The Covid-19 pandemic has impacted the web presence of every institution. Libraries have made both major changes and minor tweaks to web elements. In some cases, entire web pages that typically would have taken weeks of planning, research, and testing before launch were published on an expedited schedule. But beyond an immediate urgency, can we explain why these changes were made? This session will present the design thinking principles that informed a university library's effort to highlight remote library services to students. This session will also stress the importance of documenting the rationale behind changes to identify critical elements and their contribution to an overarching, user-oriented goal.
Using the presenter’s experience preparing his university’s library website for remote services, the presenter plans to unveil how design thinking principles can expand a simple directive into a project to improve the remote user experience. This presentation will detail both cosmetic and interactive interventions that were employed at the beginning of the pandemic. The presenter will conclude with modifications made as a result of continual evaluation of site performance and usage at key points during the semester.