I can't resist blogging this - a heat map of the OU Library homepage: View image
The data was collected using a trial version of Clickdensity heatmaps over a 24 hour period a couple of days ago. The trial limits the amount of data that can be collected, so I'm not sure that map actualluy maps hits over that full period of time.
The OU Library site is currently undergoing a redesign, with a target roll out sometime in Q2 of next year (2007) of the new site. Apparently it's being wireframed at the moment, so it will be interesting to see how much cleaner the new design will be, especailly if it's "on brand"! (By the by, OU internal readers who aren't up to speed with brand guidelines and templates can check them out here).
It's been hinted to me that the search box will be far more prominent, but I'm not sure how many other navigational devices will be on the front page.
One of the design considerations is to reduce the number of pages on the site, which apparently currently number in the thousands(?!), a figure that Library's adoption of Macromedia Contribute may be partly responsible for...
Although monthly traffic figures number in hundreds of thousands of impressions every month (a statistic I am starting to be wary of having started collecting - and inspecting - Google Analytics data for the OUseful blog) and the heat map is of a few thousand imnpressions over a very short period, I think it's interesting to see how few of the dozens and dozens of links on the current Library homepage actually seem to be followed.
Not surprisingly, the Library search box is heavily hit - even if the link you want is on the homepage, I guess that users often can't locate it!
Until the heatmap data started to be collected, I believe that design decisions were being made on the basis of analysis of the raw site statistics (which I don't think were actually that rich - certainly not as rich as Google analytics). I'd be interested to know just how much the graphical heat map hits home how users actually use the library front page, compared to the raw numerical data view, and whether the heat map view has changed the way in which the fron page redesign is being handled...