Where am I?
The Hartford pages, on the other hand, are very confusing because they do not indicate where you are in relation to the rest of the site. One example is when you go to the adult services page and then to the immigrant services page, there's no way of telling you where you are in relation to the home page or the adult page.
Where can I go . . . how do I know?
Titles and Headings:
The Hartford website is inconsistent and confusing in its page titles and headings. The page title sometimes changes from "Hartford Public Library" to a more specific name, but not always.
The "buttons" on the homepage are confusing because they appear to each be one option, but items within them are all different links. For example:
A user would probably see the visual effect of a button and assume it was one link, not multiple links within the button.
The New Brunswick pages all change title and have a heading at the top (see screenshot in previous bullet point) consistent with the link to them from the homepage. The page headings do not stand out, however, because they are very small.
Menus:
Hartford has a menu on the left, a menu on the top, and a block of menu "buttons" taking up most of the page. The top and right menus repeat on some of the other pages, but it is very inconsistent. The "buttons" seem to be random in their repetition. Note the repetition of menu options in the different menus I've placed next to eachother below:
Links such as the HartfordInfo lead onto a completely different website even though they appear the same way as the internal links. This is also confusing.
New Brunswick also has repetition in its menus. There is a bar across the top, a smaller bar below it, and a "how do I..." drop down menu also on the top. On the left side, there is a colorful menu that contains links to broader areas of the website:
The menu on the left changes into a sub-page menu when you go to pages such as "about us."
The drop down menu is probably one of the most useful ones for users with a quick question because it serves as a sort of FAQ that leads the user to the area of the site that will give them the answer.
The left menu is the most problematic because it sometimes opens a new window, but sometimes does not, and some pages, such as the Children's page are very inconsistent with the navigation of the rest of the site. For example, on that page, "home" refers to the main Children's page, and in order to get back to the main page you must click "library page" at the bottom of the list.
Terminology:
As stated in our "audience" section, the New Brunswick site seems to have more user-friendly terminology. On the other hand, there are several vague elements on the New Brunswick page. For example, there is an "online resources" link and a "links" link. These could be confusing for users who might not understand from their names that these pages contain online databases the library pays for, and links to the free web, respectively.
On the Hartford site, options such as "branching out" and "the big read" don't make any sense until you click them and read about what they are. A short explanation below the link would be helpful.
How can I get back?
On the Hartford site, all internal pages have a clickable Hartford Public Library logo at the top that returns the user to the home page. There is not, however, any way to get back only one layer to a sub-page. In addition, when a link opens in a new browser window, returning to the home page becomes all the more confusing.
On the New Brunswick page, four of the six left menu options open a new window, creating a similar problem to that on the Hartford pages. On the other pages, however, a location bar helps you figure out how to go back one or two layers. The top menu is also constant on most pages, which allows the user to go "home" at any time.
Searching:
Both libraries use the Google page search and have it located on their home pages:
One big problem with the Hartford search was that it defaulted to a www search rather than a site search, which could definitely throw users off. I searched for "renew" and "time magazine" on both sites and neither of them resulted in relevant hits. This means that the search will probably not be useful to a user wanting a quick answer. They'll have to wade through the menus to find it.
On the other hand, the page titles on both sites are clear enough that when you search Google for "Hartford Library" or "New Brunswick Library" each homepage, respectively, is the top hit.
So, a user can get to the main page, but after that they must browse because the page search is not effective.