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Designing pathways to content

During a site upgrade for the State Library of South Australia, we identified an opportunity to reimagine their site navigation and information architecture. This played a significant role in highlighting and signposting the wealth of information and the Collections available to view–online and in person at the library.

The result is a modern, engaging and accessible Drupal website that helps visitors easily and quickly find the content they’re looking for. We now continue to support the library - ensuring their site remains consistent, secure and reliable.

Client

State Library of South Australia

Industry

SLSA Feature Large

Highlights

  • Upgrade to Drupal 8
  • Customer research
  • Re-designed information architecture
  • Content templates
  • Small-scale development
  • Business As Usual (BAU) support

Context

The State Library site navigation and information architecture needed to be improved and the visual design also required a refresh and update. The key to the success of this project lay in gaining an understanding of what visitors use the library site to do.

The question was then: how could we optimise and simplify the site accordingly?

About the Client

The State Library of South Australia is the state's most extensive public reference library, focusing on South Australian information and general reference material for information and research purposes.

SLSA Feature Image

Solutions

Drupal upgrade and ongoing support

Following the initial upgrade of the State Library site to Drupal 8, we continue to support them through a Business as Usual (BAU) agreement. This covers smaller tasks that keep the site running smoothly and minor enhancements.

Research and information architecture

We found that visitors used the library primarily for events, exhibitions and tours, learning programs and workshops, and viewing collections in person during the discovery phase. This helped inform our reimagining of how visitors prefer to move around the site.

SLSA Collections

Both navigation and content were reorganised and simplified. This presented an excellent opportunity to raise awareness of the Collections available to view online and in-person at the Library. Instead of attempting to showcase the entirety of their collections, we decided to highlight the starting point from which visitors could explore - taking the opportunity to provide some engaging context behind the collections.

Content templates

Many overlaps in the legacy library site’s content types, which called for a flexible and dynamic template. Events, exhibitions, tours, learning programs and workshops all had standard features - such as descriptions, dates and times. With some additional development work, we ensured these content types all worked according to both their similarities and their differences. This gave pleased editors consistency whilst simultaneously providing a differentiated experience for visitors.

Key development: Stories

The library has a range of exciting stories to tell. To create a home for these on the new site, we created ‘Stories’. This approach elevated the Stories as fascinating content within their right. We could use existing layouts and designs, whilst a carousel feature became an exciting vehicle for storytelling.

SLSA Stories

The Results

The result of our initial work to develop a new Drupal site speaks for itself. Visitors can now access a visually appealing site - designed as a place for individuals and communities to connect, learn, research and enjoy themselves. It provides an easy way to engage with the library, virtually and in person. It also celebrates the role the library performs as both a storyteller and historian for the state of South Australia.