For the purposes of testing the three websites, I used an Android phone with Chrome’s mobile browser that supports responsive web design and investigated their collaboration and social networking elements.
University of Queensland Library (UQL)
The UQL website allows conversation with its patrons through the online chat option and a separate “Ask Us” link in the top navigation with contact information for phone, email and additional options. Other ways to connect with UQL are via:
- Blog
- YouTube
In terms of usability the mobile view displays the information in a single column presentation. This is important for clients with print, mobility or processing disabilities to focus the content of the page (W3C.org, 2017).
I question the positioning of the anchored chat element at the bottom right of the screen, the space which most right-handed users use to scroll. This could cause interference or accidental activation of the chat function.
ABC News
ABC News is easily accessible for users on mobile. Like the UQ website the mobile version is displayed in a single column view with the navigation options at the top of the page, making it easier for the user to read the content. There is no comment section on articles, but you can share through multiple social avenues. The following links to social media are at the bottom of the page:
- YouTube
Trove
The layout of Trove is not very responsive. To read the content, you need to zoom in which causes two-way scrolling (horizontal and vertical). Even landscape mode does not improve the readability of the page. Under the aforementioned W3C standards, the layout for this website would not pass Level A standard. It makes its content inaccessible, for example for a person with print disabilities and dexterity issues (W3C.org, 2017).
However, Trove offers multiple methods to communicate and collaborate, including links to Facebook and Twitter. Additionally, there are options to create content on community projects, such as tagging of images, revisions of the Optical Character Recognition of newspaper articles and an overview of recent comments (Trove, n.d.).
All three sites show different level of accessibility on a mobile device and the provision of access to their social media platforms, although the ABC and UQ Library’s homepage present their content more successfully than Trove. Trove’s strong point is the ways of collaborating with its user base. As illustrated by Decker, social networking applications can be a effective way to engage library users to collaborate as a community (Decker, 2019).
References
Decker, E. N. (2019). Twitter. In Verishagen, N. (2019). Social media : The academic library perspective. doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-08-102409-6.00007-9
Trove. (n.d.). Trove homepage. Retrieved from https://trove.nla.gov.au/
W3c.org. (2017). Reflow to single column. Retrieved from https://www.w3.org/WAI/GL/low-vision-a11y-tf/wiki/Reflow_to_Single_Column