The Zombie Stack Exchanges That Just Won't Die
My library's website is in need of updating. We're looking to highlight important resources, services & information. What items should be on a library website? What should be most visible (catalog, hours, contact, programs)? Are there good ways to find out what sources patrons need/use most?
Fisher
An important first step is to measure (with a web metrics tool like Google Analytics) how your site is getting used now, and then look for usage patterns, and (ahem) non-usage patterns. I would let this information guide what you want to change on the site. As you make changes you can see the impact of your changes in near real time (assuming anyone uses the site).
And, finally:
This answer partially depends on what type of library you're designing for - public, academic, special? I can speak for my institution, an academic library that supports a medical school and hospital campus. From our web stats, search keywords and heatmapping of our homepage, here are the things that get the most traffic:
After that, it is a long tail that includes research help, ask us/contact, events, news, special collections, giving. In general our design decisions err on the side of
There are a few different methods you can use to track use of your site. We have had a lot of luck using the click-tracking software CrazyEgg, which is very inexpensive, for our homepage. Heatmapping is a quick and powerful way to show which parts of your site are clicked on most. Google Analytics is another quick and painless way to figure out which pages are most popular, which search terms are being used to get to your site, etc.
In the end, these tools help a lot but don't tell you much about users' motivations or what they are not finding on your site. If you have time, it is worth doing some usability assessments of your site to find out areas to improve. There are many great resources out there, but I'd recommend the Handbook of Usability Testing by Dana Chisnell and Jeff Rubin. Don't Make Me Think is also an inspirational and entertaining place to start reading when undertaking a redesign.
Good luck!
Take a look at the websites of other libraries similar to yours as if you were a patron trying to access something like hours, the catalog, or whatever else might be important to your patrons. Model yours after those that did it in a way you liked and avoid the things that you felt made the website too difficult to use.
We recently redid the website for a small public library (http://www.westbanklibrary.com/). We tried doing usability studies, but found people reluctant to participate. In the end, we responded to our two most frequent complaints (information about programs and services was buried in the menuing system, no calendar function) and created a design in alignment with our re-branding goals.
We utilized multiple menus: small menu at top for things people expect at most websites (About, Contact, FAQs, etc), large tabbed menu for most important/ often used choices (catalog, calendar, etc), and a complete table of menu choices at the bottom (including things like job openings, how to rent a meeting room, and Ask a Librarian). Our goal was to get people the information they want with as few clicks as possible, and to highlight the essentials from both the user's view (catalog, ebooks, storytime) and our own (volunteer, donate).
Interestingly, we got the input we desired AFTER launching the new website - people, reacting to the change, were quick to tell us what they liked and not! Often we were able to make adjustments to accommodate requests.