Web Usability
Just wanted to cover a few updates and wanted your feedback too. First up are the photo pages. Click through to the A Week in Tokyo page for example. If you keep scrolling, the page will continue to load previous photo articles until you hit the end of the Internets meaning that you can get to the content you are looking for without a load of clicking.
You can also do the same for Japan and Figures and anything else in the Category menu at the top of the screen.
This technique of web usability is known as "Endless Scrolling" or "Infinite Scrolling." I noticed that Kotaku implemented the same although you need to click a link at the bottom to load more.
Folks who are interested in this can get a JQuery plugin from infinite-scroll.com - they have a Wordpress plugin and its Search Engine friendly too.
To find other previous items, for now you need to click on the "View More" link just after the 6pack on the top page - which brings me to a question...
When looking for previous DC content, do you search or paginate through pages?
If its a recent post then I would paginate but if its from a while ago I do a search.
The Anime Store is now open too which uses the Amazon API to pull in the latest products sorted by Best Selling order - meaning that you can see whats hot and whats not for figures, anime and ecchi stuff. The store is automatically updated daily.
The link to the Anime Store is currently available in the Category menu at the top of the page.
You can also see releases by month too - I will increase the count of items on the pagination pages and probably make them infinite scrolling too.
After migrating to Mirai Gaia on the temporary theme, many of you requested that I bring back the old theme which I did.
Lately however, I've been hearing feedback that the top page is a still confusing.
The main problem I'm hearing is that folks don't know what to click on ^^;
The top page style is known as a Magazine format which highlights some news and allows the user to click through. Similar sites are Alafista and Kodomut.
Another site to use the magazine layout is CNNGo. Hmmm, the bottom left corner seems to be featuring posts from dannychoo.com ^^;
Would like to ask what you think of the current top page and any improvements that you would like to see. I'm not going to try to please all (because I will fail miserably) want want to make sure that most of you are happy ^^
If you are interested in reading about life in Japan, seeing photos taken daily around Tokyo, like Japanese subculture (anime, manga, figures, Dollfies) then you may want to start delving into the Japan or Figure categories for a start or have a gander at all photo articles.
If you don't have much time now, maybe subscribe to the RSS Feed, Twitter Feed or join the other readers in the FaceBook Page.
Alternatively, you may want to read more about the site.
If you are a regular reader then this message will probably annoy you each time - hide it forever.
-Akihabara News – Gadgetry from Japan (Subscribe)
NEET
http://tangerinetango.wordpress.com/
I think the endless scrolling is nice. I have an add-on in Firefox that does that for me... the only problem is that, if you really like reading/surfing... it will definitely eat up your time since you'll be scrolling to the end of the internets and you will be distracted by other things while scrolling down. XD
Limousine Driver
I agree. Its a nice option to have if you don't have enough info for a search but you can loose track of what your searching for if your not careful.
Student, part-time slave
http://yakuri.wordpress.com/
Agreeing with Ninjovee here; different options are better for different situations, not one of them is better than the other.
Guess
bottom right danny.
I can't see the footer! infinite scrolling is a pain lol.
JR. College Student
http://npc.talkingincircles.net/
I'm not sure either one would change my browsing habits on DC. I always end up opening 5-10 tabs just to catch up on stuff for the whole site and It's really a chore.
I'm thinking more preview text would save me some time? Actually, if my profile could keep track of what I read, a "view unread posts" button would be golden.
still trying to figure it out...
http://pipopaz.wordpress.com/
I used to do the same but I realized the time spent was too much. A word of advice, RSS feeds, they really help you catch up fast. I'm currently using google reader to read DC, figure.fm and otaku.fm feeds and i'm doing it fast as well ^^
Limousine Driver
Bingo! That's what what i was thinking. Great idea!
yeah t many scroll would broke my mouse !
Resident of Moriya Shrine
truth right there. mine's already got too loose from that...xD
Student
Endless scrolling is really great, less clicking and instead just spinning the wheel conserves a lot more energy xD
Student
http://foxkey.blog126.fc2.com/
I enjoy endless scrolling, but having a look at your example of "A Week in Tokyo" page, I think the images are a little too big.
Mechanical Engineering student
http://sabekujikaneda.multiply.com/
Infinite scrolling, huh? Nice XD
When I'm searching for something recent, I try to weave through the pages. But when it's really old, I just do a search.
I prefer the current top page layout (magazine style, is it?) because I'm pretty comfortable with it :D
Tech Support Officer - Network Security Engineer
http://burugureibi.blogspot.com/
i love scrolling - thx to my mouses' 'hyper-scrolling' function. Infinite? OKAY!
I think confusion of the front page lies in the blue titles - They're quite small and hard to notice. If you bump up the font maybe 2-3pts, it 'may' help
If it comes to retrieving an old article, I usually have an 'ok' idea where to look.
If i REALLY need to look for an old article, i'd go to that specific category and slowly 'hunt' for it.
I don't especially like the way to search using Google. I'd like to be able to sort by 'Author' or 'Categories' or <whatever>, before/after searching to be able to be more specific/organised in the search.
I know writing your own search isn't a walk in the park, but something that would really enhance the user experience.
I besides search, love the current frontpage page layout.
Sentai Ranger
http://morganlamia.blogspot.com/
10214 e-mails? Time for a clean-out me thinks, Danny ;)
studying comp studies
http://bruneian-otaku.blogspot.com
*scrolls*
Poet (not)
I love infinite scrolls! My other favorite site, Slashdot.org, uses it too.
As for the top page layout, I still prefer the magazine style. Because DC.com has so much content (and I'm a regular visitor), the highlights work better for me.
As for my content-retrieving habit, I use search if I'm looking for something specific, like posts on Kagamiku. I browse through pages when I haven't visited DC.com in a while and just want to catch up.
still trying to figure it out...
http://pipopaz.wordpress.com/
Nice feature, thx for the tip Danny! Anime store is only available right now for Japanese Users?
CEO MIrai Inc
http://www.dannychoo.com/profile/eng/
At the moment yes.
Alchemist in training
Infinite scrolling is way more user friendly than page to page views .
I prefer Magazine style than any other style that I don't know of -3-
Overall , DC is just great just the way it is right now . No Complaint ^_^
mahou kishi
http://www.animedia.com.mx
I want to try that feature in my website :D
http://otakuposts.blogspot.com/
infinite scrolling means pages will keep loading till end of internets everytime?
i dont think i would want that, since my net connection is not fast.
I think google reader had implemented this on their homepage some time back and it was a pain. it got pulled off after a week i think.
better way would be to show just the newest post in full and all other posts should be the 100px thumbnail with a small two line preview besides them - just like the list view you have put up sitewide. so it will be faster for anyone to just click on what interests them.
Otaku
http://www.shin-otaku.com
Make the "No image" Mirai avatar monochrome at the shop.
Make "Most recent Entries" listing available on every single post, preferably on the top page. Rarely visit index/home page.
Two column design is better. Wide single column design makes reading text and long paragraph difficult.
~Just my 2 cents~
All round good guy and musician
Aaaagh! ~I am not a child of the technical age!!!!!~ I don't understand this techspeke.
I don't know what 'paginate' is! I do know that when I look for previous postings on DC.com, I have to look back until a picture or message title looks familiar.
Unfortunately, when a posting of this kind comes up with these strange computerspeke words, I get totally lost/bored and don't bother reading much more thn the second paragraph. Sorry...
Student
Magazine style for sure.
It's cleaner and more captivating. Nobody wants to click "next page" repeatedly right? Even if you have infinite scrolling.
Student, Uncle & hopfully a good husband..
I won't like to scroll too long to find what i want...since i have quite a bit of sites to check out as well....
http://quentinlau.blogspot.com
I don't find the concept of inifinite scrolling too appealing to me - scrolling for content is not easy when there's a lot out there (I'll simply use ctrl+f to search in that case), and having a lot to load can mean that low-end computers like mine would probably have a hard time to cope with.
CEO MIrai Inc
http://www.dannychoo.com/profile/eng/
Did you have probs with the pages I implemented?
Young Grasshopper
http://miragestrike.blogspot.com
Infinite scrolling has it's pros and cons. Maybe an option for paginating?
If that's possible, applying this to user comments would work wonders as well, especially on your popular threads with ~400 posts.
Web Developer/Software Engineer
http://www.nyannet.com
Personally I don't like infinite scrolling. It provides to much information on a single page I think that at some point the eye gets lost. Personally I like the format of having a recent page that has all the latest information, a slightly archived page that has the most recent articles and the last X amount of articles, and then either a date archive or search archive or both. I have never once thought in all my years of using the internet "If only this information was all on one infinitely scrolling page I could easily find it."
Student
http://payuki.deviantart.com/
I really like this new feature, but it is hard to get to the last/or earlier articles.
Maybe an "overview" button at the top of that page that takes you to a "paginate" type navigation?
As long as the "Latest Updates" and "Tokyo Live Bloggers" have the Prev..1..2..3..Next "paginate" navigation I will be satisfied ^w^
I like the "paginate" navigation because I can see 36 topics at the same time, and still know where I am.
Dont get me wrong, the new infinite scrolling system is aewesome when searching for recent posts and looks great :)
Software Developer
Not a huge fan of the infinite scrolling as it's been implemented. As cs pointed out above it makes it nightmarish to access the content in the footer. Not sure how you can solve that one.
It's also not initially 100% clear what is happening when you hit the bottom of the page and things start going nuts. Feels like the page hasn't finished loading rather than a usability feature. It would look better if the content loaded in a bit more seamlessly I think. A standard jQuery fade-in or a slide-in effect on the new items as the load would probably fix this.
Software Developer
Also, an option to allow me to turn it off would be god too.
Software Developer
Good even...
CEO MIrai Inc
http://www.dannychoo.com/profile/eng/
What sort of stuff do you need in the footer?
Software Developer
It's not so much that I need anything currently in the footer, it's more that if I did have a need I'd have to keep scrolling down until every possible item has loaded before I could get to it. :) Not so bad for the Week in Tokyo category, but try it for Figures, or Japan. No fun.
The footer issue aside, not maintaining my position in the list when I click the browsers back button after reading, say the Tokyo Apartments article from way back in 2007, having scrolled all the way down to it in the Japan section, is even less fun.
CEO MIrai Inc
http://www.dannychoo.com/profile/eng/
Ah - good point about clicking back - will work on it.
CEO MIrai Inc
http://www.dannychoo.com/profile/eng/
Just notice that it maintains position although the screen does flickr a bit. Does it work for you?
Software Developer
Safari 4.03 jumps back to the top of the page every time. Firefox 3.5 jumps back to just above where I was, with a lot of flickering as you mentioned. In most cases half of the image for the article I was on will be off the bottom of the page, but on other occasions it will be right off the bottom. Also the flickering obviously gets worse the further down the page you were.
Mac versions of both.
Another issue I noticed (in both Safari and Firefox) is that if you keep scrolling once you hit the bottom of the page (using the scrollwheel or if you hold the scrollbar slider at the bottom) it will keep on loading items which start popping in on top of one another.
Time Traveller/High School Student
http://thetsundere.wordpress.com/
Don't mind infinite scrolling, but wouldn't want to see it here on DC. I prefer clicking.
And the current front page layout (magazine) is perfect so don't change ^^
Student, Amateur musician
http://hummerbob1.wordpress.com/
Magazine layout is my preference, Constant scrolling is tedious for me O_o. I like to see a small thumbnail of an article, such as what the DC theme has now. If the article looks interesting, I open it up and read it. If not, it is easy to just click the next thumbnail rather than have to scroll.
Engineer by weekdays, Hikki by weekends
http://ejump.wordpress.com/
i dont mind the scrolling, how bout implementing smaller thumbnail pics, and when user click it loads the bigger full size one via flash/java or whatever it was.
Smaller thumbnails would be helpful for articles with loads of pics.
Well, just my opinion though, although the current thumbnail is small enough
フリー漫画家/Comic Artist
http://mangayomo.com/blog/
ココのサイトのユーザビリティは、とてもいいです。
個人的には、「Popular from same category」をよくつかってますよ。
しして写真がどれも一定のレベルでクリアでキレイなのがとてもいい！！
???Confused???
I'd rather do a search for particular articles since infinite scroll would take too long to load...
Student
http://miri.textcube.com/
I'd rather search; my computer seems to drag with infinite scrolling.
College Student
http://www.projectsaber.com
I think infinite scrolling is a good feature to have, although I usually search/look for specific articles myself.
困った留学生 ( ﾟДﾟ)
http://img98.imageshack.us/img98/3219/haruhimemew.gif
I didn't even know that such thing as infinite scrolling existed :P
It looks really nice to me!
Pseudo-Graphic Designer, 触手 wrangler, H-Man
http://lightningsabre.blogspot.com/
Infinite scrolling do look like it'll take a while if connection's bad.
I'm a little concerned about not having the ease of looking through recent posts like we used to have. I remember we were able to have thumbnails of something that was recently posted without having to go back to the top page. Kinda miss that.
CEO MIrai Inc
http://www.dannychoo.com/profile/eng/
Can put back - at top or bottom of comments?
Pseudo-Graphic Designer, 触手 wrangler, H-Man
http://lightningsabre.blogspot.com/
I think bottom of comments better, so it sorta makes people browse through some of the comments ^^
Pseudo-Graphic Designer, 触手 wrangler, H-Man
http://lightningsabre.blogspot.com/
Forgot to ask: Will be on both here and Figure.fm?
http://iron2000.blogspot.com
The infinite scrolling doesn't seem to work in IE8.
Only the latest 3 entries are displayed.
Works ok in Chrome and Firefox.
CEO MIrai Inc
http://www.dannychoo.com/profile/eng/
Thanks for headsup - fixed in both ie7+8.
http://iron2000.blogspot.com
No problem, glad to help!
Its working in IE now.
Though if I'm fast enogh on the scrolling, I can see the pictures load in a stack then spread down.
I usually just find something on the main page and after that end up with a ton of tabs from the "currently being read" section at the bottom of each post
WebMonkey
http://rossbennetts.com/
AutoPager is a cool FireFox Add-On that will load the next page of many sites as soon as you hit the bottom.
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/4925