[Sigia-l] Summary - Multiple Browser Windows

[Shelley Goodwin]

Thanks you all who responded. Although my original post was a bit vague (I 
apologize) I did learn quite a bit and was able to pass some great leads on 
to my friend:

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My original post
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I'm helping a friend who is looking for information such as use cases, 
usability tests, guidelines, etc... regarding using multiple browser 
windows in web-based applications.

I believe he's in a bit of a sticky situation because the development team 
has already decided to move to web-based applications vs. Java because of 
the slow response time associated with Java (in their cases).

These web-based applications (there are many) will be used to perform 
complex tasks where the user will want to have multiple browser windows 
open as opposed to performing a session in a linear fashion like a wizard. 
He's looking for any existing data or research on the best way to go about 
this tricky situation.

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SUMMARY OF RESPONSES
=========================
Ziya Oz pointed me to the Macromedia web site 
(http://www.macromedia.com/desdev/topics/usability.html) where I found:

Smoothing Web Interaction:
http://www.macromedia.com/resources/business/sample_apps/customer/customer_app.pdf
User Experience White Paper (See Page 8:)
http://www.macromedia.com/desdev/mx/blueprint/articles/enhancing_interaction.pdf
Loading data from the server:
http://www.macromedia.com/desdev/mx/blueprint/articles/flash_ui_4.html
Reducing Round Trip and Refreshes:
http://www.macromedia.com/desdev/mx/blueprint/articles/flash_ui_5.html

-----------------------------
Hi,
Some results from a workshop a couple of years ago:
http://www.acm.org/sigchi/bulletin/1999.1/shubin.pdf
Yours,
JP
-- 
http://www.cs.hut.fi/~jparkkin/
------------------------------

Hi Shelley. Biggest argument against multiple windows is that it 'disables' 
the back button, but I do use them in situations where I want to clearly 
initiate a separate experience or process (like a sidebar link to an 
external site.)
If you use them, consider consistency (the same kinds of information should 
always be opened in separate windows) and obviousness. If you can do it in 
an elegant way, let the user know that a new window will be opened, and 
once it is opened make it clear that its a new window, perhaps by using 
javascript to make the window smaller and offset from the main.
some thoughts...
Chris Shafer
Sr. Information Architect
cshafer at modemmedia.com
Modem Media
---------------------------------------

More generally, are there any good references (papers,
articles, books) on web APPLICATION design? There are
lots on web sites, and web pages, but it seems to me
that when you are moving a whole complex application to
the web it's rather different than designing a web site.
You want to take some techniques from traditional
user interface design, and mix them with techniques
from web site design, and the combination has some unique
trade-offs. Any good references out there?
One that I have is the book "Code notes for web-based
UI" editied by Brill. It's very good but (as the title
suggests) it's more about programming than about design.
- Mitch
--------------------------------------------------
What I found on my own with Google:

This paper is excellent for showing how to map spawned windows:
An information architecture notation for managing multiple browser windows, 
frames and embedded objects simultaneously.
http://www.silverboots.com/whitepapers.html

Designing Web Applications: Lessons from SAS(r) User Interface Analysis
http://www2.sas.com/proceedings/sugi27/p010-27.pdf

USER INTERFACE STANDARDS 6.1 Introduction 6.2 User Interface ...
http://easi.ed.gov/inside_projecteasi/assets/documents/swds/sect6_ui.pdf

Design Considerations for Web Based Applications:
http://www.aviation.uiuc.edu/new/html/ARL/2001HF-conference/wroblewskirantanenhf01.pdf

Web Application Interface Design
http://www.lukew.com/folio/writings/web_applications/sources.html

Proposed deletion of checkpoint on spawning windows
http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/w3c-wai-ua/1999OctDec/0099.html
A very cumbersome discussion about spawning new windows (



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Thanks again,
Shelley Goodwin

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