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Workshop #1: Web Applications: What's the Standard?Monday, July 8th, 8:30 AM - 5:00 PMAudience:Intermediate, AdvancedContact:carolp@mathworks.comKeywords:Interaction design, Standards and/or guidelines, User interface designAbstract:Web applications present special challenges to interface designers. Typical GUI interaction cannot easily be mimicked in HTML. Web site guidelines are not rich enough for complex, highly-interactive applications. In this workshop we will look at the unique issues of web applications and through discussion, will attempt to create some standards.Targeted Audience:Intermediate AdvancedDurationOne dayTopic Category:Issues and strategies for experienced usability professionalsSystem, Product, or Project Focus:WebParticipant selection criteriaWe invite position papers from people who have worked with web applications, either designing them or attempting to create standards for them. We particularly welcome papers from people who have worked on complex applications. We also invite position papers from those who have done usability testing on web applications and who have good ideas to share, even if they have not done actual design work.Position Paper Required for AcceptanceWorkshop registration is closed. If you are interested in participating please contact the workshop coordinator immediately. (Previous registration information: You must submit a position paper for this workshop before your workshop registration will be accepted and processed. Send your position paper to carolp@mathworks.com. Please include the following information in your position paper:)Interested participants must submit a 3-5 page position paper describing their experiences with web applications. Ideally, this will include:
Detailed description of content with session timelineDescriptionMore and more companies are embracing "thin client" - systems where only the interface exists on the user's desktop machine (usually in a web browser), and all the business rules and "guts' of the software reside on centralized servers. On the technical side, it is understandably attractive for corporations to avoid having to maintain multiple software applications on hundreds or thousands of employee machines. By running applications on a server with users accessing them via a web browser, installation, upgrade, and maintenance headaches are reduced and desktop hardware can be cheaper. Additionally, companies assume that because everyone is familiar with web browsers, web applications are easier to use. Unfortunately, this assumption is often incorrect. There are two basic reasons.Technical IssuesFirst is the technical problem of HTML. Designed for formatting text, HTML is ill-suited for creating complex, highly interactive interfaces. Users have become accustomed to modern window-based interfaces, and to the flexibility and ease in accessing data which those interfaces provide. Using HTML to build GUIs means taking a giant step back in design flexibility and available controls.For example, it is common in window-based applications for controls to dynamically interact; changing the selection in a dropdown list can immediately change the data and controls available to the user. With HTML, the designer must either use Javascript to provide this behavior (with all the problems inherent in Javascript) or require the user to click a submit button before displaying the new data and controls. Users of complex systems have become accustom to interacting with their data quickly and with a minimum of keystrokes. They will not be happy with an interface that impedes their progress. Standards IssuesThe second problem for web applications is the lack of standards. Although users may be familiar with browser controls such as the Back button, and web conventions like underlined text being a link, there is little else on the internet that is consistent from one web site to another, or from one web application to another.Other GUIs (Windows, Macintosh, etc.) have well-researched and documented standards for interaction, and you can rely on these standards when building applications. For example, users already know how pull-down menus work, how to use dialog boxes, and how to drag and drop. So when designing an interface, you can be fairly confident that by providing the standard cues, users will have little trouble using at least those elements of the interface. Although there are beginning to be some loose standards for web sites (such as positioning of logos or search boxes, display of links, etc.), these standards are not particularly useful when designing applications. For example, what is the best way to provide the user with a linear path in an application (as dialog boxes do in window-based applications). How should actions be distinguished from navigation? How and when should data be saved? Without standards, we can't make any assumptions that users will know how to interact with our applications.Mbr> Join us for a discussion of web applications. While we don't expect to solve technical issues, we do hope the outcome of this workshop will be the beginnings of a standard for web-based application interaction. Agenda8:30-9:00 - Introductions, sharing expectations, overview of the day by workshop leaders9:00-10:00 - Small Groups Focus area 1 discussion: topic TBD (see below) 10:00-10:30 - Break 10:30-11:30 - Reports from Small Groups 11:30-1:30 - Small Groups Focus area 2 discussion: topic TBD (see below)Groups should organize discussion and break for lunch as they wish 1:30-2:30 - Reports from Small Groups 2:30-3:45 - Small Groups Focus area 3 discussion: topic TBD (see below)Groups should organize discussion and break as they wish 3:45-4:45 - Reports from Small Groups 4:45-5:15 - Final Discussion: What have we learned-best practices, open questions 5.15-5:30 - Close-next steps, recommendations Details of the DayDuring the day we will choose three focus areas for discussion. (More below on how the focus areas will be selected). For each category of focus, we'll break into small groups to discuss:
The workshop leaders will review all position papers, and recommend focus areas for discussion, based on common experiences. Prior to the workshop, we'll circulate this list by email and solicit further recommendations from participants. We'll finalize the list of topics to discuss at the workshop. Possible discussion topics could include:
Dissemination of ResultsThe workshop leader will produce a report from the workshop for publication in either the UPA Voice or User Experience.BACKGROUND OF PRESENTERSMary Beth RettgerManager, Usability and Beta Testing Programs The MathWorks Voice: 508-647-7740 Fax: 508-647-7001 Email: mrettger@mathworks.com Mary Beth Rettger is Manager of Usability Testing and Beta programs at The MathWorks. She was previously manager of the Usability labs at Lotus Development. She has 10 years experience doing usability testing. Mary Beth is author of several articles related to usability including "Bringing the Users' Work to Us" (with Marie Tahir) in Field Methods Casebook for Software Design. She has presented at previous UPA conferences, and facilitated several workshops at UPA conferences. Mary Beth is Past President of the Usability Professionals' Association. She is past chair of the Presentations Committee, Workshop Committee, and Posters committee of the UPA Conference. Carol Peterson Sr. Usability Specialist The MathWorks Voice: 508-647-7178 Fax: 508-647-7001 Email: carolp@mathworks.com Carol Peterson is Sr. Usability Specialist at The MathWorks. She is responsible for the usability of the company web site, the corporate intranet and internal web applications. She has 9 years experience in usability testing and interface design, with the past 3 years devoted primarily to the design and testing of web applications. Carol has presented at a local UPA mini-conference and was a reviewer for the 2001 UPA Conference. |
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