Web User Interface (was Free OS/400)

John,

Your post was thought provoking.  Particularly because I'm so fond of the
Object => Action, Work-With paradigm that's so widely implemented in OS/400
green screen applications.

But I see a conflict between that paradigm and the one implemented in most
Web applications.  While 5250 is keyboard oriented, the browser is point and
click oriented.  While 5250 is more efficient for data entry and
maintenance, the browser is more efficient for inquiry.

It is possible to implement a keyboard oriented Object => Action paradigm in
a browser.  But it tends to come across as cumbersome in comparison to the
5250 screen.  Furthermore, it negates the point and click features possible
in a browser.

So far, I've come up with a compromise.  I show the Work-With list in the
left-hand frame, the currently selected record in the center frame, and the
action buttons in the right hand frame.  For a simple example see:

www.relational-data.com/rd1200/begin.isp

This paradigm seems to work well for inquiry and single record maintenance.
The problem is when you need to edit or delete a large set of records -
point and click may be easy, but it's also time consuming.  For those types
of requirements, my idea is to provide a prompt for a query that would
return a result-set, along with action buttons to do a cyclical edit or a
mass delete of every record in the set.

Just some ideas.

Nathan M. Andelin
www.relational-data.com


> Date: Sun, 8 Jul 2001 10:32:51 -0400
> From: jpcarr@tredegar.com
>
>  I was wondering.     In the 70's and 80's  it took us a few years to come
> up with the best interactive design paradigm.
>
> We went from Action Object (Display screen with choices 1,2,3 to add,
> change delete then pick what you wanted to work on(like customers)
> to Object Action  ie the basis of the Sys/38 and AS/400  Work With screen.
>
> Do we think that the best methodology has been thought up for the
> GUI/Browser  Interface?    Pull down boxes are nice,  but they are a pain
> if you have to do it repetitively for say 5 things( pull down select it
> disappears,  pull down select it disappears,  pull down select it
> disappears)   The Subfile Work With paradigm is completely missing from
> anything designed from a Non-AS/400  developer.     The ability to do the
> equivalent of putting an Action Option 2,  4, 5,5,5,4,2 on a series of
> items in a list and then process them sequentially is completely foreign
to
> the GUI/Browser design Paradigm.
>
> Is my thinking just wanting it to work like what I've done in the past or
> is what I've done in the past a good/fast design paradigm from the user
> perspective?
> I don't mind throwing out old design paradigms that no longer make sense,
> but are we throwing out the baby with the bathwater in some cases?
> I don't know?      We hear that the GUI is more user friendly for the
> unfamiliar/new user,  but the character mode is faster and easier for
> erudite users.     Is there some balance that hasn't been achieved or
> conceived in terms of the new interface design paradigm?
>
> Ten years from now are we going to look at the current Browser design and
> say,   "Boy,   we didn't know what we were doing,   Look how hard it was
to
> use the things we put out there compared to now"
>
> What would the "NOW"  be then(in the future)
>
> John Carr


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