Website Redesign Survival AM session

(wrote this yday - no free wi-fi outside of the conf rooms, so couldn't post, oh well...)
A little over 1/2 way thru the Web Manager's Academy at CIL2007. Excellent presentations by Jeff Wisniewski, Darlene Fichter, Frank Cervone & Marshall Breeding have thusfar touched on:

• User Experience & Design Matters
• Project Mgt for Redesign
• Content Management Systems
• Social Software: Blogs & Wikis

From these AM sessions, a few points have really resonated with me:

• The need to continually survey what your users are experiencing elsewhere on the web, because that's what sets their expectations (they really don't spend that much time on your library site, let's be honest, compared to the other web resources they're using)
• The importance of making your website visually appealing and "desirable". Usability, accessibility, heck, even quality content, are not enough to compel users to come to your site.
• The notion that simplicity in a website is not all that it's cracked up to be
• The crucial importance of a systematic project management approach to website redesign
• The importance of user-centered design, usability testing (more the practical vs. the focus group approach, since people will say one thing and do another) -- an evidence-based approach to website design removes the squabbling over fonts, colors, etc., which can be matters of personal opinion & can be very different among staff than among members of the public
• The importance, of course, of separating content from presentation

I'll do a few more posts detailing content from the day's presentations, so look for them

cil2007