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The article tries in several paragraphs to explain the experience of using it - I'd recommend instead just clicking on the Library Explorer link[1] yourself and

The article tries in several paragraphs to explain the experience of using it - I'd recommend instead just clicking on the Library Explorer link[1] yourself and actually experiencing it yourself. There's something to be said for these physical-world-analogue UIs, in my opinion. Even if this is technically the same affordance as provided by old school web directory UIs, there's more of a sense of tangibility and immediacy to this kind of visual presentation, that makes it more appealing and easier to spend longer times in. [1] https://openlibrary.org/explore https://openlibrary.org/explore

mekarpeles 6y ago
Updated the article to include a shiny "try it here" link at the top based on your feedback, thank you.
- mrspeaker 6y ago
  One bit of "meta" feedback from me: I love Open Library, but I get stuck every time I read one of the blog posts - because there's no link to the actual library! I always hunt for it for a while and eventually have to go up to the url and manually remove "blog." and the rest of the blog page parameters. Maybe I'm just missing it? But the big "Open Library" icon is not clickable, and even the "about" page doesn't seem to have a link to openlibrary.org.
qsort 6y ago
> Even if this is technically the same affordance as provided by old school web directory The point is that unless they are extremely well made, the affordance and accessibility is much worse. OTOH, I lowkey like those environments for social events. Maybe it's just that I'm somewhat introverted, but I find that having a playful/gamelike environment as opposed to a chat window makes interactions less awkward.
chrisweekly 6y ago
Yeah, good comment, good link. I also like their github though: https://github.com/internetarchive/openlibrary https://github.com/internetarchive/openlibrary
_underfl0w_ 6y ago
> physical-world-analogue UIs FWIW I think the word you're looking for here is "skeuomorph"

mekarpeles 6y ago

Updated the article to include a shiny "try it here" link at the top based on your feedback, thank you.

mrspeaker 6y ago
One bit of "meta" feedback from me: I love Open Library, but I get stuck every time I read one of the blog posts - because there's no link to the actual library! I always hunt for it for a while and eventually have to go up to the url and manually remove "blog." and the rest of the blog page parameters. Maybe I'm just missing it? But the big "Open Library" icon is not clickable, and even the "about" page doesn't seem to have a link to openlibrary.org.

qsort 6y ago

> Even if this is technically the same affordance as provided by old school web directory The point is that unless they are extremely well made, the affordance and accessibility is much worse. OTOH, I lowkey like those environments for social events. Maybe it's just that I'm somewhat introverted, but I find that having a playful/gamelike environment as opposed to a chat window makes interactions less awkward.

chrisweekly 6y ago

Yeah, good comment, good link. I also like their github though: https://github.com/internetarchive/openlibrary https://github.com/internetarchive/openlibrary

_underfl0w_ 6y ago

> physical-world-analogue UIs FWIW I think the word you're looking for here is "skeuomorph"