- From: Ian Hickson <ian@hixie.ch>
- Date: Wed, 16 Jun 2004 11:23:19 +0000 (UTC)
On Fri, 11 Jun 2004, Nigel McFarlane wrote: >> >> However, having said that, making things better for users is good too: >> what do you think needs improving in terms of user experience with Web >> applications? > > The point I keep coming back to with Web apps is that they are a > fundamentally different use-case to Web docs. > > Web docs are "browsed" and "read", which can be re-phrased as > "lightly navigated". They are visited "ad-hoc" or casually. That, to me, largely describes most of the Web apps I use on a daily basis. I browse and read bug databases, visit Google on an ad-hoc basis, use GMail casually... > Web apps are "tightly navigated" and subject to "data entry". They are > visited "repetitively" or routinely. ...and I "tightly navigate" several W3C specs repetitively and routinely, although I would call them documents not applications. In general I think the separation of "data" from "code" -- the separation of "document" from "application" -- is a concept that has been outgrown and is not really understood by users now that "users" involves people who do not know the first thing about computers or the internet. I agree that there are things Applications need that HTML doesn't provide, of course, that's what WHATWG is all about. > Of course, it's possible to build a DHTML page that's tightly navigable > without the user having to absorb a lot of information about images and > white areas. It's just not done much. And it's not possible to navigate > a Web app by keyboard without the focus moving to the toolbar > (irritating) or else providing a pop-up window. Not 100% sure what you mean by these. Could you elaborate? Maybe there are some things we can do to HTML to solve these problems. > The web bolt-on technique of "breadcrumbing" is an example of how HTML > is encumbered by lack of fast navigation techniques. There are no > breadcrumbs in WinZip or in MYOB/GnuCash/QuickBooks (for example), and > no need for them. I don't really see that there is a need for HTML-based applications of that type either. GMail for example has no breadcrumbs. > http://www.webreference.com/programming/xul/index.html >From a brief look there, the only thing you do in XUL that can't be done in HTML appears to be natively-supported tabs. That's on the list of things to look at for Web Apps 1.0. -- Ian Hickson U+1047E )\._.,--....,'``. fL http://ln.hixie.ch/ U+263A /, _.. \ _\ ;`._ ,. Things that are impossible just take longer. `._.-(,_..'--(,_..'`-.;.'
Received on Wednesday, 16 June 2004 04:23:19 UTC