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Lessons for Working with Professional Designers

Lessons for Working with Professional Designers. Dartmouth College 5th Annual October Conference for New England Librarians October 25, 2001 Holly Grossetta Nardini, Service Quality Support Director Karen Reardon, Manager of Workstation Support Yale University Library. That Was Then….

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Lessons for Working with Professional Designers

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  1. Lessons for Working with Professional Designers Dartmouth College 5th Annual October Conference for New England Librarians October 25, 2001 Holly Grossetta Nardini, Service Quality Support Director Karen Reardon, Manager of Workstation Support Yale University Library

  2. That Was Then… ....

  3. Why Work with Graphic Designers? • More polished look • Cost effective • Can help avoid political pitfalls • But . . . there are some challenges and we learned some lessons . . .

  4. Determine Division of Labor • Decide what work the designers will do and what work the library will do. • Library Committee organized feedback from library staff. • Library Committee examined dozens of web sites.

  5. User-oriented vs. staff-oriented Easy to use Minimal library jargon Information provided from a variety of paths Limited “clicks” between home page and content Hierarchy provides structure Elegant and distinctive Images do not convey meaning No visual metaphor Establish Design Principles

  6. Communicate Frequently with Designers • Early meetings focus on thoughts and ideas. • Later meetings focus on reviewing drafts. • Give concrete feedback.

  7. Insist on User Testing • Focus on function over form. • Test user response to graphics, wording and functionality. • Front Door Redesign Task Force

  8. Look at the Big Picture • Yale University • Research Workstation • Yale University Library

  9. This is Now….

  10. Establish Technical Requirements • Avoid technologies that load slowly or require plug-ins. No Frames! • Pages must work on a variety of browsers. • Pages should display well at 800x600 resolution. • Pages must be W3C compliant.

  11. Understand the Programming Process • Understand who will be coding the pages. • Remind the programmer often of your web server environment and technical requirements: • Web Server Software • Operating System • Programming languages supported

  12. Test the Code Early • And test it often…. • Switch from reviewing static design to testing actual code early. • Remind designers often of technical requirements. • Outline specific technical do’s and don’t’s (such as… easy on the funky Javascript).

  13. Use Easily Available Fonts • Conform to university standards for fonts where possible. • Remind designers of your workstation environment. • Make sure the fonts can be obtained from usual sources.

  14. Get Involved in Specific Design Decisions Make sure graphic choices are appropriate for their location. Flaming women falling from a tower or images of beheadings can be deemed inappropriate!

  15. Make Your Site Easy to Maintain • Provide templates for a variety of sub-pages. • Hide complicated code (for example, Server Side Includes). • Build in a mechanism for universal page updates.

  16. Questions? • Holly Grossetta Nardini holly.nardini@yale.edu (203) 432-9449 • Karen Reardon karen.reardon@yale.edu (203) 432-4099 • http://www.library.yale.edu

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