I very much like the layout of these pages, but a few things concern me.
I'm curious how they are indexed by search engines... at the article level? My first guess is no.
Also, it's design a pretty bold step... it's requiring virtual "blind clicks" from users - only several words describe what's on the next page, and a user must click or not click based only on those few words. And, if a user isn't interested in that article, they may leave the site, when there may have been an article several pages ahead that *would* have interested them.
Hi Dan, good questions you raise, and I will answer them. These are flash pages, and as such are NOT indexed by search engines. This is a feature that will be added in an upcoming version of the publishing software, a product called GraceNote, being developed by Chicago-based ePublishing.
Regarding the navigation concept, we wanted to use a linear style of navigation that works so well in print. The concept was that if we could boil down content into a 16-page package, most readers, assuming they've gained our trust, will page through the 16 screens just as a print subscriber would leaf through a trusted print publication.
It's the opposite of the hypertextual navigation that the Web is based on. We do provide a contents navigational element for those who like to skip around, but most don't use it. Here are some recent navigation stats from a recent issue of one of our digital publications. These are percentages of all the following navigational clicks in the issue:
47% Number bar
28% Prev/Next buttons at top
22% Next article prompt at bottom
3% Table of contents
So as you can see, most simply page through, either via the prev/next buttons at top, or the next article prompt at bottom. Of course, it's impossible to say how many users click the number bar at top in a linear fashion, but my gut tells me most do. Only a few navigate using the TOC. The darn publication's so short, it's easier just to click through page by page.
Here's another interesting stat. Typical number of pageviews per visit on our mothership site, Packworld.com, is between 2 and 3. From my talks with other Web professionals, this seems to be a fairly common.
Typical number of pageviews per visit on one of these digital pubs is between 9 and 12. So most users don't stay with us through the very end, but they go pretty far, much farther than they would on a Web site. To me, evidence that the linear navigation concept has a strong place in the online world.
Commenting by HaloScan
