30 September (Part 1) - No more Lightbox
If Tablet computers are included a little over 50% of visits to BiB are made on mobile
devices which is why the research into a more mobile friendly Bonkers continues.
BiB’s Lightbox (which allows images to expand when clicked)) makes no
concessions to mobiles whatsoever and maybe expanding a picture to fit a device with
a screen not much bigger than the original image is arguably a waste of effort.
Nevertheless Lightboxes remain popular so something needs to be done.
Switching to a newer system is difficult because the trigger mechanism for the image expansion
is different, retrospective application would involve tens of thousands of
changes across the site.
Adopting the new system from ‘today’ only proved difficult too because the new system interfered with the old.
A compromise might be a variant on the old system, not perfect but better than
what is in use now. While the changes are made there will be no Lightbox image expansion on BiB
and maybe it will misbehave at times.