[UI] Browser Resizing

[Anne Kathrine Petteroe <yo...@gmail.com>]

Hi,

before we move on with the development of a new web UI, I would like   
to comment on the use of browser resizing.

Based on the drawings in Bill's document, it looks like the UI will be  
living in it's own browser window to work best.
When I look at the design it looks like it is sometimes not a full  
browser window but more like  a floating box in a broswer window to me.
See "The Shrunken  Window" chapter for instance.

I see a possible problem with a UI that runs in a separate browser  
window. Most modern browsers (FF, IE7+, etc) use tabs.
Most users have learned to use multiple tabs rather than multiple  
browser instances.
Therefore, resizing the entire browser window based on ESME-related  
changes would cause problems with the other applications that are in
that browser instance.

The problem for me with this is that I would never use a UI which  
needs a seperate window. (unless I am forced to use IE6)
My browser window is always set to 1024px with at any given time at  
least 5 open tabs. Google Reader, gmail, twitter and SDN are the four
services I *always* have open as tabs.
I would like to see a UI which doesn't affect the size of my browser  
window, which means in any give state is no wider than 1024 px.

What do others say about this issue?

/Anne

Re: [UI] Browser Resizing

[Bertrand Delacretaz <bd...@apache.org>]

Hi,

On Fri, Feb 6, 2009 at 11:01 AM, Anne Kathrine Petteroe
<yo...@gmail.com> wrote:
> ...Based on the drawings in Bill's document, it looks like the UI will be
> living in it's own browser window to work best....

As a general rule, could we point to things like "Bill's document"
with URLs when we mention them?

That helps people who are half-following the discussion get the
context, and that adds a lot of value to the mailing list archives.

-Bertrand

(sorry if I'm playing pedantic mentor here - I'm writing about
"speaking in URLs" somewhere else as we speak ;-)

Re: [UI] Browser Resizing

[Bill Fernandez <bi...@billfernandez.com>]

Hi Anne--

Good points.  Here are some thoughts.

(1) It's true that I initially assumed that it would run in its own 
window, and that it would resize the window in response to certain 
user actions:  shrink/expand, show/hide left sidebar, show/hide right 
sidebar.

(2) Now that you point it out, it's obvious that we have to make the 
design work in a multi-tab scenario as you've described, without 
causing the window size to change when in that mode.  So I'll have to 
factor that into my thinking as I start work on a real UI spec.

(3) I still think the shrink/expand mode of usage will be useful to 
some people, but for those who run in a  multiple tabs mode they can 
simply never click the "Shrink" button and there will be no problem. 
If desired we can have a user-preference as to whether to enable or 
disable this feature so they can never accidentally shrink the window.

(4) I'm not yet sure how to handle showing/hiding sidebars (haven't 
really thought about it yet), but I'm sure I can come up with 
something reasonable to propose.

Regards,
Bill


At 11:01 AM +0100 2/6/09, Anne Kathrine Petteroe wrote:
>Hi,
>
>before we move on with the development of a new web UI, I would like
>to comment on the use of browser resizing.
>
>Based on the drawings in Bill's document, it looks like the UI will 
>be living in it's own browser window to work best.
>When I look at the design it looks like it is sometimes not a full 
>browser window but more like  a floating box in a broswer window to 
>me.
>See "The Shrunken  Window" chapter for instance.
>
>I see a possible problem with a UI that runs in a separate browser 
>window. Most modern browsers (FF, IE7+, etc) use tabs.
>Most users have learned to use multiple tabs rather than multiple 
>browser instances.
>Therefore, resizing the entire browser window based on ESME-related 
>changes would cause problems with the other applications that are in
>that browser instance.
>
>The problem for me with this is that I would never use a UI which 
>needs a seperate window. (unless I am forced to use IE6)
>My browser window is always set to 1024px with at any given time at 
>least 5 open tabs. Google Reader, gmail, twitter and SDN are the four
>services I *always* have open as tabs.
>I would like to see a UI which doesn't affect the size of my browser 
>window, which means in any give state is no wider than 1024 px.
>
>What do others say about this issue?
>
>/Anne

-- 

======================================================================
Bill Fernandez  *  User Interface Architect  *  Bill Fernandez Design

(505) 346-3080  *  bill@billfernandez.com  *  http://billfernandez.com
======================================================================