I have been wondering about the ways in which an “index” page on a website could be reimagined such that it harkens back to when the index on a website was more like an indexical representation of a body of work, rather than the more contemporary approach in which the page needs to be more optimized for search, SEO, and algorithmic discovery.
In that context I set out to prototype and experiment with what this might be without overthinking things.
This prototype is an exploration of what an “index” page is as a series of “cards” that represent different content pieces.
The metaphor of cards looms large in my mind as I really used ot love going to the Princeton Public Library and, when I could, the Firestone Library at Princeton Univeristy and browing the card catalog, mor invested in the exploration and serendipity of discovery, and anxious about the fragility of these paper cards (wondering how losing one could result in an orphaned book or other artifact!).
This prototype is an exploration of what an “index” page is as a series of “cards” that represent different content pieces.
Each card can be visually rich, with images, text snippets, and other design elements that convey the essence of the content it represents.
The layout can be dynamic, allowing users to sroll around an infinite canvas, select using tags and dates to filter the cards, and even annotate and draw upon the cards/canvas itself.
This idea had coime to me while watching an artist‘s talk where they were doing somehthing similar walking through their portfolio using some canvas program on their iPad. I recall playing with that program, but what struck me was that it was just a fixed set of images on a canvas (which is fine, as far as it goes..) but what I wondered about was having the items on the canvas indexed to the actual content pieces themselves so it’s a bit more dynamic ro at least more directly linked to the content, and could update as more content was added.
But..I did really like the idea that you could annotate on top of the content while presenting it..although I’m not 100% sure how I might use that feature myself…I’d have to think about that more.
Anyway, this is an initial prototype and exploration of the idea.