What's Your Web Site's Personality?

Can you describe your web site's personality?  The Web Manager's Academy at Computers in Libraries 2011 distributed a handout based on William Slawski's blog post What Kind of Personality Does Your Website Have?  Based on each, here are a selection of questions to ask of your site.

FEEL

• Is it cold or warm and welcoming?
• Does it attempt to evoke emotions in visitors or persuade them with facts?
• Is it cooperative or competitive?
• Is it responsive to questions, to criticism, to praise?
• Is it more like a peer talking to you directly or like a parent lecturing you?

RELEVANCE

• Is it inviting for first time visitors?  Why?
• Does it provide reasons for people to return?  How?
• Does it change over time, of is it fixed and unchanging?

AUDIENCE

• Is it written for a male, female or general audience?
• Does it speak to a younger crowd or and older group?

DESIGN

• Is it innovative in scope or design?
• Is it innovative in what it offers?
• Is it graceful in design or practical in appearance?

FOCUS

• Is its focus upon the benefits it offers users?
• Is its focus on the features of the organization to which it belongs?

An eBook Epiphany

I have not jumped onto the eBook band wagon.  I like the look and feel and smell of “real” books.  My reading time is in bed at night, just before lights out.  My nightstand is filled with books in three stacks.  Beside the nightstand is a basket filled with books, and at the foot of my bed is an L. L. Bean canvas bag filled with books on their way to or from the public library.  eBooks don’t fit my reading style.  I like books all around. 

My epiphany came because of Computers in Libraries 2011. Commuting by Metro to the conference, I observed the reading habits of other commuters.  It was split about half between eBooks and “real” books. 

Usually I commute by car.   I hate driving and I hate traffic.  Living in the D.C. area gives me lots of time to hate both.  To help ease the stress, I listen to books on CD.

This morning watching a mid-aged woman on the Metro reading on her Kindle, I realized that if I had to use public transportation, eBooks would be for me.  They would enable me to carry my library with me in one small package.  

Right now, eBooks are not my lifestyle choice.  But I understand how and why they could be.