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]