Description
Atomic was selected in late 2007 to complete a full re-design of the University of Victoria's McPherson Library website. This site would feature not only a new design, but a strong organizational and logistical effort to tie in a wide variety of literature sources: multiple libraries and multiple media.
The University of Victoria is one of Canada's leading universities and has earned a reputation for commitment to research, scholarship and co-op education. They were seeking a website that match that reputation. The McPherson Library is the main building amongst UVic's libraries, which contain over 1.9 million volumes, 2.3 million items in microforms, 40,000 serial subscriptions, 66,000 sound recordings, and much more. To create a site that would access much of this, and be a source of information for all, was a large challenge.
The main focus of the project was to provide a website that would appeal to current students, grads and faculty. This was no short order considering the breadth of Internet knowledge this audience possesses, and the medley of designs that would appeal to such a varied group of people. In addition, we integrated the new design with the extensive database search of articles, journals and books.
The end result was an exceptionally good response from both the client and from site visitors, both on the design of the site and its organizational structure. Difficulty in finding information would always be a consideration with a site of this scope, but website users have commented to the client about the ease of access to information, as well as the colourful, unique design.
