telophase | (no subject)

OK, I've got a callback for an intervuew at TCU (that's a university in Fort Worth, for my non-Texan readers) for the position of IT Librarian.

Anyway, as part of this, they want me to give a short presentation on their webpage - I can choose anything to talk about - design, function, what's good, what's bad, whatever, and I've decided to do a little unscientific market research on it, and ask you guys to head over to the webpage, play with it a few minutes, then tell me your opinions and answer a couple of questions:

1) Let me know your platform/browser combo, please, and if the page is broken in any way on it.

2) Is it easy to navigate? Is anythign misleading?

3) Do the colors/fonts/placement/whatever work for you?

4) Is there anything that jumos out at you that you hate or that you really like?

5) Are there any functions or information not on the page that you'd like to see on it?

I've got my own opinions already, of course, but I won't prejudice you guys just yet. :)

If you get a chance to help out, thanks! :D

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Hey that's pretty cool - didn't know you were a librarian. It's something I've considered getting into. I've found out about some good scholarship programs for the MLS. Bah, but I have to finish the BA in the first place which seems at this rate like it's never going to happen.

Yup, and here's my shiny new MLIS to prove it. It's shiny even though I got it in December, because I've been looking for work since then. :) This is the problem with (a) not wanting to move when I'm in a place that has two of the three accredited library schools in the state pumpin' out the graduates, and (b) when I don't want to do normal, regular librarianship (and I'm not very expereinced in it, either, so I'm not competitive in it), but instead something along technical lines, since I've got my nice, shiny Certificate in Digital Imaging and a bunch of experience with PHP, MySQL, and Web design under my belt.

So I'm *really* hoping that this works out. It fits on every level - it's int eh DFW area, it's technical, it's not corporate, and it pays enough that by keeping my student loans on income-dependent repayment, I can actually afford to pay rent and bills. :)

I checked this on a macintosh G4 at work, using the Netscape browser.

I think it is quite function, and easy to read. All links seemed to work properly. The colors are good, easy to read. My only complaint is the 4 icons up top... the gradient behind them make the black text and image somewhat harder to see. It's not terrible, but I think they could be reworked for the better.

Hope that helps.

i agree on the gradient issue. i wouldn't call them "eye-straining" but they aren't very pleasant to look at (for a moment i thought there was something wrong with my glasses)

oh, and everything seemed to work on my iMac (using the safari browser).

Well, firstly, I like the 'Ask a Librarian' link, even though 2 images don't load for me.

The color scheme is ... very trying. I try to like it, but I can't...

The menu on the left side is made all of images, not text. (The pop-outs are text, though)

Aside from that, I guess it is a functional page.

Good luck with your interview!

(I got here from the friends-of-

sclerotic_rings page. Also, I'm using mozilla firefox on linux.)

Purple and gray... you must be kidding me. isbn.nu is a site that uses purple well; this is not.

Someone mentioned the gradients... yeah, they suck. Those icons would be better off without the glow if they're not redone entirely. Trying to attach icons to abstract concepts (My Library, Review Items) is always problematic. The text by itself would be so much simpler.

I don't like the fact that eJournals and eBooks are lumped in as separate search options. Why can't I search for an author's name within eBooks? There should be search methods (title, author, keyword, subject) and there should be media (books, videos, journals, eBooks, eJournals). I should be able to use any search method and limit the search to any media. They're doing it the same way the A&M libraries do (same software package with dumb defaults?) and it drives me up the wall. The advanced search makes much more sense.

If this page were laid out better, the advanced search and the article directory could be on the same page. (Think Yahoo.)

The borders on the navigation menu have to go. They're faded in the flyouts; why not in the main list? The arrows are useful, though.

I'm guessing that they've used Google's free search and that's why they have the library/web option for the search box, but why the hell would I want to use this cumbersome page to search the web when I have Google in my toolbar? I'm here for the library info. I think this search box should be elsewhere on the page, but the trick is to distinguish it from the catalog search.