Home News Library website update: New dropdown menus to launch February 20

Library website update: New dropdown menus to launch February 20

February 11, 2015 - 1:51pm by Andy Hickner

More changes are coming to the Medical Library website on February 20, when we plan to update our main navigation menu.

"But," I hear you ask, "what IS this menu you refer to?"  This menu is what you see in the block box in the image below - or, if you look above this post, the links in the orange bar.

During the process of redesigning the library's homepage, we began to identify additional opportunities to improve this menu, thereby making it easier for users to navigate the entire library website.  We tested a revised menu with a small series of users earlier this month, and used their feedback to further refine the new menu.

You can preview the new menu here (visible on the Yale network only). 

Key proposed changes include:

  • New labeling:  The "Find" section is now labeled "Databases, Articles, & Books" in order to better convey exactly what content users will find in this section.  Likewise, "Computing & Technology Support" has been re-labeled "Library Technology."
  • New sections: "Tutorials & Guides," "Research Help, & "Library Technology" are intended to help users more quickly locate popular pages on the library website.
  • New links:   We used Google Analytics data about what pages are most used to add popular links to nearly every section.  For example, you'll find a new link to the "Citation management" LibGuide under "Tutorials & Guides" to make it easier to access tools like Refworks and Endnote Web.   
  • Re-organized content:  Some of the content previously found under "Portals" has been moved to other sections; for example, the Evidence-Based Practice guide is now linked under Tutorials & Guides, and most of the old (lengthy) Services list has been re-allocated under "Research Help" or "Library Technology."

The new navigation menu will launch the evening of Friday, February 20 in order to minimize inconvenience to users.  I will post additional reminders late next week.

Please contact me directly with any questions, suggestions or concerns, or if you just can't find something in the new menu.