Ten essentials for any library site

Posted by Celia Walter | 25 Feb, 2009

Brian Mathews, User Experience Librarian at Georgia Institute of Technology, writes Web Design Matters: Ten essentials for any library site for the most recent issue of Library Journal. The article details ten key elements which will update and improve your library’s website, and provides helpful examples for each. Here are his first five recommendations, be sure and read the full article for more:

  1. Promotion
  2. Segmentation
  3. Visual Cues
  4. Inspiring Photos
  5. Search Boxes

via Tame the Web

From iLibrarian blog

Web design. From Intute.ac.uk

Posted by Celia Walter | 10 Jul, 2008

Web designer wall
The Web Designer Wall website, by Web Designer Nick La, is a WordPress blog, in which the author discusses design trends and developments. Archives of the blog go back to July 2007. Posts are categorised under three main headings: tutorials covering subjects such as Cascading Style Sheets or CSS, Flash, and Photoshop; trends, including best designs of the year, predominant styles and inspirational websites; and a general category including news, technological developments, events and people. The blog can also be searched by keyword, or browsed by tag. Most recent posts and comments are featured at the base of each page. Users can subscribe to an RSS feed.
http://www.webdesignerwall.com/

Vandelay design blog
This Web design blog is part of the website of Vandelay Web Design, an American Web design company. The blog contains postings on subjects such as: Blog design and promotion; Cascading Style Sheets or CSS; Web design; the design process; marketing; Search engine optimisation or SEO; Traffic generation; Social media; Web development; and Tools. There is an archive of postings going back to March 2007. A collection of postings covering other websites of particular interest in terms of design is categorised under Design Inspiration and subdivided into collections including: Beautifully Minimalist Website Designs; Beautifully Colourful Websites; Beautifully Dark Websites; Artistic Websites; Innovative Flash Designs. The website has a search facility, and both email and RSS updates are available.
http://vandelaydesign.com/blog/

Design shack
The Design Shack website is a Web design gallery and resource promoting the best use of Cascading Style Sheets, or CSS, in design. The website contains a gallery of over 1,000 designs submitted by designers either for basic information and a review for free, or for additional services for a fee. Websites are categorised and searchable by type, colour scheme and layout. The website also contains a collection of tutorials on topics such as: Accessibility; CSS Basics; Fonts and Typography; Forms; HTML Basics; Layout; Navigation; Web Standards and Graphics. Visitors can subscribe to RSS feeds of both news articles and the Web design Gallery.
http://www.designshack.co.uk/

Stylegala
The Stylegala website is designed to be an online resource for Web professionals on the use of Web standards and CSS, or Cascading Style Sheets, in producing good Web design. It showcases websites that may inspire designers to combine both aesthetic and functional design. The gallery of websites can be browsed by the date they were reviewed, going back to 2004, by rating, by reviewer, or searched for by keyword, and the top rated and most recent websites are highlighted. Each website is reviewed, and viewers are asked to rate it. The website also contains an online bookshop, a free bullet resource, a CSS reference facility, an online forum, and sets of links to designers, news and information websites and other online resources related to good Web design, CSS and Web standards.
http://www.stylegala.com/

Web creme
WebCreme is a website by Polish Web and game designer Katarzyna Uchnast. The website is a collection of other websites thought to provide design inspiration to Web designers and developers. Designers are invited to submit their websites if they consider them worthy of listing. Newest submissions are featured on the home page, and the website has an archive going back to October 2005. This archive can be browsed by month, or by the colour scheme of the websites. For each entry, a screen shot provides a direct link to the website in question. Updates of the WebCreme website are available by RSS feed.
http://www.webcreme.com/

Webdesign talk
The WebDesign Talk website is an online community for Web designers and developers, and part of the NamePros Community. Free registration is necessary to gain full access to the forums and other facilities on the website. A variety of online forums and discussion groups are hosted here. Under the Design and Development heading sub-forums include: Web Design Discussions and Reviews; Website Development; Programming; Graphic Design and Flash; Web Hosting; Webmaster Tutorials and Search Engine Optimisation. A Making Money heading includes: Pay Per Click Programs; Affiliate Programs; Marketing Techniques and Business Development. Other facilities on the website include free resources and audio broadcasts from Radio NamePros.
http://www.webdesigntalk.net/

Webdigity
The WebDigity website is an online community for Webmasters. The website contains a collection of discussion groups and forums on subjects including: Design and Layout; Web Development; Web Hosting and Website Promotion. The website also contains a Webmaster Directory containing links to Webmaster resources such as online tools, graphics, scripts and applications, and websites on Search Engine Optimisation. A Web Design Gallery showcases designers’ work in the use of Cascading Style Sheets, or CSS. A Tutorials database covers a variety of Web programming topics including database management and forms and data. The website can be searched by keyword or browsed by tag. Visitors are invited to register for free to obtain full use of the forums.
http://www.webdigity.com/

From NEAT NEW STUFF I FOUND THIS WEEK by Marlaine Block, FEBRUARY 8, 2008

Posted by Celia Walter | 8 Feb, 2008

•  Build a Network, Not a Destination - Readership Institute
http://www.readership.org/blog2/2007/04/build-network-not-destination.html
This advice for news media on building websites that attract and retain
readers would apply equally well to libraries' websites.

•  Movie Toolbox: 85+ Tools and Resources for Movie Fans
http://mashable.com/2007/09/16/movie-toolbox/
Includes online catalogs, recommendation engines, master indexes,
encyclopedic sources, review sites, free streaming video sites, and more. 

•  Top 25 Web 2.0 Search Engines
http://oedb.org/library/features/top-25-web20-search-engines
Engines that use Web 2.0 technologies to improve relevance. "Some offer
functionality that's slowly making its way into traditional search
engines. Others further the attempt to traverse the invisible Web and
index other previously unsearchable research sources." 

Neat New Stuff I Found This Week
http://marylaine.com/neatnew.html
Copyright, Marylaine Block, 1999-2008.

10 Principles Of Effective Web Design from Smashing Magazine

Posted by Celia Walter | 4 Feb, 2008
http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2008/01/31/10-principles-of-effective-web-design/

Website Design: a guide

Posted by Celia Walter | 15 Jan, 2008

A Quick Guide to Website Design January 8th, 2008

The beginning of the new year has inspired many of us to undertake the daunting task of redesigning our websites, or to create new ones. I have just finished a complete redesign of my website, and thought it would be helpful to pass along the links and research that I did in the process.

 From ILibrarian Blog  

Building accessibility into Web design

Posted by Celia Walter | 31 Oct, 2007
Accessibility 101 This website by Shaun Anderson, of Scottish Web services company Hobo, is concerned with promoting the concept of building accessibility into Web design. The website’s homepage contains an overview of the concept and issues such as compliance with United Kingdom regulations. The Advice page contains 101 Practical Website Accessibility Tips. The Learn section contains links to articles and learning resources on external websites, added by and given a points rating by registered users of the site. The Tests section contains access to online independent web accessibility tests, allowing the user to have their own website checked for accessibility compliance. The Articles section contains features on good website management and development. The site also contains a blog and a directory of links. From Intute.ac.uk
http://accessibility101.org.uk/