Exploiting the Full Web User Interface Spectrum

Abstract

Applications which exploit the graphical user interfaces of Web browsers are appearing at a growing rate and will become more prevalent in future. Such client-server applications can exploit the hardware platform independence of the Web user interface. However, there are limitations on the user interface features which can be supported by Web browsers.

Over recent months a variety of mechanisms have become available to push back most restrictions and provide a spectrum of Web user interfaces. This leaves the designer of Web-based client applications with the difficult choice of which user interface mechanism to choose. The capabilities and trade-offs of the Web user interface spectrum are described in this paper and some simple guidelines are developed which lead the application designer to the correct choice of user interface mechanism. Some examples of user interface components are presented to support the guidelines.

Keywords

User interfaces, fill-in forms, CGI scripts, form elements, Javascript, Java, plug-in.