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At 08:55 AM 2/14/2006, Shawn Milo wrote:<br>
<blockquote type=cite class=cite cite="">Here's something I threw
together to help out a friend. This is my sample page with some sample
pictures from my hard drive.<br><br>
<a href="http://milochik.com/shawn/picViewer.html">
http://milochik.com/shawn/picViewer.html </a></blockquote><br><br>
Hi Shawn,<br><br>
When I first ran this page I thought it was broken, so more user
interactivity would be helpful. Specifically I would:<br><br>
- put the thumbnails in anchor tags so the widget is usable without a
mouse (think: accessible).<br><br>
- on hover and focus, make the mouse pointer a hand (no-brainer if
they're in anchors) and provide some outline styling so the thumbs look
clickable and to confirm which thumbnail has the focus.<br><br>
- provide some kind of hourglass effect or "loading" message to
indicate that something new is being downloaded. I didn't realize
at first that anything was happening when I clicked a thumbnail, and in
fact opened another browser figuring that it simply didn't work in
Firefox.<br><br>
- also to that end, stop thumbnail rotation when one is selected until
its large version has downloaded. Part of the reason I thought it
was broken is that the thumbs kept rotating even after I clicked
one.<br><br>
- make the ALTs descriptive of the photo content. (I realize this
is just a demo, but try to persuade your friend to add useful ALT
text.)<br><br>
Other than that, it seems workable. You've got a decent interval
between thumbnail rotations so it isn't hard to select the one you
want. To make sure this isn't a problem, you might consider slowing
down the timer when the mouse is being moved just so you don't
inadvertantly swap thumbnails while the user is aiming to click on
one.<br><br>
Regards,<br>
Paul<br><br>
(Are you in the dojo photo? Red shirt?)</body>
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