[IxDA Discuss] UI design for digital books with extensive footnotes

[Jack Moffett]

On Aug 2, 2006, at 2:17 PM, Dan Saffer wrote:

> Hmm, perhaps I'm dense, but aside from folder navigation, I can't
> think of a single example of text on the left referring to text on
> the right. (I see many examples of top/bottom however.) Can you
> provide an example or two?

Examples that come to mind:

The most recent version of Microsoft Word displays notes in a column  
to the right of the content.
Omni Outliner allows you to create multi-columned outlines. I often  
use a column to the right of the actual outline for notation.
There are many examples of having an Index, Table of Contents, list  
of search results, etc. on the left with content on the right, but I  
suppose that is the same as "folder navigation," in that it is for  
the purpose of navigation, rather than comparison.


> I can see your reasoning here, w/r/t screen width v. height. Why then
> isn't this the standard instead of left/right panes? A holdover from
> print?

In large part, I believe so.


Jack



Jack L. Moffett
Interaction Designer
inmedius
412.459.0310 x219
http://www.inmedius.com


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