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PARC's Popout Prism Aids Web Navigation
sulo writes "Popout Prism is a Web Browser that reduces the amount of time users end looking for information in Web pages. By creating visual "popouts" that emphasize critical elements in Web pages, Popout Prism draws users' attention to the right information." Not a very complicated idea, but one that could be useful.
...get crackin!
I'm using it on /. right now and nothing pops out.
I'm usually not one for the Karma-whoring (TM) but the site seems to be on its knees.
What is Popout Prism?
Popout Prism is an intuitive, elegant tool to reduce the amount of time users spend looking for information in Web pages. By creating visual "popouts" that emphasize critical elements in Web pages, Popout Prism draws users' attention to the right information.
How does it work?
Using perceptual design principles based on PARC research into visual attention, Popout Prism makes critical information "pop out" from the background Web page.
Users operate Popout Prism as they would operate any other Web browser, entering URLs and following links as usual. To make critical information pop out, the user enters keywords. Popout Prism enhances those keywords in the Web page as well as in an enhanced thumbnail overview. Users can quickly scan the enhanced document to find relevant content.
Popout Prism features
Here's a look at some of the key features of the Popout Prism browser:
* "Overview" (left side of Popout Prism): an enhanced thumbnail which gives an overview of the Web page shown in the detail view.
* "Sliding window" (dotted rectangle on the overview): a sliding window that can be used as a scrollbar to navigate to different parts of the Web page shown in the detail view.
* "Detail view" (right side of Popout Prism): a full-size view of a Web page that can be enhanced with popouts.
To see the Popout Prism browser in action, view this short video demo.
Popout Prism Demo mpg (27mb)
Popout Prism was tested internally by technical and non-technical users during a normal work week. The perceptual design principles were effective: Popout Prism users were able to quickly find information, and they preferred the Popout Prism interface to traditional "find" and highlighting techniques.
Can popouts be used in other ways?
Popout Prism is an experimental Web browser that showcases PARC's popout technology. This same functionality could also be included in many other tools, such as knowledge management solutions or code development environments. In the future, we may release a toolkit for generating enhanced thumbnails. If you would be interested in being a pilot user for such a toolkit, please send a note to popoutprism-support@parc.com.
Im dreaming ofa big bndwdth, That can resist the