Information Architecture

The challenge

Fontana Public Library, which is located in a waterfront tourist destination, serves a community of approximately 1,800 year-round residents and 3,600 part-time seasonal residents. The existing website is cluttered and lacks clear organization, making it difficult for patrons to find the information they need. A restructuring of the website is needed to encourage more attendance at programs, more traffic in the library, and increased use of the electronic resources available. Please visit https://www.fontana.lib.wi.us/ to view the exisiting website.

To meet the goals the library had for increasing engagement with the community, they requested the following:

A re-organized website with events and the online catalog readily available on the home page
Overall attractiveness and feel

*Note: These changes have not been implemented at this time.

The journey

In my role as project manager, I led a team of 3 through planning a new website. We were tasked with planning and presenting research findings for a new layout and architecture of the website. We used the following tools to determine the new look of the website:

User personas

Developed user personas based on the typical tasks of a library patron and the population that lives in and visits the area.

Sitemap

Created a sitemap to reorganize the various pages required on the website.

Wireframe

Developed a wireframe of the hompeage with goal of meeting the guidelines of public library pages produced by Bibliocommons.

Most actions that users would complete are accessible in the top third of the page.

Journey map

Created a journey map to help determine what potential issues a prospective patron may experience.

User testing

Completed user testing of the prototype by observing users completing a set of assigned tasks, which revealed additional issues for us to correct prior to presenting our proposal. Some of these issues and their resolutions are below.