[Sigia-l] Going from Windows GUI to Browser-Based GUI

[Christopher Fahey [askrom]]

Deb Reiser wrote:
> I'd like to get some background on issues UI 
> designers, IAs, UX designers, et al, encountered 
> when working on a project that involved 
> transforming a Windows-based application into 
> a browser-based application. I'd be interested 
> in links to project case studies or summaries of 
> your approach  to the project.

I have not done such a port before, but I have been a user of, and have
had to integrate my work with, the dreadful products of such efforts
before. 

Often developers will port a desktop app over in its entirety, verbatim,
and will translate each and every dialog box and interface state into
new browser pages. I worked on a project where the "thin client" version
(the web site) implemented what should have been a 5 step process as a
18 page process... This was because the "thick client" version of the
application used a lot of dialog boxes for filling in forms (for
example, you click an onscreen entity and a dialog pops up, into which
you fill in your information). 

In other words, be careful to avoid a "literal" translation... It may be
better to simply use the "thick client" version as a tool to generate a
use-case requirements list, and then start the "thin" client web
application interface design process from scratch, forgetting about the
way the thick client does it. This is not only because web interfaces
have different opportunities and constraints from desktop applications,
but because desktop applications are very rarely designed with anywhere
near the kind of attention to usability as web sites are. There's no
sense mimicking something that is, in all likelihood, terrible (no
offense to your product or team, I've just notice that most desktop apps
are really crappy compared to most web sites).

Good luck!

-Cf

[christopher eli fahey]
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