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Launching low bandwidth (loband) Beta for long haul!

 

The Library Experience (LEX) team is proud to announce the release of low bandwidth (loband) Beta! Please check-out http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library(loband). Mary Lee from VB team and Beth Massi from VS Community team recently blogged about MSDN/Technet/Expression library loband experience. Microsoft MVP John Galloway posted details on the loband feature of library at http://weblogs.asp.net/jgalloway/archive/2008/08/30/msdn-low-bandwidth-bookmarklet.aspx.

Based on your feedback on the above posts we have launched a beta version of new loband experience fo our Library.

loband

Mechanics behind loband experience:

Loband pages allow no script and are designed to improve page load performance for our long haul international users.  We currently support the following views in the library to change the presentation for different devices:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library(loband)

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library(ide)

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library(pda)

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library(robot)

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library(printer) 

For the loband view we use a cookie and for the Help viewer (ide) and other views we rely on the user agent.  Our current logic is to honor the user agent string over the cookie setting. Loband is High Value for Long Haul due to the following improvments:

  1. Simpler Layout: Loband view replaces the navigation tree view on the left with a simpler layout.
  2. Smaller Page Weight: With no scripts and controls we have trimmed the loband version page weight by 80%.
  3. Faster Page Load: Less than 1 second load in most regions across the world compared to 3 to 7 seconds for a high bandwidth view.
  4. Improved Navigation for API documentation: I have screen shots below for System.xml page as an example for the improved navigation.
  5. Discoverability for non-english users: I have screen shots below for Japanese pages of System.xml with discoverability features.
  6. Feedback Link: We have added "feedback" link on the loband pages to get your input for future improvements.

The following System.xml pages provide the new TOC navigation for API pages:

  • Click on NameTable Class link on the TOC. The Class page TOC is displayed between MSDN Home and System.xml Namespace TOC for improved navigation.

 

The following System.xml page in Japanese provide the discoverability link for international users. We have added similar links to all non-English pages:

 

  • Clicking the above highligted link will navigate to the loband Japanese page of System.xml. See screen shot below:

We would love to hear your feedback. Please click on the Feedback link on the top right corner of the loband pages to provide us with your suggestions for improvements. Cheers.

 

Anand..
Posted: Thursday, March 26, 2009 7:53 AM by aram
Filed under:

Comments

Sandcastle said:

Please see my post at http://blogs.msdn.com/innovation/archive/2009/03/26/launching-low-bandwidth-loband-beta-for-long-haul.aspx

# March 26, 2009 3:34 AM

Peter Ritchie said:

From what I've seen, it looks good.  Nice and fast.

But, shouldn't the landing pages (link http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library(loband)) link to loband content, not hiband content?  e.g. the MSDN library left navigation area links to no loband content.  I have to go to hiband, then click the loband link in the hiband page.

# March 26, 2009 9:51 AM

stephbu said:

A few thoughts.

1) The "persist low band" link in the top-RHS side needs to be much more prominent since Peter didn't notice it either.

2) The add/edit link for Community Content seems somewhat broke - given there is no Sign-in nor control functionality. e.g.

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.xml.xmldocument.aspx#CommunityContent

# March 27, 2009 10:55 AM

CraigBlog said:

I mentioned MSDN Loband a few months ago . Well, they’ve updated it , and the update kicks some serious

# April 2, 2009 10:03 AM

Eriwik said:

Really nice! It is much easier to read and navigate than the original MSDN pages. And it works much better in browsers != IE too.

There are two additional features features that I would like, the first one is similar to what you have already done. It would be nice to be able to download an XML version of a page, that would allow me to easier filter the pages and apply my own formatting.

Another feature I would really like is the ability to read whole sections of MSDN as one single page. An example is the "x64 Software Conventions" (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/7kcdt6fy.aspx) section, while there are a lot of nice information there is usually very little on each page. Also it would be easier if I want to re-read a page since I then would only have to scroll instead of navigating back and forth. An additional benefit would be that I could then print the material and read it offline.

# April 9, 2009 2:29 PM

devlinb said:

Add a search box and this will become more useful than the main MSDN site.  It sure is a lot better on the eyes, and not having to scroll nearly so much is appreciated.

# April 14, 2009 8:47 PM

Stuff that's in my head said:

MSDN Library now has a low bandwidth version

# April 15, 2009 6:44 PM

Inside MSDN and TechNet said:

The Library Experience (LEX) team is proud to announce the release of low bandwidth (loband) Version

# April 22, 2009 2:33 AM
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