The University Library website of the California State University, Stanislaus, provides resources for Stanislaus and San Joaquin counties and surrounding communities in the state. The university’s student population is 71 percent first generation, 67 percent female, and 62 percent Hispanic/Latino(a), thus making it a Hispanic Serving Institution (California State University, Stanislaus, 2023).

I conducted an assessment and study in the spring of 2020 to test the library website for its menu navigation design and its use of library terminology (Vargas Ochoa, 2020). Since then, the library website has aimed to provide accessible and user-friendly web pages, resources, and content. In 2024 the Federal Register published the Department of Justice’s final rule updating its regulations for Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act, requiring local and state governments to adhere to WCAG Version 2.1 level AA as the technical standard for accessibility in their websites (U.S. Department of Justice Civil Rights Division, 2024). Essentially, our library website must ensure that its content is accessible and meets technical standards, advancing the plan to improve the website’s overall usability for our students and campus community.

A library home page influences not only a student’s learning experience, but their perception of library resources and services and whether students will return to the library. In fall 2024, the library website had various elements on its home page:

library catalog

Organized and minimal spacing helps users navigate through the various promoted elements on the home page. If spacing is tight or scarce, the user may not know where to start finding information. Blank space, or minimal spacing, helps users identify key elements and highlighted content (Alonso-Virgós et al., 2019). Grouping related elements also creates a structure that directs users to certain elements based on priority. Having grouped elements with similar shapes, colors, or under the same section or heading provides clarity. Grouped elements positioned at the top or top-left areas of the home page are also areas that attract users’ attention, and designers should consider this when organizing and prioritizing content (Still, 2018).

Redesigning the library home page to improve accessibility and usability required grouping and restructuring elements, minimizing and resizing content, implementing simple aesthetics in relation to the organization’s theme, and ensuring the website continues to meet accessibility guidelines.

In addition to consulting the website’s analytics, I referred to recently published literature on website optimization and redesign, including Firth’s Practical Web Accessibility (2024), Still’s (2018) article on web page visual hierarchy, Khawaja’s (2023) article on accessibility and public libraries, and an article on web developers’ recommended usability guidelines (Alonso-Virgos et al., 2019). Following this, there were many modifications to make to the elements and contents on the library’s home page. I made significant changes in the grouping and positions of content and elements. For example, I grouped research-help links and reduced them from five links to three. I also eliminated quick links to library services based on their usage according to our website’s analytics.

In terms of visual design, I focused on the size of content, number of elements, and location on the page. I increased the font size and image size to improve usability. I reconfigured the structure of the home page by adding blank space to increase visibility of certain elements, giving users a visual break from the various sections and further highlighting elements. I removed links and text with little user interaction to provide a minimalist structure, and I enlarged other elements for visual clarity.

Fifteen students participated in the usability study. Students completed the usability study in an average of 20 minutes. I invited Disability Resource Services students, or students registered with disabilities, to participate; however, if they participated, their disability status was not recorded.

I implemented the redesign of the home page in January 2025, during the university’s academic break and before the start of the spring semester. I modified the prototype home page based on student feedback and suggestions for improvement and observations from the usability study. Figure 3 shows our previous homepage design. Figure 4 shows the redesigned homepage.

I minimized blank space on the prototype home page to reduce excessive space. At first I had significantly increased the font size of text headings on the prototype home page, but after the usability study I decreased them slightly, along with the size of buttons and content sections, specifically the gallery slideshow image size. Even so, the content sections remain bigger than the previous home page’s content sections. I implemented the university’s secondary colors, along with the primary colors, to add variety to the content. I added patterns to the button backgrounds for the content that was grouped by theme and separated by color to adhere to accessibility recommendations for users who do not see colors. I tested changes to the home page to ensure it was meeting WCAG AA guidelines for accessibility using accessibility checking tools previously mentioned. I checked content structure and order manually as recommended by accessibility tools. If users find an accessibility issue, they can submit a new form on the website’s footer.

To assess the engagement of the redesigned home page after the implementation, I compared the home page’s analytics using the platform Crazyegg, a heatmaps tool. Before implementing the redesign, the top three durations it took users to click on an element or link on the home page were:

1.5–2 seconds (16 percent of clicks)

A challenging aspect of the study was seeing how much students struggled with specific library terminology. Phrases like “library exhibits,” “materials request,” “course reserves,” and “featured databases” confused students. To complete tasks using these library terms, students used both the library website’s search function and an outside search tool as they sought to define the terms. Some students even searched for these terms using the library catalog.

For example , for the “featured databases” task, students clicked on the “all databases” link on the home page instead of scrolling down to view the featured databases section also on the home page. This behavior wasn’t unsuccessful, as the “all databases” web page also promoted featured databases; however, it wasn’t the expected way of accessing them, especially since they were testing the home page. Library terminology has been and will continue to be a barrier when it comes to patron engagement in library services and resources, especially when navigating content online (Guay et al., 2019). Adding icons and grouping elements can help students contextualize the terminology and better understand their meanings. To adhere to accessibility guidelines, the library website should also be mobile responsive. The current mobile version of the library website is user-friendly and accessible; however, it was not part of the usability study. For future studies, testing mobile screens will help note areas of improvement for the home page on smaller screens. Implementing a card sorting task will also be instrumental. Asking students to group elements on the home page will help library staff identify what library services and terminology users understand and are familiar with. This usability study demonstrated that our current students agreed with grouping similar elements together and removing unnecessary content to maintain a minimalistic approach. Although students preferred a home page with bigger elements and more colors, to ensure accessibility and usability, the size of the elements should not take up most of the standard computer screen size, and aesthetic features should be compatible with accessibility guidelines.