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Representing Online Textbooks?
BWJones asks: "How does one represent online texts to best convey information to the reader as there are a number of issues related to online textbook reading and interpretation that are quite different from reading a standard textbook. We have a site dedicated to retinal vision education that went online a number of years ago and is due for a major rewrite/re-creation. This site was one of the original online textbooks and its design attempted to be of use in the early graphical navigation of the web. However, as the content has increased and will continue to do so, navigation has become more cumbersome. I am looking for suggestions to increase its usability while content increases and will entertain all ideas. I am loathe however, to make the browsing requirements too steep as there are folks from all over the world who access this site (about 30k/hits per day) and they do not always have the latest in computer technology."
You need an index.
Also, the table of contents looks like a sea of text. Make the chapter headings much, much larger than the section titles. You already did a good job with the "part" demarcations. This lets the reader see the material in a more hierarchal manner.
You might want to try page-by-section rather than page-by-chapter, and keep the sections short enough so the browser window needn't be scrolled. Powerpoint presentations follow the same rule. (Maybe, leave page-by-chapter as an option if the text is used for reference instead of initial exposure).
Leave references until the end of a part or until the end of the book -- they are not as critical in a textbook as they are in a paper.
Maybe forcibly use larger fonts -- not all users will be savvy enough to increase the size of their default fonts.
Your site is a little annoying with the big fat headline graphics and the blinking.
I think you've got the wrong concept of what you want to do... While you can download textbooks off the net, usually they're meant either for printing out, or displaying on an e-book. But reading a textbook online, at least for me, usually results in a major eye-ache (something your particular readers will especially dislike).
I would recommend you use this little invention called hypertext to build an in-depth document. One way to arrange this would be to have a summary of a few pages, or even a few paragraphs, and then allow people to click on terms and be able to explore them in depth.
One website that's used this methodology with good results is Chilling Effects. I suggest you do a little exploring there.
You're at U of Utah, right? Ask the folks in your English, Communication, and Computer Science departments if they have students or classes that need "real world" problems to solve. It could be independent studies, senior projects, whatever. You could benefit from a database, a well-designed templating system (server side includes plus style sheets), and some batch processing of images to decrease file size.
BTW, Nielsen's usability ideas are geared for e-commerce; take them with a grain of salt, since that's not what you're doing.
cbd.