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Website UX Checklist

Yes, people come to public library websites for books, programs, and other tangible value, but it doesn’t matter how strong your offerings are if your user experience (UX) is preventing users from accessing those benefits.

Demystify web design, UX, security, accessibility, and more with our complete guide.

Single Sign-On (SSO)

Ensure your online catalog and website experience use one login so that the user has a seamless experience. Does your SSO provide persistent authentication, data usage, preferences, and user identity across each of your environments?

Important

For patrons, make your online catalog and website use one login so that the user doesn’t undergo any additional login and authentication steps when
registering for events, placing holds, rating books, commenting on blog posts, and submitting feedback.

 

Unified Search Experience

Your users consider your online catalog to be part of the website, not a different environment. So, the search experience across both needs to be unified.

Image Management

Do images automatically adjust their crop to the device? Are there limits so that users avoid seeing images that are too small (which are blurry on large screens) or too large (which affect load time)?

Header Navigation

Is your header or main navigation menu easy to use? Is it used across the entire digital journey from the website to the online catalog and back and forth? Do the link placements make sense from the user’s perspective? Do the URLs work and take users to the correct pages? Is it easy for your staff to modify and/or change the links in your navigation menu?

Mobile Responsive Design

Does your website reflow and resize intuitively? Are things easy to read when people connect to your website via mobile? Do you still need to pinch and move the screen to see things? Ensure your pages adjust to your user’s device (i.e., desktop browser, mobile, etc.) so that they have a consistent, high-quality experience no matter how they access your website

Sidebar Navigation

Does your website support sidebar navigation alongside header navigation? Having two separate menus allow your header navigation to remain clean and easy to navigate.

Tip

Making your branding and navigation consistent across your catalog, website, and events calendar provides the best experience for patrons.

 

Why Do You Need to Focus on UX?

You’ll want to ensure that your website adapts to the devices your patrons are using. Regardless of whether they’re using desktop or mobile, your patrons should feel they’re able to fully leverage your library’s services and facilities. It starts with building a responsive website design, but it’s crucial that functionality carries through between each device type. So, pay attention to things like font text and readability (from large to small screens), scrolling, zoom or magnification, and others.

In addition to the feature capabilities, effective UX relies on robust user testing, especially from an accessibility standpoint. You need to engage in regular usability testing to ensure that the patrons you’re aiming to reach can navigate and use your library website. 

Next Steps

Get a complete picture of your online library needs by getting our complete web development guide (written specifically for public libraries!). This guide will help you define the best practices for your CMS, accessibility, UX, web design, and security requirements.

 

Keep your library website project within timelines and under budget with our complete web development guide.