Introduction

Modern User Interface Designers could perhaps be segmented into two basic categories: those who design applications and those who design web sites. Much of what has been published in books on UI covers the design of applications and operating systems - the most necessary of applications. Much of what is written on the web is unsurprisingly about web site design. Web site design seems to have grown up into a whole different field. Books have started appearing and by and large they are written by a new set of authors. There seems to exist a huge gulf between the two disciplines: application design and web site design.

Applications vs Web sites

It's not difficult to see that a huge gulf exists. Just take a look at your screen now. You are probably viewing this text using Netscape Browser or Internet Explorer - both applications. What you are viewing is a web site rendered in HTML. Surf around a bit - check out some other websites. Consider what you see in the browser frame, how it looks, how it feels, then compare that to how the browser itself looks and feels.

There is a big difference, huh!

Currently, application design and web design are so far apart, they are two different disciplines.

Applications are machines, web sites are paper

Think of your VCR, your hi-fi system, your microwave, or the dashboard of your car. All machines! Buttons to press, knobs to turn, touchy, feely and 3-Dimensional. Applications are like these - buttons to press, widgets to play with. The visual affordance is such that you treat the application like a machine. It could be argued that there is a machine metaphor at play. Application design is about machines, it's engineering!

Now think of the brochure for the timeshare apartment that you are considering buying, or the package holiday brochure you picked up at the travel agent, or a glossy periodical that you take each month. If these were available on the web, what would you expect to see? Something pretty similar to the paper document, maybe in a different layout. You might expect to get more information, real time, or animation, video, sound, but basically the same thing as on paper. Web site design is much more like pure design, its about visual communication on paper. It's art!

E-Commerce where Applications meet Web Sites

So when does a web site design become an application? As soon as you start to do e-commerce! When you put behaviour and logic into the webpage, it becomes an application. So it ought to look like an application, right? Wrong!

Take a look at Amazon.com. Does it look like an application? Does it remind you of any line of business app. you've ever worked with? Probably not.

The truth is, that application designers can learn a lot from good old fashioned design and from the way that visual communication knowledge has been applied to web site design.

A more human readable form

This month we take a look at a UI Pattern for Applications which learns a lot from Web Site design and presents data in a more human readable form. The technique saves space and reduces cognitive load for readers of the information.

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