Alex, Thanks so much for sharing your new site built in LG2. I love it. Simple, attactive, but very useable. It's very interesting to see an honest-to-goodness "this actually looks like a real website and not like just some libguide" library website built using lg. More and more I'm seriously considering LG2 as a feasible option for our library site. Thanks! Brad On Mon, Sep 22, 2014 at 3:29 PM, Joshua Welker <[log in to unmask]> wrote: > I was just curious in general. I'm always interested in data on web > usability. > > Josh Welker > > > -----Original Message----- > From: Code for Libraries [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of > Alex > Armstrong > Sent: Saturday, September 20, 2014 12:34 PM > To: [log in to unmask] > Subject: Re: [CODE4LIB] LibGuides v2 - Templates and Nav > > I was actually a bit coy in my previous post. Our old site was reasonably > battle-hardened for usability. It's not like we transitioned from > three-column layouts and guides with three rows of tabs or anything. > > I'm still trying to come up with tasks for testing. I suspect a lot of the > big stuff will be OK while a lot of the small stuff will be off. > It's been really hard to test the latter. (And there is a glitches in our > analytics so I'm also flying a bit blind.) > > Is there something in particular you're wondering about? > > Alex > > > On 09/19/2014 07:50 PM, Joshua Welker wrote: > > Nice job. I like the simplicity. Let me know how the usability testing > > goes. > > > > Josh Welker > > > > > > -----Original Message----- > > From: Code for Libraries [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf > > Of Alex Armstrong > > Sent: Friday, September 19, 2014 10:28 AM > > To: [log in to unmask] > > Subject: Re: [CODE4LIB] LibGuides v2 - Templates and Nav > > > > Long time lurker, second time poster (if memory serves). > > > > We launched our new library website yesterday, which is entirely built > > on LibGuides 2. You can see it here: http://library.acg.edu/ > > > > For simplicity’s sake we used only two templates: > > > > a full width template for single page guides (e.g., our home page). > > a content template that uses ~2/3 of the page for the content > > and > > ~1/3 for guide navigation. > > > > There are no dropdown menus anywhere, for the reasons people > > mentioned, nor do we use two columns for content. (Some of the landing > > pages use a small grid, but that’s about it.) > > > > We use LG’s built-in second column wrapped around an `<aside>` and > > placed at the bottom of the main content for related info. Scroll to > > the bottom of this page to see what I mean: > > http://library.acg.edu/citations/apa > > > > I decided to keep the navigation menu on the right to emphasize the > > main content. My guess is that this won’t work very well for sections > > with more narrative. My inspiration (GOV.uk) uses wizard navigation, > > which > > LG2 supports. That may be a way of handling this issue. > > > > I put the site together with almost no usability testing. I’ll have to > > grab some students in the coming weeks and find out how bad things > > really are :) > > > > You can see a slightly abstracted version of the content template, as > > well as other useful LG2 thingies in this gist: > > https://gist.github.com/alehandrof/9f083aa03c287931d9f0 > > > > The design was written in Sass on top of an imported and customized > > Bootstrap 3.2. There's an option in the LG admin to disable the > > default Bootstrap and I only had to write a few hundred lines to > > override aspects of the default LG stylesheets. Because I built the > > design on top of Bootstrap there was very little tweaking necessary > > for the admin side to work properly. > > > > Hope this helps, > > Alex > > > > -- > > Alex Armstrong > > E-Resource/Reference Assistant > > The American College of Greece Libraries, John S. Bailey Library > > 6 Gravias Street | GR 153 42 Agia Paraskevi | Athens, Greece > > Phone: +30 210 600 9800 ext. 1274, 1267 | Fax: +30 210 601 7795 > > Email: [log in to unmask] > > > > > > > > On 2014-09-19 12:31 AM, Joshua Welker wrote: > >> That's a good idea. I changed the template using Bootstrap classes so > >> that the sidebar will appear below the main column on small screens > >> (< 1024px roughly). But I might consider hiding the side completely. > >> > >> Josh Welker > >> > >> > >> -----Original Message----- > >> From: Code for Libraries [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf > >> Of Michael Schofield > >> Sent: Thursday, September 18, 2014 1:55 PM > >> To: [log in to unmask] > >> Subject: Re: [CODE4LIB] LibGuides v2 - Templates and Nav > >> > >> I love your minimal template. We're experimenting with similar > >> minimalism. > >> If you all can't agree on the existence of the right column, you > >> might compromise and use media queries to display: none; until the > >> screen is sufficiently wide. E.g., 1140px so it will only pop on > >> widescreen monitors and avoid almost all tablet orientations. > >> > >> Good work. > >> > >> -----Original Message----- > >> From: Code for Libraries [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf > >> Of Joshua Welker > >> Sent: Thursday, September 18, 2014 2:43 PM > >> To: [log in to unmask] > >> Subject: Re: [CODE4LIB] LibGuides v2 - Templates and Nav > >> > >> I am in the middle of building a very minimalist LibGuides 2.0 > >> template to go with our new website. Here's the current status: > >> http://ucmo.beta.libguides.com/test-guide. > >> > >> We are still torn on whether to have any side columns. We currently > >> have a right column just for important site-wide information. We used > >> the right rather than left with the rationale that it is not an > >> essential navigation menu and that we didn't want it to be the first > >> thing users notice. Content should come first. The fact that users > >> will not focus heavily on the right-hand content is actually a good > >> thing in this instance. > >> > >> I go back and forth on whether to scrap the side column. I am pretty > >> adamant that there should only be one column for page content, > >> although I am prepared to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous > >> fortune. > >> > >> Josh Welker > >> > >> > >> -----Original Message----- > >> From: Code for Libraries [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf > >> Of Brad Coffield > >> Sent: Tuesday, September 16, 2014 5:24 PM > >> To: [log in to unmask] > >> Subject: Re: [CODE4LIB] LibGuides v2 - Templates and Nav > >> > >> Benjamin: "Unfortunately we have authors who want *three* columns > >> plus left-nav..." LOL > >> > >> Margaret: Love the floating nav on that page. It's exciting that > >> we'll be able to leverage Bootstrap with our guides now. Moving the > >> entire library website to libguides CMS is looking more and more > >> promising. > >> > >> > >> Some more thoughts: > >> > >> I'm no UX expert but is it generally agreed that left-nav is the much > >> better choice? It seems like it to me. Given current web wide > >> conventions etc. > >> > >> One big issue to switching to left-nav in v2 is the amount of work > >> it's going to take everyone to convert all guides to the new layout. > >> Which is one of those things that both shouldn't matter (when looking > >> at it in a principledness way - that is, "Whatever is best for the > >> patrons! No matter > >> what!) but also does matter (in a practical way - that is, "OMG we > >> are all so busy being awesome"). > >> > >> But part of me, when looking at other people's guides and my own, > >> wonders if three columns isn't just a little TOO much for the user. > >> How is one supposed to scan the page? What's the prioritized > >> information? For a couple years now I've been eschewing three columns > >> whenever possible. Do others agree that three columns can be info > >> overload? > >> > >> Brad > >> > >> On Tue, Sep 16, 2014 at 4:32 PM, Benjamin Florin > >> <[log in to unmask]> > >> wrote: > >> > >>> We've been tinkering with our LibGuides template in preparation for > >>> an eventual redesign of our site and guides, e.g.: > >>> > >>> http://libguides.bc.edu/libraries/babst/staff > >>> > >>> Some of our guide authors weren't happy with the LibGuides > >>> side-navigation's single-column limitation, so we made our own > >>> template, moved {{guide_nav}} off to a left column, and wrote our > >>> own styles to make the default top-nav display as left-nav. We've > >>> found that a 50/50 or 75/25 split next to the left nav looks pretty > >>> good. > >>> > >>> Unfortunately we have authors who want *three* columns plus left-nav... > >>> > >>> In general the LibGuides templating has felt modern and easy to work > >>> with. > >>> > >>> Ben > >>> > >>> > >>> On Mon, Sep 15, 2014 at 3:18 PM, Brad Coffield < > >>> [log in to unmask]> > >>> wrote: > >>> > >>>> Hi all, > >>>> > >>>> I'm finally diving into our Libguides v2 migration and I'm > >>>> wondering if anyone would be willing to share their > >>>> experience/choices regarding templating. (Or even some code!) > >>>> > >>>> I'm thinking left-nav is the way to go. Has anyone split the main > >>>> content column into two smaller columns? Done that with a > >>>> column-width-spanning > >>> box > >>>> atop the main content area? Any other neato templates ideas? > >>>> > >>>> We are in the process of building a "style guide" for all libguides > >>> authors > >>>> to use. And also some sort of peer-review process to help enforce > >>>> the > >>> style > >>>> guide. I'm thinking we are going to want to restrict all authors to > >>>> left-nav templates but perhaps the ideal solution would be to > >>>> require left-nav of all but to have a variety of custom left-nav > >>>> templates to choose from. > >>>> > >>>> Any thoughts are much appreciated! > >>>> > >>>> Warm regards, > >>>> > >>>> Brad > >>>> > >>>> -- > >>>> Brad Coffield, MLIS > >>>> Assistant Information and Web Services Librarian Saint Francis > >>>> University > >>>> 814-472-3315 > >>>> [log in to unmask] > >>>> > >> > >> -- > >> Brad Coffield, MLIS > >> Assistant Information and Web Services Librarian Saint Francis > >> University > >> 814-472-3315 > >> [log in to unmask] > -- Brad Coffield, MLIS Assistant Information and Web Services Librarian Saint Francis University 814-472-3315 [log in to unmask]