We currently make bookmarks compulsory in the Shortlist web map. We should make bookmarks optional. If the web map contains no bookmarks, could we automatically hide the 'Neighborhoods' (aka 'Zoom' menu). In this way, the menu will only be there if users have bookmarks in their web map.
Why should we make them optional?
A) Some authors don't have many bookmarks defined and it looks like they have only defined them reluctantly. A lot of authors have not created a decent set of bookmarks for their map - it really doesn't seem to occur to them to spend the time to make a good set, or they don't think it's worth it.
B) Authors may well not have any meaningful bookmarks they want to present to the user, and would rather not have the menu there to get an even more minimal UI.
C) Some authors are putting bookmarks into the menu at which location there are no places in any of their tabs. They really aren't understanding that they should use the bookmarks to take people to places where there are lots of cool places.
D) It's one less thing you have to do in order to make a shortlist.
E) If the web map doesn’t contain bookmarks, like this test one: http://www.arcgis.com/home/webmap/viewer.html?webmap=e0215ce64f8244eba2850c195fe0f551 the Shortlist fails to load: http://storymaps.esri.com/templates/shortlist/?webmap=e0215ce64f8244eba2850c195fe0f551 and it isn't obvious to users what is wrong, so it makes it hard to debug.
We currently make bookmarks compulsory in the Shortlist web map. We should make bookmarks optional. If the web map contains no bookmarks, could we automatically hide the 'Neighborhoods' (aka 'Zoom' menu). In this way, the menu will only be there if users have bookmarks in their web map.
Why should we make them optional? A) Some authors don't have many bookmarks defined and it looks like they have only defined them reluctantly. A lot of authors have not created a decent set of bookmarks for their map - it really doesn't seem to occur to them to spend the time to make a good set, or they don't think it's worth it. B) Authors may well not have any meaningful bookmarks they want to present to the user, and would rather not have the menu there to get an even more minimal UI. C) Some authors are putting bookmarks into the menu at which location there are no places in any of their tabs. They really aren't understanding that they should use the bookmarks to take people to places where there are lots of cool places. D) It's one less thing you have to do in order to make a shortlist. E) If the web map doesn’t contain bookmarks, like this test one: http://www.arcgis.com/home/webmap/viewer.html?webmap=e0215ce64f8244eba2850c195fe0f551 the Shortlist fails to load: http://storymaps.esri.com/templates/shortlist/?webmap=e0215ce64f8244eba2850c195fe0f551 and it isn't obvious to users what is wrong, so it makes it hard to debug.