Websites are awesome. And they are necessary for sharing information with your community members. We are an information profession; our whole purpose is to help patrons find information they need. A handy website is one important tool in making that happen.

Check out this week’s Advocacy Alchemy for some ideas and encouragement on getting started with your website.

So now we are ready to design that website – yay!

Any good website needs a few basic things to make sure your website works for your community members. Include these things to make your site usable and user-friendly.

• Readable. The type needs to be big enough to be read easily – even by little old ladies like me who can’t see small type. Also add in a bunch of white space so it’s not too cluttered. You want the important stuff will be be immediately obvious.
• Look pretty. You want a site that looks nice. Don’t add in lots of flashy things, blinky things, or other annoyances. Colors are nice, but you want to keep one or two; don’t over-decorate. Graphics and videos are nice – but remember: Everyone hates audio and video that self-starts. Don’t inflict that on your community.
• Limit clicks. I can tell you from personal experience that once you start adding webpages, it’s surprisingly hard to stop. Just keep in mind the very basic usability idea that people should never have to click more than three times to get where they want to go. More than this, and people will get frustrated and move on to another information source.
• Trendy. When you spend your days browsing websites and online resources, you get a feel for what other people are doing with web design. While you do not need to copy someone else’s site directly (copyright!), it’s okay to use popular design elements to help encourage your patrons to find what they need.
• Fast! You know that in the online world, speed counts. If a patrons has to wait three seconds for a page to load on their phone – they are gone. You web host may be able to give you suggestions on speeding up your site’s loading time.
• Good information. Think about what your community members will want to know. Hours are basic, your phone number is good, a web map is handy. Clearly, you want a catalog front and center. A staff page, or at least an email people can use to contact you.

Setting up a good website is going to be a little more work than just these things. But you have to get started somewhere!

CMLE members: we can help you to set up a basic site. Please get in touch with us today, and let’s get started sharing information with your students and other patrons!