providing activity feedback to users

There are two places that activty feedback should be
provided to let reader know what is (or about to) happen...

[1] If the file is taking a long time to download or to render,
there should be a flasher or gauge to reinforce the fact that
activity is taking place andthat nothing has 'hung-up' or crashed.
I noticed this on a file that does a lot of color swatches in tables.....

[2] If there is a lot of hyperlinks as in a jump table
       then cursing over one of the hotspot areas should either:
    a] change the shape of the cursor  or
    b] display the link href in the status bar
  or preferably both....

One can't assume that the hotspots will be of a different color than
surrounding text or underlined ( i cant even find a way to select 
 underlined links in amaya but that isnt the point)  Feedback on
 clickable areas is necessary for a browser to be useful by other than
 the designer.... 


john russell  VE3LL@RAC.CA

homepage: http://web.cgocable.net/~jrussel

Received on Monday, 3 April 2000 14:13:32 UTC