Internet Librarian 2017, Monterey, CA

1. Content and Features Reno: Less is More
Internet Librarian 2017
October 23 – Monterey, CA
Charlie Morris
Lead Web Developer
Discovery, Access and Web Services
Penn State University Libraries
Twitter: @cdmo
cdmorris@psu.edu

2. Quick Outline
• About Penn State
• Why more can be a problem
• The problem faced
• Goals of the project
• Development perspective
• Content work
• Finished product

3. Photo Credit: Penn State News

5. That’s a lot

6. “A lot” can be a
problem

7. “Information
Overload”

8. Old conventional wisdom:
“Information Density”
•Quality of a site is measured in the amount
of information per screen pixel (Edward
Tufte)

9. The “portal plague”
“Portals, as you may know, are the
most deadly plague of the global
web…
... (the) path of survival in the 21st
century is clear and ahead; be like
Google. Simple, unobtrusive,
serving and humble”
-Philipp Lenssen 2003
http://blogoscoped.com/archive/2003_08_01_index.html

10. “To gain several minutes of user
attention, you must clearly communicate
your value proposition within 10
seconds.”
-Jakob Nielsen
https://www.nngroup.com/articles/how-long-do-users-stay-on-web-pages/

11. Where “a lot” was
too much

12. Platform and Redesign Project Before
• 10,000+ pages
• Hundreds of authors
• Public and staff-only
content mixed
• Little-to-no content
oversight
•Proprietary Java-based
content management
system
•Unstructured content
•Outdated/cluttered look

13. Migration Plan
• Rolling migration • 18 months
• Team:
• 3 developers
• 1 content migrator
• 2 project managers
• 1.5 system administrators

14. 1. Move into
Minimalist
Design
2. Adopt a front
end
framework
3. Re-align with
university
style
guidelines

15. 4. Improve
page speed

16. Src: https://www.programmableweb.com/news/cope-create-once-publish-everywhere/2009/10/13
5. Structured
content (one
source)

17. Project Management: Less is More
See https://gettingreal.37signals.com

18. "Always implement things when you actually need them, never when you just
foresee that you need them."
Src: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/You_aren%27t_gonna_need_it

19. Project Management Approach
1. Project one-pagers for all web development features (YAGNI…)
2. Non IT department “product owner” for decision-making
3. Explain technical options clearly
4. Lo-fi wireframes
5. Demo often
6. ”Iterate” on design and improvements

20. See https://www.slideshare.net/tsierra/the-projectonepager

21. One Pager (Project Brief)
• Project Name
• One line description
• Requirements
• Out of Scope
• Team
• Schedule

22. One Pagers
Pro
• Trim wasted time in planning
docs that aren’t useful
• Especially with out of scope:
address any predicted points of
conflict and scope creep
Con
• Agreed on terms aren’t always
the same in everyone’s head
• Difficult to determine when
needed – what is a project?

23. Features and Functionality List
• Hours of Operation
• Alerts
• Homepage Feature
• Scholarly Database API
Consumption
• Separate Staff Site with it’s own
custom theme and features
• LibGuides API Integration
• Staff Directory
• Custom Theme
• Computer Availability API
Integration
• Custom Content Workflow
System

24. Features and Functionality List
• Hours of Operation
• Alerts
• Homepage Feature
• Scholarly Database API
Consumption
• Separate Staff Site with it’s own
custom theme and features
• LibGuides API Integration
• Staff Directory
• Custom Theme
• Computer Availability API
Integration
• Custom Content Workflow
System
Occam’s Meat Cleaver
Image source: https://pixabay.com/en/cleaver-halloween-fear-knife-1756677/

25. Out of Scope’d
• Geolocation
• Web Service Endpoint creation
• QR codes
• Too many email triggers
• Personalization
• Over-integration of systems
• Semantic web work
• “Chasing Tech”

26. Taking a hard look at content

28. This was the hardest part

29. Audit, Filter, Place
• Separation of internal and external content
• Integrate disparate content into user centered menu
no one knows what an Access Services department is
• Update/adjust content as needed
• Eliminate ROT (redundant, outdated, trivial)

30. “No Workflow” Workflow
• Trained author team
• After-the-fact review
• One source as much as possible

31. The Finished Product

33. Alerts
Hours
Homepage feature

36. Updated navigation
Computer Availability

39. More work for less
• Usability studies
• Homepage updates
• Main landing page updates
• Better interface for research options for students
• The never-ending challenge of serving so many campuses across the
state in one place
How can we do less better?

40. “What I'd like to suggest is a different
approach. Instead of one-upping, try one-
downing. Instead of outdoing, try
underdoing. Do less than your competitors to
beat them.”
-37signals (makers of Basecamp, Ruby on Rails)