vfranklyn.com

Hi there. I haven't posted here lately because most of my work has been on vfranklyn.com. I think I'll be posting there mostly from now on. So if you are interested in our progress on the ppld.org redesign, head on over to vfranklyn.com!

Sirsi Voodoo?

OK, this isn't about the redesign, but the weirdest thing happened. On Friday afternoon at the request of a coworker, I embedded our MeeboMe widget into the Catalog page that returns 0 results. It worked great and I was all "yay me". Today I hear on Twitter that my coworker can't find the widget on that page. I take a look and lo and behold it is gone!

Current theories:

1. Sirsi voodoo has made the widget mysteriously disappear (well our Catalog vendor is the Devil)


2. The widget is only visible inhouse (not likely as my coworker was Twittering from inhouse)


3. I was so busy on Friday that somehow I wrote over the file with the original in my haste to finish all the other crap I was working on (I hate it when that happens)

Guess I'd better bring my Catalog voodoo doll with me to work on Monday, just in case.

Slow and steady wins the race

Not to keep harping on PPLD's Website Improvement Survey, but I can't help it. I've resorted to promoting it on our slide show. We're up to 53 responses, some of which are friends of mine I emailed.

I feel pretty good about the responses so far, but I need more comments!!

This is really the primary disadvantage to online card sorting exercises. I can't hear what the user is saying/thinking so I'm not sure what their motives are. Comments are helpful, but I'm not getting enough of them.

Focus Group Card Sorting?

I read this article by Michael Hawley called, "Extending Card-Sorting Techniques to Inform the Design of Web Site Hierarchies". In it, he mentions some options to extend and complement traditional card-sorting practices. The one I found most interesting was Focus Group Card Sorting. Basically you find a focus group of 8-15 people and bring them to a physical location and have them do the card sorting exercise online but with you there to listen to and record their comments and discuss their choices.

I'm not sure we'll have the time or resources to do this or even if it will be necessary, but I still think it's a good idea for future card sorts, if nothing else.

Initial Reaction

The card sorting exercise has been active for 1 day. So far we've had 22 participants, about half of which are staff.

The comments I've received so far from patrons are that they were confused by the format. They expected a traditional survey and instead got an "exercise". To help alleviate this confusion I pointed the link to the Library's blog entry about the exercise. It describes a bit more clearly what the Survey actually is.

I really hope that helps clarify things for our patrons.

Patron Card Sort

We launched the Website Improvement Survey (which is a card sorting exercise for patrons) today! It runs through October 31. I'm both excited and apprehensive to see how patrons react to it.

Everyone, please take it!

PPLD's Website Improvement Survey