Re: A few notes on "single frame mode"

Hi,
I've gotten a suggestion that the user actions I proposed might be
somewhat confusing to users.  An alternative set of user actions
could be:

    1.  display summary web page for current frameset

    2.  go to web page in next frame area in list of web pages / frame areas
	for the current frameset

    3.  go to web page in previous frame area in list of web pages / frame
	areas for the current frameset

    4.  return to page for previous frame area

    5.  go back in web pages for the same frame area as the current
        web page

    6.  go forward in web pages for the same frame area as the current
        web page

    7.  bookmark web page for current frame (rather than web page
        for all the frames)

The user action numbered 4 is slightly different than user action
marked 3.  User action 4 lets to user jump directly back to the web page
for the frame area he/she was previously viewing.  For example,
suppose that the user is viewing a web page for a frame area.  Now
suppose that the user selects a new web page from the summary.
If the user wants to return to the old web page when done reading
the new web page, instead of using the summary to make the change,
the user could just use user action 4.


An advantage to this strategy is that there are two fewer user actions
to develop or remember.  The draw-back is that a user could become
somewhat confused if the user forgets that he/she is viewing
a page with frames.  Some additional cuing might be needed to
remind the user that the web page being viewed has frames.
The cuing will also be useful when moving backward or forward in the
stack of web pages.

An additional helpful feature will be if a browser is in single frame mode
and the user selects a link which changes the page in a different frame area,
the browser should automatically switch to that new page in the
different frame area.

Scott

Received on Thursday, 1 October 1998 00:24:59 UTC