It's still (I think) used in libraries for viewing newspapers and other things. I built a "Windows File Explorer" type viewer for the May 8th released files that are hosted on WAR.GOV but felt a single giant "timeline" was interesting and new enough to do one more.
Plus I think the problem of making the streaming of thumbs/full-size efficient and good UX for scrubbing, random seeking, and playback of documents and videos in one giant "reel" is interesting. Theoretically, it's a simple model: static files, fronted by CloudFlare, assisted by local browser cache and the goal is playback that uses bandwidth optimally.
Perceptually, I think it's a great way to "grok" a large amount of information. Your eye can notice things in the scan and you can zero-in manually to seek. It supports cursoring, and YouTube controls (numbered jumps 0 - 9 and j,k,l plus . and , for seeks and toggling playback) - as well as a bunch of touch gestures to scrub.
Mechse•2h ago
Just spent 30+ minutes scrolling through old documents without noticing :D Great work
keepamovin•30m ago
That is so good. Thank you so much. The immersive experience of microfilm was what I was going for and there’s something about that sort of infinite Scroll that pulls you in. my job was to create the UX so that it could get out of the way and enable that experience. I’m so glad you had that.
keepamovin•2h ago
It's still (I think) used in libraries for viewing newspapers and other things. I built a "Windows File Explorer" type viewer for the May 8th released files that are hosted on WAR.GOV but felt a single giant "timeline" was interesting and new enough to do one more.
Plus I think the problem of making the streaming of thumbs/full-size efficient and good UX for scrubbing, random seeking, and playback of documents and videos in one giant "reel" is interesting. Theoretically, it's a simple model: static files, fronted by CloudFlare, assisted by local browser cache and the goal is playback that uses bandwidth optimally.
Perceptually, I think it's a great way to "grok" a large amount of information. Your eye can notice things in the scan and you can zero-in manually to seek. It supports cursoring, and YouTube controls (numbered jumps 0 - 9 and j,k,l plus . and , for seeks and toggling playback) - as well as a bunch of touch gestures to scrub.