Overdrive Redesign

[4691mls]

Originally Posted by xendula

Does it really matter that two libraries share the same acronym?!

Brooklyn uses BPL all over its site as well.

Yeah, given that we are dealing with libraries all over the US, there are bound to be some with the same or similar acronyms.

The same thing happens with universities - where I live, ASU means Appalachian State University; for people in other parts of the US, ASU would bring to mind Arizona State University, Arkansas State University, or any of several other schools that turn up on a google search for ASU.

So I don't think we should assume that a certain acronym means one specific library only.

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by 4691mls

The same thing happens with universities - where I live, ASU means Appalachian State University; for people in other parts of the US, ASU would bring to mind Arizona State University, Arkansas State University, or any of several other schools that turn up on a google search for ASU.

Of course BSU can only mean Banana State University and MSU means Monkey State University. All others are pretenders.

[4691mls]

Originally Posted by tubemonkey

Of course BSU can only mean Banana State University and MSU means Monkey State University. All others are pretenders.

When I was in college, BSU was Baptist Student Union maybe they ate bananas

Back to the subject of the thread, I was interested to see the Telewread writer posting here. I hope she'll report back once she has sent her comments to Overdrive.

[Blossom]

Overdrive for fixing the Wishlist issue. It now works like it should. I love I no longer have to wait for the page reload now as well. It makes it so much easy to keep a wishlist!

Now please fix the checkout count not updating in the little popup as I check out my books.

[terendel]

Originally Posted by 4691mls

Back to the subject of the thread, I was interested to see the Telewread writer posting here. I hope she'll report back once she has sent her comments to Overdrive.

No worries. I will. I'm emailing them on Monday, and I will keep you all posted.

If anyone else wants to give me feedback on the issues I listed above, let me know by tomorrow, and I'll include everything in my email on Monday.

[xendula]

Originally Posted by terendel

I'm Juli Monroe, and I'm a writer for TeleRead. Dan asked me to cover this story, and I'm gathering information to send off an email to Mike as a "reporter from TeleRead." No promises that he'll listen to me, but I'll give it a go.

Sorry for taking so long to get to this. Dan emailed me right as I was leaving for a conference, and I just got back.

I've skimmed through the entire thread and played around with the new system at my library (Fairfax County), and I basically agree that the new interface isn't great.

I've made a list of what seemed like the biggest complaints from the thread. Did I get it right? Am I missing something? Has anything from this list been corrected?

1. General hate for thumbnail view and "squashed" book information.
2. Wish list page that allows easy removal, hold requests and checkout
3. Return to the bookbag
4. While browsing, easy links for accessing hold requests, wish lists, bookbag and item on loan
5. More visual indication of a book's availability, especially in what format (so you don't accidentally check out and audio version when what you really wanted was Kindle)
6. Fewer click-throughs! (I completely agree with this. I miss seeing how many library copies are available on my Hold page.)
7. Search for "Add to Cart" on the Wishlist
8. Confirmation that returning a book that you checked out by mistake won't lock your account for "suspicious activity" (Never ran across that one, and I've done several same day returns. Lucky me!)
9. "Available now" to Wishlist filters
10. Going back to the Holds list from checkout instead of being directed to the bookshelf

Does that cover most of it?

I'll keep you posted, and let you know when the story is published.

Hi Juli,
Thank you so much for doing this!

I'd like to add:

• Get rid of the bent, top righ-hand corners of the book images - they make it impossile to read the book covers. What's the point of them?
  
• If they are going to default to the unchecked box for "remember me", could they at least leave it checked for the mobile view please?
  
• Add a "Classic View" button, so users can continue to see the better view
  
• From the browse view, show me:
  1. the entire title of the book
  2. the entire name of the author
  3. when it was released
  4. how many copies the library owns
  5. how many of those are available
  6. how many people are on the waiting list
  7. which formats are available
  8. (All of this is what was formerly available. Now, all we see for each book is half a book cover, half a book title, and half an author's name!!)
• Also from the browse view, let me check out the book, place it on hold, or add it to my wishlist.

Example: When browsing for SciFi/Fantasy on the Brooklyn site, ordered by "added to site", the old view shows me, for the first book, these options and info:

Book cover
The Inner City
by*Karen Heuler
Release date: Feb 15, 2013
Available copies:**0*(1 patron(s) on waiting list)
Library copies:**1** Pre-Release Title
Kindle Book - Place a Hold - Add to Wish List
Adobe EPUB eBook - Place a Hold - Add to Wish List

When browsing for SciFi/Fantasy on the Brooklyn site, the new view shows me, for the first book, NO options and this info:

Half a book cover
The Inne...
Karen Heu...

Are they serious?!

[edited to add: view is on iPad3 Safari browser]

[JSWolf]

Removing a book from the wishlist DOES work.

[Ripplinger]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Removing a book from the wishlist DOES work.

Works at my library also. I accidentally clicked the wishlist button instead of "more", and was able to unwishlist it without any hassles.

[pidgeon92]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Removing a book from the wishlist DOES work.

It seems to be working fine now at the Philly library. Last week it didn't work at all.

[Blossom]

Yeah they fixed the wishlist today. I was so happy.

Major bugs that need fix are:

• New Audiobooks still do not sort by added to site but by popular.
• Book check out total does not change on the pop up.
  I think this could be a multiple tabs issue.
• Adding holds to bookshelf you must login to add each hold.
• Books go to available now instead of Library collection by default

I experienced what I would think is a rare bug today. I was checking out a book on FLP and when I click the format box instead of a dropdown checkbox list it took me to the Send to Kindle page. I had to log into MYK page and return the book, then recheck it out as epub.

Other than that I am happy with the site.

[piper28]

Originally Posted by Blossom

Yeah they fixed the wishlist today. I was so happy.

Hmm, my wishlist has actually gone downhill. Everything on the wishlist when I click on it goes to a "The page you have requested does not exist". Kinda makes it tough to check books out.

[FizzyWater]

Originally Posted by xendula

Hi Juli,
Thank you so much for doing this!

I'd like to add:

• Get rid of the bent, top righ-hand corners of the book images - they make it impossile to read the book covers. What's the point of them?
  
• Add a "Classic View" button, so users can continue to see the better view
  

I agree that the "bent-corner" graphic often covers over the title and makes it harder to read the title at a glance.

There was a post on the Overdrive blog about how the fact that users were spending "more time" on the website was proof that it was a grand success - and I almost split my soda all over my computer screen!

I certain can't speak for all users, but *this* user spends more time on the site because they've given me less information at a glance than there used to be. I have to click through to learn more, if I'm interested. So having to spend "more time" on these sites is NOT a plus for me!

As an example, before when I searched for books, the results would show a SMALL thumbnail and a brief description/blurb from the publisher. I could scan the thumbnails, and if any interested me (or confused me), scan the blurb. As mentioned in the quoted post, they also had other quick info at a glance (number available and number carried by the library were the two I remember most).

I'd also like to see the publisher name more prominently than it is now. Overdrive has been buying more books from the small independents and...well...there's a lot of poorly edited crap out there. So that's one more click I have to do before I can make a value choice (and I might deem it worthwhile regardless, but I want to be forewarned).

**ADDED LATER: I forgot something - when you have more than 80 items on your Wishlist, initially it only displays those (that might depend on what your "per page" choice is - it could be lower if you choose 20 or 40). When you "click here" to see the rest of the Wish List it then makes the rest available. However, after you've scanned through the first page list and are at the bottom? No "next page" there. You have to scroll back to the top of the list to go the next page. Dumb.**

IMO, the new design is a step back. I remember when we bought our first computers and the screens were dinky small. Web designers were told to design for no more than 600x800 resolution to avoid make the user scroll around on the page.

My laptop now has a 19 inch screen, and I work on 22 inch screens (2 of them) at work.

The popularity of the tablets are pushing us back into those "small screen" days. This site probably would have been ideal for my first little Acer!

Anyway, I digress.

I think there are some things in the new design that - once I figured them out - were useful. The little bookmark to put a book on hold - rather than choosing to put the book on hold, then having a pop-up box open and have to be closed before you could review more books - is an improvement.

Like MANY websites and apps, the assumption is that people will just be able to KNOW how it works - and Overdrive has been guilty of this. Unless the "review the Overdrive Next Gen experience" video has improved since they first rolled this train-wreck out, many of the features weren't explained (e.g., the bookmarks and the little shaded book icon to show whether a title is available).

[4691mls]

Originally Posted by xendula

Hi Juli,
Thank you so much for doing this!

I'd like to add:

• Get rid of the bent, top righ-hand corners of the book images - they make it impossile to read the book covers. What's the point of them?
  
• If they are going to default to the unchecked box for "remember me", could they at least leave it checked for the mobile view please?
  
• Add a "Classic View" button, so users can continue to see the better view
  
• From the browse view, show me:
  1. the entire title of the book
  2. the entire name of the author
  3. when it was released
  4. how many copies the library owns
  5. how many of those are available
  6. how many people are on the waiting list
  7. which formats are available
  8. (All of this is what was formerly available. Now, all we see for each book is half a book cover, half a book title, and half an author's name!!)
• Also from the browse view, let me check out the book, place it on hold, or add it to my wishlist.

Example: When browsing for SciFi/Fantasy on the Brooklyn site, ordered by "added to site", the old view shows me, for the first book, these options and info:



When browsing for SciFi/Fantasy on the Brooklyn site, the new view shows me, for the first book, NO options and this info:



Are they serious?!

[edited to add: view is on iPad3 Safari browser]

The old browsing view also stated if the book was part of a series (it said something like "John Doe series, book 2" - I found that very helpful. Sometimes I've already finished a series, or decided I'm not interested in a series, and I could easily just keep scrolling past those.

[xendula]

Originally Posted by FizzyWater

There was a post on the Overdrive blog about how the fact that users were spending "more time" on the website was proof that it was a grand success - and I almost split my soda all over my computer screen!

I certain can't speak for all users, but *this* user spends more time on the site because they've given me less information at a glance than there used to be. I have to click through to learn more, if I'm interested. So having to spend "more time" on these sites is NOT a plus for me!

The same goes for *this* user. Spending more time to do exactly the same thing means they have their success metrics wrong. Unless they can show an increase in books borrowed per user, the increase in time is a draw-back.

Originally Posted by FizzyWater

As an example, before when I searched for books, the results would show a SMALL thumbnail

Thanks fortzhe reminder- I added that to my above post- completely forgot the thumbnail was also in the old view.

Originally Posted by FizzyWater

The popularity of the tablets are pushing us back into those "small screen" days. This site probably would have been ideal for my first little Acer!
....
many of the features weren't explained (e.g., the bookmarks and the little shaded book icon to show whether a title is available).

Dunno, but the design looks pretty horrible on my iPad3 and involves way too much scrolling and oversized images on the Nexus 7. What a mess!!

I had another look, and I don't even see a shaded shaded book icon. It may just not appear on tablets. They should have never designed the site.

[xendula]

Originally Posted by 4691mls

The old browsing view also stated if the book was part of a series (it said something like "John Doe series, book 2" - I found that very helpful. Sometimes I've already finished a series, or decided I'm not interested in a series, and I could easily just keep scrolling past those.

Shoot, I forgot that - I'll add it retrospectively!