Davidson Library is asking for student input via an online survey on how its dated website can be modernized.

The questionnaire, which consists of six queries, is targeted at three groups: staff, faculty and students. Sandy Lewis, the library’s coordinator for publications and marketing, said the new site is scheduled for a fall 2007 launch. The survey is posted at www.library.ucsb.edu.

“Usually websites are in such a state of fluctuation that they always need to be changed,” Lewis said. “What we find is that our users’ needs are changing. Also, the students here have always had the Web, and they expect certain features to be on a website.”

Following the survey’s completion and showing of several different mockups of how the site may look, the library will seek subjects to conduct usability testing before releasing the final product, Lewis said.

“We’ll be asking for volunteers to do the usability testing,” Lewis said. “We might have incentives like prizes. Hopefully within the next month we should be able to start testing.”

The site will not cost the university any extra money, as the library’s in-house technical staff will design it, Lewis said.

Lewis said the redesign would focus, in part, on revamping the site’s visual appearance, as well as making navigation of its internal pages easier. However, she stressed that the changes would be heavily driven by the survey.

“We’re trying not to force things on people,” Lewis said. “I have my opinions [about what the site should look like], but we’re waiting to see. This is one survey that we’re pretty anxious [to see the results of].”