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."

Comments

Re:ugh

[BWJones]

Tip #1: Ditch the background images. Solid colour backgrounds = better readability & faster loadtimes. Plus background images are SOOO 1997. :)

This was the first thing that that is going away during the redesign. And I should mention, if I recall correctly, this sites origins go back to 1993 and it went online in shortly thereafter. :-)

Tip #2: Hire a information architecture/usability/UI specialist or team. Worth the money, especially if you have tons of content.

Well, here's the issue there, I am essentially running the site on the side with no real money for development. In fact, it is being hosted on a personally purchased old G3 iMac running OS X. Hows that for economy?

Disclaimer: Yes, I'm a UI specialist.

I would love to hear more input from you if you have the time.

Bookmarks and glosses

[eXtro]

Any of the books that I actually use are full of book marks and added notes in the margin. For online books to really work for me I need to be able to continue doing this. Too often it means I end up printing the online book.

Add the ability to create an account. Logged in users get a personalized view of the material which they can add bookmarks to as well as a sidebar with their additional notes.