Enhanced Browsing available
Mar 13th, 2010 by sharbrough
Recently, the browse experience at Footnote has been improved. There are two things that I want to be sure to point out.
First, the “search within” feature is still there, but it’s not below the browse info. It’s right above it. The second place that I looked, so to speak. This is an important feature, and elevating it may promote its use.
Second, the old limitation of showing 12 items at a time is gone. In the case of Detroit city directories, there are 63 of them. Previously, users had to “page” thru them 12 at a time to get to the one they wanted, and then do the same thing with the 3500 pages of the book.
Now, there is a scrolling list of the 63 books, in year order. That’s much easier to use and quicker. Admittedly, when you click on a book, you’ll find a “heavy” panel of 3500 thumbnails loading. But give me a scroll over a 12-item page any time. This is lots faster.
The browse information has been “striped” to make it easy to view a long list.
Altogether, a welcome (if long-overdue) enhancement to the site. One might hope that the unique data available can be found and used better.
Thanks, Footnote!
