Ottawa Public Library
bv02 helped the Ottawa Public Library transform their site into an informative, accessible and innovative platform.
Since the amalgamation of the City of Ottawa in 2001, the Ottawa Public Library (OPL) has become the largest public bilingual English-French library in North America, with 33 branches servicing well over a million people. In 2013, the Library recognized a need to update its website with new design and functionality elements, in order to continue to service the needs of this audience and address increased interest in the site. OPL worked with bv02 to bring this redesign to life.
From the outset, OPL brought clearly defined priorities to this initiative. The main objectives being, to offer users better access to the Library’s content, to showcase what the website has to offer as a service hub, and to make better connections with library staff. Through research and strategy sessions, bv02 developed recommendations to improve the website and catalogue integration, including menu standardization and usability suggestions for the integration of third-party applications. bv02’s UX and Strategy teams reviewed the existing OPL site architecture and existing Bibliocommons integrations, which led to a working session to define and deliver user experience and information architecture improvements.
bv02’s user experience and design team utilized the developed interface strategy to map out the redesign of the website. We created an accessible, responsive website that offers a visually pleasing and consistent display regardless of the platform the user is accessing the site from (desktop, mobile or other device). From design, we moved into the upgrade and migration of their current site into the new Drupal 7.0 framework, and integrating the design within templates. Since launching in early 2014, the site has garnered favourable reviews from users, and was the recipient of several W3 awards, including Gold for User Experience.
Through the site’s clear content structure and the integration of easily accessible contact forms on appropriate pages, bv02 helped the Ottawa Public Library transform their site into an informative and innovative platform that is achieving their goals of easily accessing content, showcasing news and events, interacting with visitors and staff, and measuring site usage.
