Databases are not cheap. I don't think I'm being greedy by suggesting improvement. Our students need stimulus. They like 3D. Dear Ebsco, please make 3D databases and supply us with 3D glasses (half joking).
Students like TMZ.com. They like ESPN. They like FMyLife.
Give us some color. How about some images? Show a little effort.
I randomly went through some databases and graded them based on whether or not they were visually appealing. This list is worst to best.
1. Art Full Text by Wilson Web.
Grade: D
Too much white space
Not enough color
No images
Boring font
It's a database for art resources. Make it artsy.
2. LexisNexis AcademicGrade: D
Not enough color
Too much white space
No images
Small text
Boring font
3. Academic Search Premier by EbscoGrade: C-
Too much white space
No images (although, they do show images on the results page)
Boring font
Ebsco does allow some options for changing the colors, but I haven't found any options to be appealing.
4. Credo Reference
Grade: C
Too much white space
Not enough color
Nice images
Nice logo
Improvement is needed.
5. Business Source Premier by EbscoGrade: B-
No images
Boring font
I like that Business Source Premier is somewhat unique from the other Ebsco databases, but improvement is needed.
So much more could be done in terms of icons and images. How easy is it to take a few photos representing industry or business settings?
6. JSTOR
Grade: B+
Great colors
Calming when students are panicking about their research
I love the JSTOR logo.
I think it could be improved with more images.
7. ProQuest Newstand
Grade: B+
Nice colors
Lacking images
I like the tabs.
There is room for improvement.
8. Hoovers
Grade: A-
Nice image & logo
I love the tabs
Nice color choices
It is fun yet professional
I am not a fan of the advertisement because when we instruct on website evaluation, we mention that high quality resources do not have ads. It's a magazine v. academic journal comparison.
(Yes, this is the library subscription version of Hoovers)
9. Points of View Reference Center by EbscoGrade: A-
This is the best that I have seen from Ebsco.
Decent image
Nice colors
Limited white space
I like the boxes.
Well organized
Memorable
10. ARTSTOR
Grade: A
Image
The colors are easy on the eye.
It's memorable.
Awesome font choices
Students will remember that they came here.
They'll want to come back for more.
11. GREENR by Gale
Grade: A
Awesome use of images
Limited usage of text
Fabulous color selection
Videos
Gale seems focused on web design. Read our Twitter conversations here.
It looks like a website. This is good because students are familiar with navigating websites. The thing that worries me is that librarians have to teach students about credibility differences between websites and databases. If databases start to look too much like websites, this will be more of a challenge for librarians. With that being said, I am willing to accept this challenge!
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7 comments:
I have to admit, when I read your first paragraph, I thought "As long as it's usable, what it looks like doesn't matter! Information is king!"
Then I scrolled through your screenshots. And guess which ones made me think "Oooh, that looks interesting, I should check that out!"
Hear, hear!
Quality of resources and usability are VERY important. "Don't judge a book by its cover"
I complain about the web design b/c we are constantly competing for the attention of students. It doesn't help our battle when these interfaces are horribly unattractive and not memorable. We want students to retain a visual memory of their experience with library resources. Maybe they'll come back again and again...
You think those are bad? Have you seen the British Education Index on Dialog? Shudder.
I have not seen the British Education Index. I went to the "free version" online, but I have a feeling that the subscription looks different. The "free version" was bad.
"...when we instruct on website evaluation, we mention that high quality resources do not have ads. It's a magazine v. academic journal comparison."
This stood out to me because I've been reading about the economics of open access journals lately, and one of the possible funding models (there are many) is advertising. In the absence of subscription & access fees something has to step into the gap, you know? But open access journals are unquestionably academic, and some are of very high quality.
(And, of course, there are high-quality web sites which have ads. Ars Technica is a pretty high-profile resource in some parts of the nerd world, and it's ad-supported (recent, interesting post on that here: http://arstechnica.com/business/news/2010/03/why-ad-blocking-is-devastating-to-the-sites-you-love.ars ). I can't think of a major newspaper web site that doesn't have ads (maybe WSJ, since so much of its content is behind a paywall? But NYT has ads and that's a highly important resource).
I think we will see more high-quality resources with ads as time goes on as well; people have such an expectation that content will be free, and one of the most obvious and straightforward ways to accomplish that is with ads. Saying that high-quality resources don't have ads seems to me tantamount to saying that high-quality resources can only have a particular set of business models (e.g. subscription, endowment, institutional sponsorship), which seems to allow only a handful of highly privileged entities to play the game.
I see how it's an easy mnemonic (and as a former middle school teacher I get that complex rules don't necessarily work, even if they're ultimately what's needed for critical thinking). But I don't think it's a good one.
Andromeda, I think the future will include more advertising on scholarly publications/databases. I think librarians need to adjust how we teach website evaluation.
I'm not excited about blurring the lines between scholarly and popular resources b/c it's a challenging issue for students. It's another challenge that librarians must tackle. Maybe advertising will bring the costs down for subscription databases? Right on with bringing up "critical thinking." <--- needs to be more of a focus in library instruction/info lit. I presented on that at a conference last fall, and I just realized that I never blogged about it! I'll try to post something soon.
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