See Save My Spot button, top right
Pop up window: Taking a Break? We've Got Your Back
E mail reminder of where you left off reading
Two things stand out with The Washington Post’s treatment of its latest long story : a bookmark tool, which lets readers save their spot in the story, and, of course, the fact that an 8000-word story still finds a place as part of its arsenal of storytelling strategies.
When we discuss the two tempo philosophy for media consumers today—leaning forward, leaning back—we also mention that there is a tendency for people to be reading on mobile devices, which are never free of interruptions (we turn to emails, news alerts or social media prompts).
The Post seems to be on to aiding the process of getting us back on track, especially when reading a long piece such as the recent one about a Marine’s attempt to clear his name after a sexual assault investigation.
The navigation bar at the top has a Save My Spot button. Click it and a window that reads Taking a Break? We’ve Got your Back appears. Enter your email and, presto, you will be returned to that same spot when returning to reading.
And if a reader is inactive on the story for more than five minutes, a notification will pop up that will ask if they want to save their spot.
Another interesting feature here that will make multimedia presentations easier to navigate: embedded audio clips with subtitles, so users can still read what was being said even if they don’t have headphones or don’t want to turn up their volume.