So the great thing about Northwest Picture Show as a web project rather than a book project is that the content is somewhat flexible. If I’ve made a mistake, I can correct it. If new information comes to light, I can add it. If I’ve over- or under-stated something, things can be adjusted. That’s the great thing about the web – this site is a living, breathing thing that can constantly be improved.
Now for the bad news. Websites are entirely different animals than books, and they come with their own set of issues. Some of these are already known, others will be pointed out to me over time, and I will work to get them corrected when I can. Here’s a sampling of things that I ALREADY know are not ideal as of the launch:
- Chapter Carousel: Under each timeline section there’s a carousel feature showing all the chapters. But, sometimes this gets stuck so you can’t get to scroll over to the last few. Refreshing the page will usually solve this, but I need to figure out how to make it work consistently. (There’s also a feature at the bottom of each chapter that allows you to jump ahead, so that’s an option as well.)
- Photo Sliders, Part 1: Each section has a photo slider that moves down the page as you read, and I’m partial to that format for a variety of reasons. But, depending on your screen setup, which I cannot control, the photo captions may be partially or totally offscreen. Adjusting the zoom on your display (dropping it from 100% to 90%, for example) helps with this.
- Photo Sliders, Part 2: In selecting the photo sliders I had to give up the ability to italicize the names of movies and publications in the captions. So I’m sorry if you don’t like that, but believe me, I don’t like it 10 times more than you.
- Tablet/Mobile Versions: You can read Northwest Picture Show on your phone if you want, but that’s not the ideal way to view it. The text is there, but the visual elements (layout + photos) don’t work as well. We’ll be addressing that, but it’s TBD whether we can get the mobile version to function as well as we would like.
- Search Feature: The site is run on a WordPress template, which is great for visual purposes, but the search capabilities are lacking. Can you search the site? Yes. Does it work well? No, not by a longshot – and you’re looking at version 2.0. Until I can find a better solution, we’ll all have to grin and bear it.
If you run into other issues or spot areas that need improvement, please bring them to my attention. I may not be able to address them immediately, but I do want to make periodic adjustments that improve functionality over time.
