Designing Green's Dictionary of Slang Online

Green's Dictionary of Slang Online launched in 2016 as the online version of the largest dictionary of English slang. Its design was carefully considered from a usability perspective to help readers find the information they desire, including innovative use of graphical devices new in historical dictionary publication; and both to take the maximum possible advantage of the benefits of online publication while also trying to retain and improve certain beneficial aspects of the nature of a print dictionary heretofore not achieved in other online dictionaries. To this end, ergonomic factors, including the familiarity of readers with existing typographical conventions of dictionary design, and the effects of adding interactive elements, were considered. Special consideration also had to be given to user feedback on design of the search tool, which gave useful information about how dictionary readers understand and relate to the structure of entries and resulted in a significantly more intuitive search tool being available in the launched website.

Access to chronological data figures significantly in the dictionary's design, not only in the use of quotation paragraphs as in printed historical dictionaries but in the re-interpretation of the chronological information in them in graphical displays. Chronology is also always made available in the context of other information (geographic, demographic, and semantic) from the dictionary, allowing the development of slang through time to be understood in its full historical context.