Website Redesign: Milford Public Library
Website Redesign
Very few communities are not touched by a public library. In fact, libraries serve 96.4 percent of the U.S. population. According to the American Library Association, there are an estimated 117,341 libraries of all kinds in the United States today.
Architecture in U.S. cities ranges from jaw-dropping modernist masterpieces to historic gems hidden on side streets. One category of Instagram-worthy architecture is our country’s libraries. We can also draw inspiration for website design from the library’s architectural aesthetic.
The Milford Public Library, like many Connecticut public works projects in the 1960s and 1970s, resembles Brutalist architecture, a style that emerged in the 1950s among the reconstruction projects of the post-war era. Brutalist buildings are characterized by minimalist constructions that showcase the bare building materials and structural elements over decorative design. The mission of the Milford Public Library is to inspire learning and discovery through individual growth and community connections in an engaging and welcoming environment.
The Process
Moodboard, Color Palette, Site Map, Wireframes
Tools used: Adobe Illustrator, Adobe InDesign, Canva
Moodboard
Color Palette
Site Map
Wire Frames
Creating a moodboard is a fun and creative way to define your personal style and bring your design ideas to life. Whether you’re designing a room in your home, planning a renovation, or working on a creative project, a moodboard will help you crystallize and communicate your vision.
A moodboard is a visual tool that helps you communicate your design concepts and ideas. It’s a curated collection of images, materials, color palettes, text, and other elements that are arranged to evoke a particular style or feeling
Color theory is the collection of rules and guidelines which designers use to communicate with users through appealing color schemes in visual interfaces. The most crucial aspect of color theory is color harmony, referring to the use of color combinations that are visually pleasing for the human eye. When used correctly, color palettes form the visual foundation of your brand, help to maintain consistency, and make your user interface aesthetically pleasing and enjoyable to use.
The Milford Public Library did not have a logo on the website that I could draw a color palette from. So, I decided on using photos from the Moodboard to generate a palette. As I was experimenting with different color combinations, I created a new logo to see if the colors were harmonious. I came up with a simplistic color theme representing growth, balance, and warmth.
A sitemap is a document that provides information about different pages and elements on the website and their relationships. It is essential to show the informational hierarchy in your site map with font size, weight and cell color, outline, fill, and size. Sitemapping helps search engines like Google and Bing make sense of your site’s pages and index the stuff that matters most.
Library websites are challenged in a unique way because they are content heavy sites that need to be made so simple that the user is not overwhelmed with information. An effective way to do this is by deciding what content is the most important, which lends itself to the library’s catalog, events, digital services (such as ebooks) and new titles. The header should also be kept minimal and only repeat a few necessary components in the footer.
A wireframe usually represents the initial product concept. Styling, color, and graphics are kept to a minimum. A wireframe is usually the initial iteration of a webpage, used as a jumping-off point for the product’s design. Wireframes should directly correspond with the site map.