What a User Wants: Redesigning a Library's Web Site Based on a Card Sort Analysis

Web site usability concerns anyone with a Web site to maintain. Libraries, 

however, are often the biggest offenders in terms of usability. In our efforts to provide users 

with everything they need for research, we often overwhelm them with sites that are 

confusing in structure, difficult to navigate, and weighed down with jargon. Dowling College 

Library recently completed a redesign of its Web site based upon the concept of usability. 

For smaller libraries in particular, such a project can be a challenge. The Web site is often 

maintained by one or two people, and finding the time and resources to conduct a usability 

study is difficult in that situation. Additional demands of a site redesign, from restructuring 

page layouts to adding visual appeal, only add to the burden. However, our team of four 

librarians was able to do it.