Designing Resources for Optimal Usage

Last week Clinical Key changed their interface and there was a big discussion about Clinical Key and how it works (or doesn’t) with Internet Explorer 8 & 9 on the Medlib-l listserv.  Basically the conversation fell into three categories. There was a general feeling that Elsevier did little to no testing of their website with hospital and other users. Lack of functionality with IE 8 & 9 seem to indicate they didn’t test it very well using those browsers. No A-Z alphabet listed for e-books and e-journals, so users have to wait for the entire list of e-books or e-journals to load and then scroll down to their title. Annoying, but not a big deal if your title begins with a C. But if you are J or another middle of the alphabet letter, it is worse than annoying. Changing the way e-journals display a title.  In the past they displayed the title, current issue and then listed past issues on the page.  This is no longer the case and it makes finding the past issues very difficult. (update 10/2/14: ejournals now display current and past issues.) Most hospitals are stuck using Internet Explorer and often old versions of the software. Many hospitals have legacy systems and are stuck on older operating systems which often dictate their browser software.  I know of one major hospital that has a goal of finally migrating to Windows 7 by Fall 2015. If hospitals are a part of your clientele then it is a business imperative to know what the majority operating s...
Source: The Krafty Librarian - Category: Databases & Libraries Authors: Tags: Databases Electronic Access Source Type: blogs