Web Browsing
Summary of Web Navigation
Source: Missing File (/brain-ui/uploads/design-descriptions%2Fbrowsing-summary.doc)
We began by characterizing the user and his task as a way of identifying the points of interest for that user and the necessary steps in reaching them. Out of those characterizations came several ideas we had not previously thought of (the need for a "screen blank", quick-access, the idea of a "picture show" (essentially a macro facility), and the idea of using a Huffman encoding to organize favorite links). I'll go through the characterization and then each resulting idea. Q: Where do we go from here?
USER
- Has only 2 input signals ( 3 if you count "lack of signal")
- Has difficulty switching between signals
- Has lots of time (prefers control to speed, e.g. mousing vs scanning)
- Has no currently known specific goals in using the web (our task)
- Has extreme difficulty producing text
TASK
- Visiting specific web page or portion of web page
- Looking for specific information on the web
- Just browsing
ENVIRONMENT
- Home grown (we're building it)
- Renderer renders web page (we can't change rendering)
- Parser can extract links (we can modify what links are stored)
- No control over web page content
- Incomplete knowledge of where to locate content
- May require text entry
CIRCUMSTANCES
- A managed care setting
- Often no technical experts present (end goal – currently there's always one present)
- Can only use one application at a time
- Very difficult to ask for help/ask questions
- Can't adjust equipment easily (e.g. monitor glare)
- Can't substitute other technology for what we provide
- Not very private ( e.g. nurse enters room)
This leads to the following concepts of locations, routes, and steps:
- Locations: portions of web pages ("points of interest), blank screen, app switcher
- Routes: the steps leading to a specific POI
- Steps:
- hyperlinks
- Preset controls/buttons
- "scroll" (next portions of a page)
- Wayfinding: we did not address
Italics = we hadn't thought of this before this analysis
Steering
- Map 3 signals to motion in a logical space?
- Eliminate "select step" plus "invoice step" if possible (for example "selecting" a link may cause renderer to change visible page to show link, while "invoking" one would change pages)
- Favorites for going to specific pages
- History helps browsing?
- Picture show: ie cycle through morning favorites (news, weather, etc) or show some-one the interesting highlights of earlier browsing
- Huffman encoding: make the most popular spot easiest to get to (this tree structure ands itself to logical navigation")
- Zooming - another way of navigating a "logical" tree?
- Privacy: a "quick blank" is important so patient has privacy (eg he's complaining about stuff, looking at bank accounts, etc)