A self-portrait: web designer
Ben Warren
The new-look homepage
A New-Look Website for the National Library
On 8 August the National Library launched a refreshed website. Web Content Manager Bobby Graham spoke to Ben Warren, Web Designer in the Web Publishing Branch, about his role as visual designer in the project:
What was your vision in redesigning the Library’s home page?
To design a clean, crisp and refreshing new look and feel. To bring the Library’s website in line with other aesthetically appealing websites—updating it to reflect today’s technologies and standards. To make the site more readable and easier to use—and with updated second-level templates, these improvements will extend well beyond the home page.
To assist users by making the site more readable, I chose larger, more legible headings, an updated layout and updated colour set, which provides a fresh feeling and clarity—I wanted something that wasn’t drab or dull like the last version of the site, as the Library actually does a lot of exciting stuff.
How did you consult with the users?
I designed the changes with best practice in mind and relied on feedback from the Library’s Website Committee. We engaged Stamford Interactive to conduct a user-centred website design project simultaneously with our visual redesign, and I was pleasantly surprised by the similarity between my design and their recommendations; we were clearly both heading in the same direction.
How big was the project? What were the risks involved?
The project was massive. Dealing with the website’s legacy content—which is information that’s to be moved from one format or system to another—made my work difficult; there’s so much legacy content using inconsistent styles and layouts across the site. What I had to do was develop a consistent look and feel across all these inconsistencies. Because of the sheer size of the site, there was always the risk of overlooking content buried, sometimes several directories down, in the site. It is an ongoing process to discover and update this content as we are made aware of such discrepancies.
How did you minimise the risk? Did you do everything all at once?
I worked in bite-sized pieces, not all at once. I worked sequentially, initially isolating styles and then creating new temporary styles. It was a big file location exercise: I had to discover and find the different files that contained style and layout information. We minimised the risks by testing the site and the update process on three different internal Library servers prior to publishing it.
What standards did you apply?
All new pages are based on valid XHTML templates that use CSS—cascading style sheets—for layout. This conforms to W3C Standards, set by the World Wide Web Consortium. A massive amount of legacy content still needs to be moved to the new templates, and this is an ongoing process.
What sort of skills did we need for this job? Were these available in-house?
My background is in graphic design and I’ve been designing commercial websites for the past seven years—this is what I do. The rest of the Web Publishing Branch was instrumental in the project and all played an integral part in making sure the deadlines were met.
How did you plan for the changes?
Basically, by working with the Website Committee: we set milestones and deadlines that we worked to and met. We communicated the changes to the Library community via the Web Coordinators and through other channels of communication, like newsletters. There was minimal downtime. We were able to manage the changes relatively hassle-free even though we were dealing with one massive behemoth of a website.
What changes are still required?
This is phase one, just getting the new look and feel down. The next big change will be the information architecture, and then we’re looking at investigating a new content management system for the site. This also will be another monumental undertaking.
Any other comments?
From the feedback we’ve had so far, the changes made are considered to be a substantial improvement over the old site. I want to continue to improve the site. Websites are constantly evolving. We want to make the website better for all users: a better online experience for everyone.
Bobby Graham
Web Content Manager, Web Publishing Branch



