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User:David Regev/Firefox ZUI: Difference between revisions
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== The Problem == | == The Problem == | ||
[[Image: | <span title="'Taft in a wet t-shirt contest' is the key image here.">[[Image:XKCD 214 thumb.png|right|link=http://xkcd.com/214/|alt=XKCD #214: The Problem with Wikipedia]]<span> | ||
For several years now, people have been aware of the ‘too many tabs’ problem in Firefox (and other browsers). I first started thinking about possible solutions when the issue was discussed on the [http://humanized.com/weblog/2007/06/19/humanized_puzzler_2_firefox_tabs/ <span title="Humanized Puzzler #2: Firefox Tabs, by Aza Raskin">Humanized weblog</span>]. Many insightful comments were made, but the following solution did not hit me until a reference was made to [http://xkcd.com/214/ <span title="‘The Problem with Wikipedia’">a certain XKCD strip</span>] (pictured here). It then hit me that XKCD did better job of visualizing the user’s [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mental_model <span title="Mental model - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia">mental model</span>] than most browsers were doing. If Firefox were redesigned as a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zooming_user_interface <span title="Zooming user interface - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia">zooming user interface</span>] (ZUI), there would be a mode direct mapping of the mental model to the interface while the ‘too many tabs’ problem would be solved as well. | For several years now, people have been aware of the ‘too many tabs’ problem in Firefox (and other browsers). I first started thinking about possible solutions when the issue was discussed on the [http://humanized.com/weblog/2007/06/19/humanized_puzzler_2_firefox_tabs/ <span title="Humanized Puzzler #2: Firefox Tabs, by Aza Raskin">Humanized weblog</span>]. Many insightful comments were made, but the following solution did not hit me until a reference was made to [http://xkcd.com/214/ <span title="‘The Problem with Wikipedia’">a certain XKCD strip</span>] (pictured here). It then hit me that XKCD did better job of visualizing the user’s [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mental_model <span title="Mental model - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia">mental model</span>] than most browsers were doing. If Firefox were redesigned as a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zooming_user_interface <span title="Zooming user interface - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia">zooming user interface</span>] (ZUI), there would be a mode direct mapping of the mental model to the interface while the ‘too many tabs’ problem would be solved as well. | ||
<div style="clear: | <div style="clear: right"> | ||
==A Solution: ZUIs== | ==A Solution: ZUIs== | ||
</div> | </div> | ||
The following is a partial mock-up of how the browsing session depicted by XKCD could appear in a ZUI. | The following is a partial mock-up of how the browsing session depicted by XKCD could appear in a ZUI. | ||
[[Image:Firefox ZUI thumb.png|thumb|center|320px|Firefox ZUI mock-up]] | |||
* All web content is laid out on a plane. This plane contains not only the current “open” pages but one’s entire browsing history. Pages appear in full, without scrollbars, arranged in a manner akin to a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mind_map <span title="Mind map - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia">mind map</span>]. Each page is a node in a tree, with pages that were opened from scratch placed as the root node. Navigation is accomplished by zooming and panning. The vertical position of the top of a page represents the time that page was opened relative to surrounding pages. | * All web content is laid out on a plane. This plane contains not only the current “open” pages but one’s entire browsing history. Pages appear in full, without scrollbars, arranged in a manner akin to a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mind_map <span title="Mind map - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia">mind map</span>]. Each page is a node in a tree, with pages that were opened from scratch placed as the root node. Navigation is accomplished by zooming and panning. The vertical position of the top of a page represents the time that page was opened relative to surrounding pages. | ||