Guidelines for Research Guides

• Organize around "actions" rather than types of resources
• Look at "guide overall" and "details" statistics to see if usage suggests possible improvements
• Repurpose content: create a box on one guide and link to it, or point to other guides
• Use bullets, images, and white space to break up text-heavy content.
• Teach "how" or "why" to use a resource, rather than list resources
• Focus on 3-5 top resources, but point to appropriate subjects in the databases list for more tools
• Re-use links and books already in the system.
• Use Link Checker on a monthly basis to check URLs

People don't read web pages like books. They tend to:

• Skim rather than reading word for word.
• Scan the tops and sides of the page rather than reading all the way down.
• Look for relevant information that will help them accomplish a given task.

You can make guides more user-friendly when you:

• Keep the amount of text on your page to a minimum.
• Limit use of bold, underlining, color, italics, and caps.
• Create subheadings, bulleted lists, or numbered lists to chunk information
• Use white space to create pages that are easier to scan
• Add images selectively to add interest, but avoid distracting from helpful content
• ​Eliminate jargon and use plain language that non-experts can understand
• Avoid language such as "NO" and "DO NOT". Use a conversational tone that is friendly and direct:
  • "Please log off when finished with this database"