We do. Let’s first define pogo-sticking as it relates to web development:

“Pogo sticking is the act of jumping up and down through the hierarchy of a web site, repeatedly hitting the back button to move to the next item in a list.”

Let’s review two examples.

Example 1: You are researching a company online and want to peruse the company’s press release section. You start with the first press release and need to go back to the main listing page to access the next press release. Wouldn’t it be easier to be able to access the next press release from the press release detail page you were on originally?

Example 2: You are looking online for a flat panel TV. You visit a leading ecommerce site and see a great listing of flat panel TVs and drill down to one that fits your budget. You want to see the next TV the site offers and have to go back to the listing page. Wouldn’t it be easier if you could travel in a linear path to the next TV from the page you are currently on?

At White Lion we see the need for a visitor to pogo-stick as a barrier. The accumulation of barriers, both small and large, quickly add up to lost opportunities. As we all know, lost opportunities can be costly whether it’s a sophisticated ecommerce site or an interactive informational corporate site where first impressions are often made.

How do we fix the unnecessary clicks or the need to pogo-stick? It’s certainly not rocket science. The answer has been used in online photo galleries practically since the Internet went mainstream. The solution lies in a simple “Next/Previous Mechanism.” The mechanism is also armed with title tags allowing a visitor to hover their mouse over the “next” or “previous” links. The mouse hover reveals a description of what the visitor can expect. The Next/Previous Mechanism helps dramatically reduce pogo-sticking by allowing an intuitive linear path of exploration compared to having to jump back and forth from listing pages back to detail pages.

For an example of a White Lion-designed site with the Next/Previous Mechanism in action, visit the T.Stacy site. T.Stacy has been in the forefront of purchasing, managing and selling downtown properties in Austin and other cities across Texas.

Pogo sticking eliminated when viewing by city: http://www.tstacy.com/portfolio_list.php?location_id=1

Pogo sticking eliminated when viewing by project: http://www.tstacy.com/portfolio_detail.php?building_id=56

Pogosticks can be fun, but when it comes to finding information, no one likes to be bounced around.

Best regards,

Steve C. Kahle - Managing Principal - White Lion Internet Agency