Re: [Usability] tabs, views and a lot of data

[Calum Benson <Calum Benson Sun COM>]

On 13 Feb 2006, at 10:10, Peter Klein wrote:
> To view such a behavior in the real world I would like to point to  
> this
> url:
> http://hci.uni-konstanz.de/MedioVis/MedioVis-HyperGrid.jar
> (use "Shrek" for an example query ;-))
> I do not think that this demo will kill all usability flaws that  
> are linked
> up with big information spaces and different views - but it ist  
> certainly
> an interesting alternatives.

Interesting idea, although I'm not sure about its applicability to  
most typical desktop applications--  most of the cells in that  
spreadsheet could just as well be implemented with gtk expander  
widgets, something like the Mac's Get Info dialog:

http://www.mactips.org/wp-content/File-Info-Summary.png

although admittedly it wouldn't look as pretty :)

I'm not sure I'd necessarily see it as a replacement for tabs,  
either... tabs were really /designed/ to be used in cases where you  
don't need to retain context between them, and indeed it's arguably a  
HIG violation if you force the user to remember stuff as they're  
moving between tabs.  (If you do need to show information common to  
multiple tabs, you can show that information in a part of the window  
that lies outside the tabbed area).

Cheeri,
Calum.

--
CALUM BENSON, Usability Engineer       Sun Microsystems Ireland
mailto:calum benson sun com            Java Desktop System Team
http://blogs.sun.com/calum             +353 1 819 9771

Any opinions are personal and not necessarily those of Sun Microsystems