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User:David Regev/Ubiquitous Firefox Revisited: Difference between revisions
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User:David Regev/Ubiquitous Firefox Revisited (view source)
Revision as of 22:25, 11 August 2015
, 11 August 2015→Lessons & Principles: WorldWideWeb didn’t have a Back button!
David Regev (talk | contribs) |
David Regev (talk | contribs) (→Lessons & Principles: WorldWideWeb didn’t have a Back button!) |
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'''Open ''vs.'' Open In New Tab is not [http://web.archive.org/web/20080221100719/http://rchi.raskincenter.org/index.php?title=Monotony_in_The_Humane_Interface monotonous].''' Related to the previous issue is the choice we must make every time we click on a link: should I open it here or in a new tab? This choice creates a small delay every time you click on a link. Over time, these delays add up. They also contribute to a mental burden that builds up over time, especially every time you realize you should have opened a link in a new tab, so you must go back and lose even more time undoing that mistake. Worse, for those who are not comfortable with opening links in new tabs, the benefits of this form of browsing are out of reach. What if we removed this “choice” and optimized the interface for one form of browsing? Then the interface would be more monotonous (in a good way): you don’t have to think about using it—you just use it. | '''Open ''vs.'' Open In New Tab is not [http://web.archive.org/web/20080221100719/http://rchi.raskincenter.org/index.php?title=Monotony_in_The_Humane_Interface monotonous].''' Related to the previous issue is the choice we must make every time we click on a link: should I open it here or in a new tab? This choice creates a small delay every time you click on a link. Over time, these delays add up. They also contribute to a mental burden that builds up over time, especially every time you realize you should have opened a link in a new tab, so you must go back and lose even more time undoing that mistake. Worse, for those who are not comfortable with opening links in new tabs, the benefits of this form of browsing are out of reach. What if we removed this “choice” and optimized the interface for one form of browsing? Then the interface would be more monotonous (in a good way): you don’t have to think about using it—you just use it. | ||
: ''Note:'' The very first browser, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WorldWideWeb WorldWideWeb] (later renamed ‘Nexus’), actually didn’t have the previous two issues. Instead of relying on a Back button, [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3c3Rt6QbHDw&t=363 clicking on a link created a new window]. Of course, such a system quickly leads to too many windows, which is why the Back button was later created in the first place. An alternate solution to that problem, however, could have involved better window/document management. | |||
'''The History Scroller is probably too much.''' My [http://www.flickr.com/photos/davidregev/5342557596/in/photostream previous solution] to the issues outlined in the previous paragraphs involved showing all spawned pages within the same tab, merged into the tab history. Although this seemingly solved the problems, it created a new widget that must be learned. This would have contributed to the proliferation of mental models: the tab bar (or Panorama) for organizing tabs, and the History Scroller for organizing tab histories. This actually isn’t very different from today, where we have the Back/Forward system in addition to the tab bar. On top of that, the tab history model fits in even less with Panorama (tab groups): it looks like you’re arranging all your pages on a flat plane but, in fact, each page you see comes with many others hidden. What if we truly flattened this hierarchy into one consistent interface? | '''The History Scroller is probably too much.''' My [http://www.flickr.com/photos/davidregev/5342557596/in/photostream previous solution] to the issues outlined in the previous paragraphs involved showing all spawned pages within the same tab, merged into the tab history. Although this seemingly solved the problems, it created a new widget that must be learned. This would have contributed to the proliferation of mental models: the tab bar (or Panorama) for organizing tabs, and the History Scroller for organizing tab histories. This actually isn’t very different from today, where we have the Back/Forward system in addition to the tab bar. On top of that, the tab history model fits in even less with Panorama (tab groups): it looks like you’re arranging all your pages on a flat plane but, in fact, each page you see comes with many others hidden. What if we truly flattened this hierarchy into one consistent interface? | ||