SILS Project communications graphic design

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Recommendation

The End User Outreach Subcommittee recommends that a graphic designer be added to the SILS Project. The graphic designer would be a Step-B member of the EUOS.

The End User Outreach Subcommittee recommends that, independent of whether a name for the Discovery Tool has a name or logo prominently visible within the search environment (i.e. in a search box or in the results pages), a consistent name be used for the purpose of communications to end users. Failing to do so would result in very local naming conventions, which will hinder end users in understanding that there is a unified system for all UC campuses.

Rationale

Why is professional graphic design necessary?

Graphic design is about visual communication. Given the work and thought behind the SILS project, it is critical for the project to be seen by our end users as the result of coordinated and careful planning, preparation, and consideration. To that end, a professional and unified look to our end user communications and outreach is imperative. To the end user, the SILS project is essentially a “replacement to Melvyl.” Therefore, EUOS views part of our charge as a re-branding campaign, to not only promote the value of SILS, but also to differentiate it from Melvyl.

Graphic designers are also fluent in the technical landscape of file types and formats that would be optimal for local (each campus) communications contacts to re-use for various outreach campaigns.

Precedents

Most UC Libraries initiatives with a public interface have a standard visual identity in the form of a logo or at least a consistent wordmark. Examples include Melvyl, Calisphere, OAC, eScholarship, Dryad, Merritt, DMPTool, and even UC e-Links.

The SILS Project has an existing logo to describe the project for an internal audience. https://drive.google.com/drive/u/0/folders/1OO7bJ_zVyxJRj3N6cZA5EMwwrWjYoX5G EUOS advocates for using a logo or visual identity that communicates this project better for an end user audience (end users may not know what “Systemwide” means and likely do not know what “ILS” means)

What are examples of things a graphic designer would do?

• Create a logo for communications (Discovery FG may determine we do not need one for the search interface, but EUOS recommends a visual identity for the sake of the project)

• Developing graphics in conjunction with End User Outreach Subcommittee that can be re-used and customized by local campuses

What would happen if the project does not have a graphic designer?

• End User Outreach Subcommittee would be creating design documents despite the fact that none of the committee members have professional training in graphic design. The resulting deliverables may be less “polished” than what may be created with a professional designer.

• Each local campus may need to create, or significantly alter, designs for outreach (e.g. signs, press releases, social media campaigns). This increases local workload and time-to-release on communications to end users.

• If each local campus is creating or altering designs significantly, then end users may not recognize the end product as the same across all 10 campuses.

• Training documents will need to be created for all 10 campuses separately if there is not a unified visual identity

Why should the graphic designer be part of EUOS?

After consulting with the Discovery FG and with the Communications Operation leads, the following determinations were made:

• Communications Operations leads see their charge as largely dealing with organizing communications internal to the SILS project (i.e. all of the various library staff groups working with Alma and Primo VE)

• Discovery FG is involved with branding from the standpoint of “what do we call this discovery tool,” and will make recommendations about naming the tool and/or whether a logo should appear on the discovery tool itself

EUOS views graphic design as a communications and outreach concern. The graphic designer would take the decisions from the Discovery FG and work within EUOS to come up with a way to communicate these decisions through multimodal formats.

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