The new UM Libraries website is ready for a preview. Come take a test drive.

As our website redesign project moves forward, we explored a new way to get design feedback from library staff. By taking advantage of an existing library social event, we were able to gather useful feedback using a simple, low-stakes method.

A design sprint is a week-long exercise where designers and non-designers get together to define, prototype and ideally solve a problem. A mini design sprint is what we are calling a new UX activity we have been trying out this semester. Find out more about what we have been doing.

When you look at the UM Libraries (UML) homepage, you may not realize all the components at work behind the scenes. At first glance, you probably notice a nice, big search box that is used to find library materials, a header filled with buttons that help you navigate to other pages, the scrolling thumbnail images and headlines near the footer, to name few. What you don't see are the several instances of WordPress, a tool to create blog posts and pages, that power the UML site.

One of our initial activities at the beginning of the discovery phase of our website redesign was to analyze the numbers behind our visitors and observe their activity on the website. We reviewed Google Analytics for Fiscal Year 2016 (June 1, 2015 to May 31, 2016) to get a recent snapshot, as well as Google Search Console which allowed us to see top search terms.