Summary of Our Evaluation:
Taking what we have learned in class and in our readings, we took a critical look at these two similarly-purposed websites and compared them in terms of Audience, Navigation/Functionality, and Visual Design.
New Brunswick’s site has a better look and feel to it, and uses some more user-friendly terminology, but it lacks in consistent branding and has occasionally confusing navigation. Hartford’s site brands each page rather well, but has often confusing navigation, and does not have a very appealing visual design.
Overall, we feel that the Hartford Public Library’s site does a rather poor job, and New Brunswick Free Public Library’s site is better but not great. (This jives with what Professor Garwood has said in our class about library websites lacking in quality.) We would recommend to both website administrators that they review the Williams’ site, CARP vs. CRAP, and Nielson’s alerts, as well as Library Terms That Users Understand.
