Top 10 Don'ts When Redesigning a Website

A talk that I gave to area librarians about common mistakes to avoid when redesigning a website (library or otherwise).

Transcript

1. TOP 10 DON’TS WHEN REDESIGNING A WEBSITE BRODIE AUSTIN, SKOKIE PUBLIC LIBRARY
2. #1 DON’T LET YOUR ORG CHART DICTATE YOUR SITE’S ORGANIZATION
3. Your org chart isn’t your information architecture — Rachel Haot 1 1 https://medium.com/@rachelhaot/how-to-design-for-everybody-4b2870724c4*
5. Card sorting 2 2 http://www.usability.gov/how-to-and-tools/methods/card-sorting.html
6. #2 DON’T DESIGN BY COMMITTEE
7. PUT SOMEONE IN CHARGE
8. HAVE MORE ONE-ON-ONE MEETINGS OR SMALL MEETINGS
9. Design like you’re right, listen like you’re wrong — John Lilly 3 3 https://medium.com/@johnolilly/design-like-you-re-right-listen-like-you-re-wrong-308e3930fdbf
10. #3 DON’T HIDE YOUR WORK
11. Greater Pittsburgh Foodbank 4 4 http://foodbank.bradfrostweb.com/timeline/
12. Chapel Hill Library UX site 5 5 http://chplux.tumblr.com/
13. #4 DON’T ASK “WHAT DO YOU THINK?”
14. ESTABLISH GROUND RULES FOR FEEDBACK 6 6 https://github.com/DSchau/AnEventApart2014/blob/master/Day%202/3%20-%20Hit%20it%20with%20a%20Pretty %20Stick.md
15. ASK SPECIFIC QUESTIONS
16. If you really want feedback you have to be prepared to shut up and listen. 7 — Scott Berkun 7 http://scottberkun.com/2013/how-to-get-better-feedback/
17. #5 DON’T COPY OTHER WEBSITES
18. MY SOLUTION MAY NOT BE YOUR SOLUTION
19. DO USABILITY TESTING 8 8 http://www.uxbooth.com/articles/the-art-of-guerrilla-usability-testing/
20. BUT PATTERNS ARE IMPORTANT
21. Users are 89% more likely to remember logos shown in the traditional top-left position than logos placed on the right. 9 — Nielsen Norman Group 9 https://www.nngroup.com/articles/logo-placement-brand-recall/
22. #6 DON’T WAIT UNTIL LAUNCH TO TEST THE SITE
23. PROTOTYPE 10 10 http://www.usability.gov/how-to-and-tools/methods/prototyping.html
24. ALSO, YOU DON'T NEED TO BE A CODER TO PROTOTYPE A WEBSITE.11 11 http://www.cooper.com/prototyping-tools
25. #7 DON’T IGNORE YOUR CURRENT SITE
26. VALIDATE IDEAS
27. Lean UX is the practice of bringing the true nature of our work to light faster, with less emphasis on deliverables and greater focus on the actual experience... — Jeff Gothelf 12 12 https://www.smashingmagazine.com/2011/03/lean-ux-getting-out-of-the-deliverables-business/
28. A/B TESTING 13 13 https://www.optimizely.com/ab-testing/
29. # 8 DON’T LET MICROSOFT WORD DICTATE YOUR SITE’S TONE AND VOICE
30. WRITING FOR THE WEB 14 14 http://styleguide.mailchimp.com/
31. USER ONBOARDING 15 15 https://www.useronboard.com/
32. CONTENT SITE
33. #9 DON’T USE IMAGES JUST TO USE IMAGES
34. "Stop Using Stock Photography Cliches" 16 16 https://boagworld.com/design/stock-photography/
35. Unsplash and more 17 17 https://medium.com/@dustin/stock-photos-that-dont-suck-62ae4bcbe01b#.a1ggxwt7d
36. “Because it looks pretty” is not a good enough reason to send a 1MB image over 3G—or, god forbid, something like the EDGE network. — Dave Rupert 18 18 http://alistapart.com/article/mo-pixels-mo-problems
37. PageSpeed Insights 19 19 https://developers.google.com/speed/pagespeed/insights/
38. #10 DON’T IGNORE THE READING EXPERIENCE
39. TYPOGRAPHY IT'S MORE THAN FONTS!
40. TYPEWOLF 20 20 https://www.typewolf.com/site-of-the-day
41. LINE HEIGHT, LINE LENGTH, LETTER SPACING, AND MORE!
44. PRACTICAL TYPOGRAPHY 21 21 http://practicaltypography.com/typography-in-ten-minutes.html
45. A BONUS "DO"
46. HAVE FUN!
47. > US Digital Services Playbook > Sidebar > Just Enough Research > ShopTalk Show
48. THANK YOU! BAUSTIN@SKOKIELIBRARY.INFO @BRODIEAUSTIN