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]
