RE: ACTION6: URL display as anti-pattern

Amir Herzberg wrote:
> Stephen Farrell wrote:
> > Close, Tyler J. wrote:
> > > My perspective is that the difference between chrome and page area

> > > should be the difference between "browser says" and "web site
says".
> >
> > Nice distinction.
> Too nice.
>
> Our experiments show quite clearly: users do not make the distinction
> between the chrome and the web page.

Since currently there is no clear distinction between the chrome and the
web page, I think users are behaving perfectly rationally. I think your
studies, and those of many others, are correctly revealing the muddled
message of the current browser user interface. Today, the visited web
page speaks from the whole browser window. There is no area of the
window that is beyond the influence of the visited web page. There is no
clear distinction for users to make, and so they make none. Perfectly
reasonable behaviour.

I see this situation as a fundamental part of our problem. We can't
protect ourselves from an attacker when the attacker controls our whole
worldview. I think we need to fix this problem, so that we have a place
to stand when engaging the user in interactive ceremonies, such as the
one I described in my message "Integrating the chrome"
<http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-wsc-wg/2006Dec/0016.html>.

> I don't think this is (only) due to the fact that sites control the
> location bar (and possibly other parts of the chrome).

I think you're right. Another serious problem is lack of integration of
the chrome. Currently, the user's locus of attention is always fixed
within the page content. The user never has a reason to consult the
chrome, and so never does. We also need to fix this problem. Again,
consider the ceremony in my message "Integrating the chrome".

> Another implication, imho, is that any attempt by us to recommend
> a dramatic change on the chrome, e.g. remove the location bar, has
> the potential to cause vendors to ignore (possibly all of) our
> recommendations.

Well, I put the question to George. Let's not prejudge and instead wait
for his opinion, and hopefully that of the other represented browser
vendors. Personally, I think my suggestion to replace the Location bar
with a slightly tweaked Search bar is actually just a natural
progression of how the Location bar has been evolving anyways. Try
typing a search request into the Location bar in Firefox 2.0. We're
almost there already.

Tyler

Received on Thursday, 7 December 2006 17:32:39 UTC