Devices for Web Pages

Information Presentation and Interaction Techniques

Principles

Good

• ‘Smooth’, not jerky• Immediate, not page-

load• In-place, not page load• Multiple choices/ steps/

actions all performed in the same place

• Some devices allow better use of real estate, others allow users to consciously make the page more complex

Bad

• Cannot use the Browser’s back button, so widgets have to be used intelligently – do not perform ‘too many’ actions or those kind of actions that a person would click the Back button to ‘undo’

Basic Principle: Display• Something of x size, can become

something of Y size, based on user interaction. At either size, that something can have totally different content

• What the first x is (as tiny as a full stop, or as large as an ad banner) is totally within our control

• What the final Y is, is also totally within our control and can be designed completely differently, independent of the first x

• The ‘Y’ can act as a pop-up (over other existing elements), or as a larger space on the same page (pushing away other elements)

• The design of the page needs to account for this flexibility

Basic Principle: Function

• As a next step, something can happen in between the x and Y states: some data can be sent to the server, processed and new data can be displayed

• E.g., the user can change an icon on a toolbar. This change can be permanently recorded for that user on the server when the change is happening

User Input

Help the User while asking him for inputs (usually text)

Auto Complete Text box (Get Quote)

• Shows a list of auto-complete options while typing in text boxes, a-la Google Toolbar

http://ajaxwidgets.com/AllControlsSamples/, http://www.ajaxed.com/

Spellcheck

• AJAX can be used to provide spell-check functionality

Form Fields

• Guide a person through filling forms instead of throwing him error messages at the end

Content Sectioning

Different ways to show ‘lots’ of content in less space, with

1 level of categorisation

Vertical Tabs (called ‘Accordion’)

http://www.zdnet.com/

Accordion

For Navigation: www.Apple.com

Horizontal Accordionhttp://dev.portalzine.de/index?/Horizontal_Accordion--print

Simple Tabs

Yet Another Simple Tab

http://Windows.com

http://gulnar.in

Horizontal Tabs, with Transition Effect

http://www.zdnet.com/

Simple Tabs, with differing content sizes

Promo Unit, that expands on mouseover

http://www.zdnet.com/

• The design needs to allow for elements to be ‘pushed’

Content Switcher (different ‘tab’ presentation)

• Moving mouse over different links changes the content in the box

http://www.cnet.com/

Yet Another Content-Switcher

http://www.cnet.com/

Inline Pop-up

http://Windows.com

Yahoo style hidden tabs

www.yahoo.com

Switching Slides in Hero Spot

www.AOL.com

Expanding Content Space

http://www.playboy.com/articles.html

Navigation

Product Slider

http://www.ajaxdaddy.com/demo-jquery-carousel.html

Mac Like Menu

http://www.ajaxdaddy.com/demo-css-dock-menu.html

MS Quick Links

Top Slide Down Sitemap

http://codeigniter.com/user_guide/

Vertical Menus

• Old-school, but with better transitions

• Menus fold out vertically• This is similar to menus

opening up next to the top-level element, except that this requires a click, the other one happens on mouseover

http://www.cnet.com/

Personalisation

Give users the choice to customise their views

Personalisation

• First time a person comes to the site (customer), ask him to ‘personalise’ his site. Simple checkboxes let him set his ‘default’ view and a preview on the right shows a layout

• Layout needs to be designed with flexibility in mind, so that units can be ‘pushed around’

http://www.live.com/getstarted.aspx

Movable Boxes

• Boxes can be dragged around, closed or even personalised

http://www.live.com/

Page, Toolbar Options

http://www.yahoo.com

Remove, Rename Tabs, Add Tabs

• Each tab can be deleted, renamed or ‘set to default’• New tabs can be added, with a selection of what you want to

see in that tab• PS: Note that the site’s theme colour (masthead, link colours)

have changed based on the tab selected

http://www.live.com/

Windows

• Can be moved around, minimised or maximised

http://ajaxwidgets.com/AllControlsSamples/

Slideshows

Pictures, Products, Videos

Cute thing with Pictures

http://www.ajaxdaddy.com/demo-dhoni-show.html

Sexy Slideshow

http://www.ajaxdaddy.com/demo-smooth-gallery.html

Other Presentation Trends

Common features being used these days

Sitemap in Footer

Tour/Demo Pages

• Take a Tour pages are kept COMPLETELY clutter-free

• This is NOT a popup

• So what if the standard navigation links are also not there. There’s a link to go back home

http://in.webmessenger.yahoo.com/

Click n Drag

• You can drag across the timeline to view different events (or different prices of 5 stocks, for example)

• On clicking each ‘event’, details open up

http://simile.mit.edu/timeline/

New Item Fade-in

Sortable Tables

http://www.ajaxdaddy.com/demo-sorted-table.html

Many More

• Widgets: http://interface.eyecon.ro/demos

• Forms: http://www.zapatec.com/website/main/products/forms/demo.jsp

• http://www.ajaxdaddy.com/

What’s Coming Tomorrow?

Take a peek into the future

• Completely fluid, possibly 3-D, NOT very expensive websites

• Interfaces will gain a new axis of complexity

• The right design will differentiate between complex and simple

• Each site will be an experience, not just what you read or do

Get the Experience(no point showing 2D screenshots for these)

First install \\Library\Software\System_Tools\Silverlight.1.0.exe

• http://www.windowsvista.si/default.htm

• http://www.tafiti.com/• http://www.mediapreview.tv/