home page (which are more than the preferred seven), clear buttons set apart from each other and big font size makes it is easy to navigate around the website. I think the website developer applied the “three clicks rule” when developing the website. It is very easy to find information on the website, with a lot of information available within three clicks. However, there are a few sub-sections located in unrelated main sections which could make them difficult to find. For example, “Need Help” and “Service Available” are located under “Hours and Location”.
Accessibility
The website in general is quite accessible, with a lot of good features provided to help people with diverse ability to access. I have used a website accessibility checklist from the Government of Western Australia as a guideline for my review (Government of Western Australia, n.d.). The majority of the website provides high contrast, with blue colour buttons, white backgrounds and large black fonts. The website provides “Read Speaker”, a web reader feature to assist people who have difficulty in reading the website. Text in the website can be viewed larger, without affecting the content or the function of the website. I enlarged the font 400% and the website still worked fine. The site structure can be navigated without using a mouse, through using “Tap”, “Shift+Tab”, and “Enter” keys on the keyboard. There is more than one way to find information (search/site map/navigation), and labels are presented next to fields that require patron’s information input, as can be seen in the library catalogue. The links in the website describe where they are going, and the links to documents are clearly stated with the type of document (DOC or PDF) and the file size. There are also no pages on the website which contain quick flashing features.
However, there are a few features in the website which could act as a barrier to accessibility. Firstly, the “library catalogue” sub-section colour scheme, fonts and format are not consistent with the rest of the website. It makes me feel like going to a different website. The low contrast of light-yellow font in a bright yellow button would make it difficult for people who are colour blind, or have a visual impairment, to access. The font size in this section is also relatively small compared to the rest of the website.
Secondly, the images (apart from images for decoration purposes) used in the website do not have alternative text. For example, in the “Meeting Room Hire” section, the website provides detail of the meeting room and cost along with a picture, but does not provide alternative text describing the picture for use with a screen reader.
Overall Design
In my opinion, the overall website design is very good. The home page is clean and simple with blue buttons, blue and black fonts and lots of white space. The navigation buttons are scattered equally from left to right, and from top to bottom, not in an “F” shape design placement. The majority of the colour scheme is consistent, and continues from main sections to sub-sections. The vertical website format works fine on a smartphone, and the majority of the website is quite accessible. However, there is some room for improvement to make it look cleaner and be more accessible.
Website Improvements
Add a short welcome message and the purpose on the home page. This will help patrons know where they are, feel accepted, and know what they are looking for. In the current home page, there is no message written at all, just navigation buttons.
Relocate some buttons (such as “Need Help” and “Service Available”) to be structured as a main section, and reduce the number of navigation buttons by combining some services buttons (such as housebound, printing, and Justice of the Peace) into “Other Services”. This will help patrons to navigate the menu easier.
Adjust the contrast and font size in the “library catalogue” to conform with the colour scheme of the rest of the website, which will help improve website accessibility.
Removal of some duplicate information will make the website look cleaner. For example, the operating hours and contact details located in the “Hours and Location” section are also restated in the “Library Catalogue” section.
Lastly, adding alternative text for images will help the website become more accessible.
References
Government of Western Australia. (n.d.). Tips to make your website accessible.
Retrieved from
http://www.disability.wa.gov.au/Global/Publications/Understanding%
20disability/Built%20environment/Accessible%20websites%20checklist.pdf
Library. (2020). Campbelltown City Council.
Fon's Blog 
Hi Fon,
Welcome. I hope you enjoy the course.
Jo
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Good discussion of the 24/7 library in Foster. Do you have any strategies for how libraries in larger city libraries might implement such a system?
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Implementation of 24/7 staff-less libraries in a big city is a major challenge, as the model is more successful in rural areas than cities due to the more peaceful rural setting where vandalism is generally less (Johannsen, 2017). However, the 24/7 model was successful in the city of Copenhagen, and this model was widespread in all public libraries by 2016. The most common challenges and problems with 24/7 were found to be inappropriate space utilisation by young people and the homeless, which has caused libraries to stop providing staff-less facilities in some areas. However, patron satisfaction (from a scale of 1 to 10) was measured at an average of 9.2 with the model, and they were generally very happy with the opportunity to be able to use their libraries over a longer period of time (Petersen as cited in Johannsen, 2017). The success factors of the 24/7 model in large city (like Copenhagen) libraries were to ensure that a suitable security system is in place to cope with the challenges and problems, and that the residents have developed local ownership in libraries use (Petersen as cited in Johannsen, 2017).
Reference:
Johannsen, C. G. (2017). Staff-Less Libraries: Innovative Staff Design. ProQuest.
https://ebookcentral.proquest.com
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Interesting discussion on the topic of IoT. You have given a good overview of many the issues. What do you think the challenges that IoT present to libraries’ IT leadership are?
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The major challenge that IoTs presents to libraries’ IT leadership is to create security management awareness to patrons who use the libraries network and devices (Massis, 2016). Librarians also need to be trained to be able to address the on-going security issues with patrons (Massis, 2016).
Reference:
Massis, B. (2016). The Internet of Things and its impact on the library. New Library
World, 117(3/4), 289–292. https://doi.org/10.1108/NLW-12-2015-0093
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Good discussion on the topic of the influence of algorithms. You have raised a number of interesting points. Do you think libraries have an education role in this space?
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I think libraries have an education role in this space too (but not exclusively). Libraries can educate internet users and patrons (where the facilities are available) to be aware of the importance of this issue.
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Excellent evaluation. You have made good use of the literature to support your discussion. Including screenshots of the webpage would have helped illustrate some of your points. Good awareness of the accessibility issues. Seventeen navigation buttons seems quite excessive. I hope you found this activity useful.
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I think the activity has been very useful and practical. I have now developed a good website awareness of usability and accessibility. Anytime I browse a website, I try to evaluate if the website is usable, accessible and also identify the improvement areas (by talking to myself).
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