Do you believe?

How much faith you do you put in what you read online? Not something like The Wall Street Journal online, but more like reviews of products. Do you tend to believe these reviews? Disregard most all of it?

I found myself looking online for new dinnerware. After twenty years, I thought it was time to purchase a new pattern in which to entertain myself during dinner! Went to some of the usual websites where dinnerware was sold to find patterns and prices and ended up at one site where customer reviews were provided. Found myself avidly reading their comments and making decisions in my head - "oh I should avoid this brand" but "this one looks pretty reliable based on all of the comments made." Now I did not know any of these commenters personally but it was a website I trusted.

Have been reading Neuro Web Design by Susan M. Weinschenk....her book talks about the psychology of clicking. Who would have thought........but her insights into why we do what we do on websites is quite interesting. She posits that if you know the commenter you have the most buy-in, if the website tells you a little about the commenter (e.g. soccer mom who loves to bake) then there is credibility but if there is no information other than a name, you are the the least influenced based on a rating only.

This post speaks to one of the features of our new website - reviews! It will allow you to post your opinion on any of our materials, much like the teensite does now. Will this influence what you place on hold? Are there websites with reviews which you use? Don't use? Why or why not?

I've got a hunch

To say that I've gotta hunch you're going to love our new website sounds........brazen! But when you look at other websites which are trying to sell products, ours looks pretty tame in comparison. We will be more forward in showing you our materials through presentation of covers and presenting more staff picks. How brazen or forward is this? Too much? Not enough? For a library website, I think we're going out on a limb - but you will have to let us know what you think.

Based on thinking about what we want when we, ourselves, don't really know try the new website called hunch. It takes you through some standard questions (of which you don't have to answer all or any of them) and uses your answers to build its database. You can query hunch when you are looking for an answer. Try "which character from Twilight am I?" if you're a Twilight fan or "which author should I read?" if you want something more general. Do you like these results?

The wheels are a'turning!

With lots of updates to report to you this Monday morning:

*search is ....well searching!
*we have a copy of the site on our server and are busily loading catalog records
*trying to pull over reading level with items
*getting the commenting function/feature in place
*the cart to place items you've found is now functioning

With these things in place, we'll soon be conducting inhouse testing to see how the site is functioning. Stay tuned; it is going to be sooner than later!

Gadgets

are you a gadget person? besides the interactive activities offered on websites, there are a host of gadgets in which to extend your online presence and virtual world of friends. i quizzed my kids to see what kinds of toys their high school friends had. a very few had iphones and a few more had the ipod touch in addition to their cell phone. why? to access the internet! they were comfortable using the two devices (and keeping track of them, i hope!).

i was reading an article about the use of gadgets as it relates to age. groan - does the age of your brain really make a difference in your interaction with your device? it seems so. while the study does not directly relate to website work, it does give pause for thought about how different aged people interact with a website, too!

use this blog to provide input about the device you just can't live without....the device you really want from Santa this winter or ~ on the flip side ~ the gadget you think should never have been invented!