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Subject:Chunking Web Information From:Jason Willebeek-LeMair <jlemair -at- ITEXCHSRV2 -dot- PHX -dot- MCD -dot- MOT -dot- COM> Date:Tue, 18 Aug 1998 08:50:44 -0700
There has been a lot of advice about dividing long passages of
information into separate web pages because users do not want to have to
scroll.
This is generally good advice if each page contains discrete units of
information that the user may want to access without reference to the
surrounding information, but be careful. Some users may not feel like
sitting at their desk to read your words of wisdom. They may want to
print it out for later reference, to read at lunch, on the bus on the
way home (or while stopped in rush hour 8-) ), or to help put them to
sleep at night. Printing out a chunked piece can be a real pain in the
butt.
For example, I found a neat little site that described how the web
handles. It was chunked into 10 or 12 pages, each page containing a
topic that occupied a single browser screen (no scrolling required).
Excellent navigation between pages. Everything the books tell you to
do. The content was pretty darn good, too. I wanted to print it out
and tack it to the corkboard in my cubicle for a handy reference. It
was a pain -- I had to follow each link and print each page separately.
On the other hand, I accessed the paper "Enabling Extremely Rapid
Navigation in Your Web or Document" by Michael Hoffman
(http://www.pdr-is.com/infoaxcs.htm). It presented me a single web page
(22 printed pages), with the contents at the top linked to the topics
further down the page. This document was just as easy to navigate as
the multi-page document about color, but it was much easier to print out
to read at my leisure (I really do not want to read a 22 page document
on my screen, no matter how it is chunked -- I stare at is long enough
during the day just doing my job).
So, sometimes you want a long, scrolling page (with an adequate, linked
outline at the top). This would allow the user the convenience of using
the outline to jump directly to the desired information while
maintaining the option of printing the entire piece easily for future
reference.
It is entirely up to the material being presented, the audience being
presented to, and most importantly, how the audience is going to use it.
Just my thought for today. I reserve the right to change it tomorrow.
All thought are strictly my own -- if my company knew I had a thought,
they would quickly send me to quality training.
