The Checklist
Accessibility
Tasks that will improve the accessibility of your guide
- Links are live (no broken links)
- Links are descriptive (users know where the link will lead them)
- Headings are used (H3, H4, H5) to show hierarchy
- Alt text for visuals is present and descriptive
- Embedded videos are still available
- Embedded videos have closed captioning/subtitles
- Jargon or words with specific meanings are defined at first use
- Lists of 4 or more are structured as bulleted (for unordered lists) or numbers (for ordered lists)
Discoverability
Metadata/description/discoverability type tasks
- Course guides are labelled consistently and categorized as such
- Unpublish or delete guides made for events that happened over 2 years ago
- Subject tags
- Update all IU spaces and services to current names
- Librarian name and contact information on main page
Accessibility
Accessibility
Tasks that will improve the accessibility of your guide
Links are live (no broken links)
Broken links increase frustration in users and decrease trust in the other resources linked on the guide
Links are descriptive (users know where the link will lead them)
Users don’t click links that they don’t know where it’ll take them, and screen readers can remove situational context when reading through the links on a page
Headings are used (H3, H4, H5) to show hierarchy
This improves scanability for users to find exactly the relevant information; this provides screen readers the structure that you might be visually signaling in less accessible ways
Alt text for visuals is present and descriptive
Allows for screen readers to convey the visual meaning, and this is an opportunity to clarify the purpose for including the visual materials
Embedded videos are still available
When embedding videos, those links can break or the video can be taken down. Ensuring they’re still there on your libguide shows that you’re keeping up with the quality.
Embedded videos have closed captioning/subtitles
This allows for deaf and hard of hearing people to access the information, and for users on the mobile site, the means they can access without headphones or disturbing those around them.
Jargon or words with specific meanings are defined at first use
Assume that first year students will be reading your guide. Few people have your level of expertise, and LibGuides with excess jargon can alienate novices from further exploring your work!
Lists of 4 or more are structured as bulleted (for unordered lists) or numbers (for ordered lists)
This makes your lists more readable visually, rather than getting lost in the commas. Use the formatted version rather than typing a dash or manually entering the number. This embeds the list into the HTML.
Discoverability
Discoverability
Metadata/description/discoverability type tasks
Course guides are labelled consistently and categorized as such
There are four types of guides
- Course Guides
- Topical/General Purpose Guides
- Research Guides
- Instructor Guides
This means finding all of your guides that are made for a specific course and follows the naming convention: Department Code followed by a space then subject code and three digit course code then a space and the course title.
Example course guide name: Business Writing taught at the Kelley School of Business is “BUS C204/205 Business Writing”
Unpublish or delete guides made for events that happened over 2 years ago
By doing this, you’re improving the discoverability of the current guides by hiding irrelevant information. This decreases the cognitive load required to locate your great work! If the content is still relevant, take off the temporal references. If the content is still relevant, consider keeping it up, but removing any temporal references!
Subject tags: Add relevant subjects to your libguide at the top.
This populates the guide into the relevant subjects when a user is searching or browsing by subject
Update all IU spaces and services to current names
This item improves discoverability of the resources in your guide. If you refer to Luddy as SICE, then newer students won’t know what you’re talking about and older faculty/staff will think the other information on the page is outdated and irrelevant.
Librarian name and contact on all pages
Adding your name and contact box has three main benefits: a name and face associated with the guide makes it more approachable since there’s a human element associated; a contact info tells users who to reach out to for support; you can get feedback on improvements to update the guide