Reference at Newman Library

Year: 2016

New Databases Page

On Thursday, July 7, we’ll be launching a moderately redesigned databases page. The most notable change is that the Databases by Name page and the Databases by Subject page will all be on one guide, which simplifies navigation for the user and makes it easier for us to manage the links. With this simplified navigation, it no longer makes sense to provide two different links in the yellow search box (Databases by Name and Databases by Subject). Instead, the search box will feature a single link labeled “Databases.”

The list of subjects on the “databases by subject” section of the new page also features a new design element. Instead of offering an alphabetical list of subjects, they are now chunked into groupings:

  • Business & Economics
  • Humanities & Social Sciences
  • Ethnic & Gender Studies
  • Science & Technology
  • General & Reference

This new design was tested with users by our UX designer, Holly Dowell, and me in May. We found that users had few problems finding a relevant set of databases for a given subject or finding a specific database from the A-Z listings. We did add some additional elements to the design based on comments from our tests, though, such as better header labels on each tab in the A-Z listings and putting each letter’s list in it’s own clearly delineated box.

The decision to simplify the database links in the yellow search box came out of Google Analytics data that showed that the “Databases by Subject” link was clicked far less than the “Databases by Name” link, so much so that removing it was worth doing if only to make the remaining “Databases” link label even more visible on the search bar.

Please share with us any feedback you have or that you hear from our users about this new databases page.

Adwords Update in OneSearch Is Completed

Thanks to everyone who offered suggestions for search queries in OneSearch that trigger Adwords messages above search results. We’ve now customized OneSearch so that these messages appear (with relevant links) for:

  • The name of any of databases (and old names or misspellings).  Also, the link now takes you straight to the database instead of just the A-Z databases page)
  • The names (full and abbreviated) of the most commonly searched for periodicals (e.g., Harvard Business Review, New York Times, Wall Street Journal)
  • Popular services and frequently searched for policy info (laptops, graphing calculators, clickers, fees, fines, etc.)
  • Types of information where we might really want the user to see one of our research guides instead (SWOT, Porter’s 5 factors, financial info, etc.)

With the release of the revised search bar in the coming months, we should see fewer misdirected searches in OneSearch (i.e., people trying to find a link to JSTOR). This fall, Holly Dowell (our UX designer) and I will take a closer look at wording of these Adwords messages to see if we can improve on syntax of them and boost the likelihood that they get noticed and acted on.

If you have any more suggestions for queries in OneSearch that should trigger an Adwords message, please let me know. I intend to periodically update the system anyway just to keep up with the ever-changing names of our databases.