As we move our OPACs away from character-based systems and into the world of Web interfaces, graphical user interface design becomes a hot topic. Typically, we have focused our efforts on building the inside of the catalog, not necessarily focusing on how information is displayed to the public or in what ways the public is accessing information from the catalog. This is changing as vendors give individual libraries greater control over designing how the catalog looks. There are lessons we can all learn in this area from the field of HCI, Human Computer Interface design. It sounds complicated, but is really very common sensical. Jeff Johnson lists eight basic principles to follow when designing an interface in his book GUI Bloopers: Don’ts and Do’s for Software Developers and Web Designers. These principles apply as well to the design of OPAC screens as they do to overall Web design.

Focus on the users and their tasks, not the technology. Although it seems that defining our clients is the easiest step, it is not always as obvious as it seems. The temptation is to simply say that we are a library, our clients are everyone. But an interface designed for everyone is useful to no one. Are you a firm, court or academic library? Will your users be primarily attorneys, students, faculty, judges, clerks or the public? What are the characteristics of your users? Your catalog should be designed neither for your users nor by them, but rather with them.

Consider function first, presentation later. It can be very easy to spend days debating which shade of cream the background color of your screens should be.

• Conform to the user’s view of the task
• Don’t complicate the user’s task
• Promote learning
• Deliver information, not just data
• Design for responsiveness
• Try it out on users, then fix it!