CSS3 module: Basic User Interface - couple of ideas

Hi all. I was pondering over a couple of additions to the 'CSS3 module: Basic User Interface'.

A sequence-fulfilment property, which allows you to specify a rule which applies 'if thing A happens, then thing B happens, then thing C happens' (and other logic and conditional combinations thereof).

This would be useful as you could have a style rule applied if, for example, user focus falls on A, then B, then C. You could have a different result from a different style rule if the user focus falls on A, then C then B, for example. This might be useful for behavioural clues and cues regarding interface 'intelligence'.

Second idea was a pretty simple timing conditional - to gauge how long people might spend doing something, so that something else could be adjusted accordingly. Let's say we had a timeout style rule, which if a button was given focus and activation, and then another button given fairly rapid focus and activation, and then another, in a predictable sequence, it could be fair enough to assume the user is experienced in this particular chunk of user interface and therefore not just finding their way around, so the user interface might 'evolve' to the user by forming part of itself into one button that hitherto was doing these three common sequential actions time after time. (does this make sense?). Or the opposite might apply - if what seems to be a logical progression is taking seemingly excessive time, maybe it's time to pop up a visible block of help explanation.

Anyway, by allowing window-discrimination regarding timeouts, it would be possible for the stylesheet to trigger on rules that have sensible timing aspects applied, regardless of how the designer uses them.

Just a thought or two.

-- 
Ian Tindale

Received on Monday, 16 September 2002 06:43:08 UTC