Comments on: Bathrooms and Lightswitches http://www.davidleeking.com/2009/08/22/bathrooms-and-lightswitches/ David Lee King is the Digital Branch & Services Manager at the Topeka & Shawnee County Public Library, where he plans, implements, and experiments with emerging technology trends. He has spoken in the U.S. and Canada about emerging trends, website usability and management, digital experience planning, and managing techie staff, and has been published in many library-related journals. David writes the Internet Spotlight column in Public Libraries Magazine with Michael Porter. David maintains a blog at http://www.davidleeking.com Thu, 09 Feb 2012 15:38:00 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: academic liberrian http://www.davidleeking.com/2009/08/22/bathrooms-and-lightswitches/comment-page-1/#comment-22359 academic liberrian Sun, 23 Aug 2009 03:09:15 +0000 http://www.davidleeking.com/?p=1256#comment-22359 Bathroom signage can be actively annoying especially when they try to be cute and have pictorial representations for men and women. An Egyptian-themed movie theater I used to go to had artistic silhouettes on the doors. In ancient Egyptian art, everyone wears skirts! Very confusing! "Dont' make me think" indeed. But I like the analogy for most library websites. I don't go to restaurants to use the bathroom (well there have been exceptions!) - I go for the content, ie, the meal. The same is true with lightswitches - I am interested in the content of the room, not the tool that helps me navigate the room. I think often we get very attached to our site, hoping patrons will love for its own sake. I remember when the idea of "sticky" sites came out in the late 90s, wondering why this was supposed to be a good thing outside of ecommerce or ad-driven sites. I don't want our site to be sticky, I want it to be bouncy. I want our top click path to be no more than two clicks - home, 2nd level page, and hopefully out to the thing they wanted to get to. Now I'm off to contemplate a bouncy bathroom light switch. Bathroom signage can be actively annoying especially when they try to be cute and have pictorial representations for men and women. An Egyptian-themed movie theater I used to go to had artistic silhouettes on the doors. In ancient Egyptian art, everyone wears skirts! Very confusing! “Dont’ make me think” indeed.

But I like the analogy for most library websites. I don’t go to restaurants to use the bathroom (well there have been exceptions!) – I go for the content, ie, the meal. The same is true with lightswitches – I am interested in the content of the room, not the tool that helps me navigate the room. I think often we get very attached to our site, hoping patrons will love for its own sake. I remember when the idea of “sticky” sites came out in the late 90s, wondering why this was supposed to be a good thing outside of ecommerce or ad-driven sites. I don’t want our site to be sticky, I want it to be bouncy. I want our top click path to be no more than two clicks – home, 2nd level page, and hopefully out to the thing they wanted to get to. Now I’m off to contemplate a bouncy bathroom light switch.

]]> By: academic liberrian http://www.davidleeking.com/2009/08/22/bathrooms-and-lightswitches/comment-page-1/#comment-27174 academic liberrian Sun, 23 Aug 2009 03:09:00 +0000 http://www.davidleeking.com/?p=1256#comment-27174 Bathroom signage can be actively annoying especially when they try to be cute and have pictorial representations for men and women. An Egyptian-themed movie theater I used to go to had artistic silhouettes on the doors. In ancient Egyptian art, everyone wears skirts! Very confusing! "Dont' make me think" indeed. But I like the analogy for most library websites. I don't go to restaurants to use the bathroom (well there have been exceptions!) - I go for the content, ie, the meal. The same is true with lightswitches - I am interested in the content of the room, not the tool that helps me navigate the room. I think often we get very attached to our site, hoping patrons will love for its own sake. I remember when the idea of "sticky" sites came out in the late 90s, wondering why this was supposed to be a good thing outside of ecommerce or ad-driven sites. I don't want our site to be sticky, I want it to be bouncy. I want our top click path to be no more than two clicks - home, 2nd level page, and hopefully out to the thing they wanted to get to. Now I'm off to contemplate a bouncy bathroom light switch. Bathroom signage can be actively annoying especially when they try to be cute and have pictorial representations for men and women. An Egyptian-themed movie theater I used to go to had artistic silhouettes on the doors. In ancient Egyptian art, everyone wears skirts! Very confusing! “Dont’ make me think” indeed.

But I like the analogy for most library websites. I don’t go to restaurants to use the bathroom (well there have been exceptions!) – I go for the content, ie, the meal. The same is true with lightswitches – I am interested in the content of the room, not the tool that helps me navigate the room. I think often we get very attached to our site, hoping patrons will love for its own sake. I remember when the idea of “sticky” sites came out in the late 90s, wondering why this was supposed to be a good thing outside of ecommerce or ad-driven sites. I don’t want our site to be sticky, I want it to be bouncy. I want our top click path to be no more than two clicks – home, 2nd level page, and hopefully out to the thing they wanted to get to. Now I’m off to contemplate a bouncy bathroom light switch.

]]> By: Brian Herzog http://www.davidleeking.com/2009/08/22/bathrooms-and-lightswitches/comment-page-1/#comment-22353 Brian Herzog Sat, 22 Aug 2009 19:04:43 +0000 http://www.davidleeking.com/?p=1256#comment-22353 When I moved from the Midwest to New England, I was surprised to learn (the hard way) that light switches are on the <em>outside</em> of the bathroom. As you say, websites have to go the opposite direction from this regional quirkiness - they have to work for everyone regardless of where in the world they are, what browser they're using, or what device they're using. We can't expect patrons to get into our website, close the door, fumble around in the dark for a little while, open the door, come back outside, and <em>then</em> find what they're looking for. I like the "don't get in the patron's way" mantra. Web designers have to be humble - a library's website is for the patrons, not for you. When I moved from the Midwest to New England, I was surprised to learn (the hard way) that light switches are on the outside of the bathroom. As you say, websites have to go the opposite direction from this regional quirkiness – they have to work for everyone regardless of where in the world they are, what browser they’re using, or what device they’re using.

We can’t expect patrons to get into our website, close the door, fumble around in the dark for a little while, open the door, come back outside, and then find what they’re looking for. I like the “don’t get in the patron’s way” mantra. Web designers have to be humble – a library’s website is for the patrons, not for you.

]]> By: Brian Herzog http://www.davidleeking.com/2009/08/22/bathrooms-and-lightswitches/comment-page-1/#comment-27173 Brian Herzog Sat, 22 Aug 2009 19:04:00 +0000 http://www.davidleeking.com/?p=1256#comment-27173 When I moved from the Midwest to New England, I was surprised to learn (the hard way) that light switches are on the <em>outside</em> of the bathroom. As you say, websites have to go the opposite direction from this regional quirkiness - they have to work for everyone regardless of where in the world they are, what browser they're using, or what device they're using. We can't expect patrons to get into our website, close the door, fumble around in the dark for a little while, open the door, come back outside, and <em>then</em> find what they're looking for. I like the "don't get in the patron's way" mantra. Web designers have to be humble - a library's website is for the patrons, not for you. When I moved from the Midwest to New England, I was surprised to learn (the hard way) that light switches are on the outside of the bathroom. As you say, websites have to go the opposite direction from this regional quirkiness – they have to work for everyone regardless of where in the world they are, what browser they’re using, or what device they’re using.

We can’t expect patrons to get into our website, close the door, fumble around in the dark for a little while, open the door, come back outside, and then find what they’re looking for. I like the “don’t get in the patron’s way” mantra. Web designers have to be humble – a library’s website is for the patrons, not for you.

]]>