The team at Clinton-Macomb Public Library considered a variety of open-source technologies when designing their new site (launched June 1, 2009), but ultimately decided that those content management systems did not provide enough flexibility in interface design.

The in-house team coordinated a 9-month redesign that utilizes a variety of widgets (such as IM and Bookletters content), database programming, and RSS feeds to pipe new information into the site.

Using iframes, the team created a seamless transition from the main portion of the site to the online catalog, marrying the two together in look and feel.

Committed to utilizing usability research in their design, the team at Clinton-Macomb redesigned the information archtitecture of the site based on extensive card-sorting exercises with over 300 patrons. The result is a tabbed-navigation design based on the most common categories patrons expected to see on a library website. The team also conducted over 15 usability tests to confirm their interface design was executed well.