Quote:
Originally Posted by skinmaan
1. Click on "Categories." I immediately can see on the first line above the books "1-24 of 7514."
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I spent way too much time messing with this project yesterday. Today, I'm going to keep it short.
I found what you found. I never have learned to click on the heading, as well as check the items in the drop-down menu under that heading. I should have. This experience has taught me the lesson that I need to do that for other websites. There, I've admitted my shortcoming.
But, why can't websites include everything that you would see from clicking on a heading to also appear in the drop-down menu, and
vice versa? And, why can't there be more that
one path, anyway, to get to a webpage with
7535 items? I've built several websites (all very basic), and I realized the need for, and included, multiple paths to individual webpages without having to do much thinking about it at all.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by skinmaan
2. Click on "Download" under "Book Format." The list is now filtered to downloads. The first line reads "1-24 of 6599."
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I know how to use filters. #1, paragraph #3 is the obstacle.
Quote:
Originally Posted by skinmaan
3. Next, I'll use the "Price" slider down at the bottom of the categories on the left side of the page. If you slide the right side of the price bar down to 7 you'll see a list of all books from $0 to $7.
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I know how to use price sliders. Difficulty in finding the webpage that has the slider is still the problem.
Quote:
Originally Posted by skinmaan
4. The list filters down to showing "1-24 of 356" at the top of the page.
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Fine. #1, paragraph #3 is still the obstacle.
Quote:
Originally Posted by skinmaan
Three clicks (or two clicks and a slide) and I got all of that information.
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The number of clicks and the need to use a slider is not the problem. That seems pretty efficient. The problem is figuring out where the links are that need to be clicked.
Quote:
Originally Posted by skinmaan
Once you get used to it their website is really pretty good. (I may be a little biased; I helped them beta-test it.)
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There shouldn't be a need to get used to a website, at least much need. It should be
intuitive to use, and have multiple paths to a desired webpage, so in case a person has a problem finding one path, he/she can find another way to get to the desired webpage easily. It's Website Construction 101.
I'm sure that you did a fine job beta-testing the site. But just like familiarity breeds contempt, familiarity can cause you to overlook things that a person unfamiliar with whatever it is can easily see. In simple terms, you get used to the way that it is, and doing it that way becomes second nature, no matter how unintuitive, arcane, or byzantine that it may be. May I suggest that that may have become that way concerning this website and you.
Quote:
Originally Posted by skinmaan
As to what is on sale, I honestly haven't kept up with it since the $4.99 sale day. That's kinda my buy-in price for them. You are correct that the current set of sale titles seems to be all classics. There are a number that are at $7.99; I don't know if that is a sale or not. I'd have to compare it to other sites to know for sure.
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Yeah, $7.99 is too high of a price point for me to buy, also, unless the audiobook is really exceptional and/or one that I want really badly. But, it's still a mystery to me why I'm not notified of Tantor's download sales. I still have yet to check my account settings r.e. email with Tantor, though.
Finally, and I may have mentioned this in my first or second post on the subject, I have been very pleased with the quality of Tantor's products--both CD's in the old days, and downloadable products in more recent times. I don't want anything that I've said make anyone think that they don't have good products--I encourage people to buy from them. I just hope that Tantor makes it easier on us to find what they sell.