My previous post about the research guide (It’s Alive!) raised the subject of redesigning my subject guide to improve its usefullness to users. Being a data- and statistics-oriented person, I noted the small dataset I had on the Guide’s use as a starting point for the design discussion.
One comment proved prescient: the one about people using a known path to reach a particular online destination. I rearranged the boxes on the page (why does the phrase ‘rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic’ come to mind…?), and moved the Dictionary widget down into the wider central column. As a result, the boxes in the left column moved up.
Wouldn’t you know, I got an email yesterday from a user asking me where Reference USA had gone! This is, of course, good news: it means that at least one person is using the site regularly enough to notice when it changes.
Moving along, my suspicion is that there is too much stuff on this guide, and I expect I will at the very least move several items off the front page onto a secondary page. More radically, I think I will remove entries that might be (or already are) included on other guides, and instead direct folks to those other guides. Links for news or business are top contenders for this.
