How to Maximize Usability & Findability

Presentation from Shari Thurow at Computer in Library 2014

Searchers on mobile

  • Quick fact
  • Location
  • Personal information

What searchers expect

Use elevator as an example to guide users.

Usability tips for labeling

  • Don’t put prompt text in text form. Leave form empty. Put help text underneath
  • Provide the right contexts
  • A label must be representative of a page and section content on a web website
  • Page title is important for findability. Lead with most important word
  • Name your image with context. Example: not logo.jpg, but mason-law-school-logo.jpg
  • Don’t use gray for navigation.

Labeling system

  • document (descriptive)
  • navigation (concise)
  • content (both)

Responsive Design

For responsive design on mobile, provide full desktop site. (I am not sure how to accomplish that since the whole point of responsive design is to adapt to different devices.

Recommended book

Mobile Speech and Advanced Natural Language Solutions