Elastic Windows

In the Elastic Windows web-browser application, web pages are displayed in hierarchically nested windows. When a new page is opened it is placed in a window next to the parent page. At the lowest level is the page node which resides in the window node which in turn can be hierarchically nested in other windows. Hierarchicons also reside in a window node and can be transformed into a hierarchy of windows (Figure ).

• Page node: The capacity of a page node is 1. Its space requirements change as the user resizes a page. The representation function simply draws the contents (I) of the web page.
• Window node: The capacity of a window node, depends on the visibility of pages and windows it contains. As the number of nodes increase, the space used by each decreases, and due to the scaling of contents in Elastic Windows, its visibility decreases. The space requirements of a window change since windows are resizable. The layout function in Elastic Windows enforces a non-overlapping tiled strategy, where pages/windows (I) are organized in alternating horizontal and vertical tilings. It also allows packing the window, collapsing all pages and windows it contains into a single bar, saving a lot of screen space. The representation function of a window, simply draws window borders surrounding all the nodes it contains.
• Hierarchicon node: The capacity of a hierarchicon is 1. Its space requirements depends on the size of the thumbnail image created, which is typically one fifth of the original window size. The representation function simply draws a down-scaled image of the window the hierarchicon is associated with.

• Page-Window link: The access cost of a page from a window is rather low as it is visible. If the page is not of desired size, a resize or maximize operation might be necessary. The footprint of a page on the window node is quite high since it is visually shown, probably with a smaller image of the page contents.
• Window-Window link: The access cost of a window from its parent window is associated with the same cost as in the page-window link. The footprint of a window on its parent window is also high due to visibility.
• Hierarchicon-Window (1:1) link: The window (hierarchy of windows) associated with the hierarchicon can be accessed by clicking on the hierarchicon. The footprint of the window is high since its down-scaled image is shown as the image of the hierarchicon.
• Hierarchicon-Window (M:1) link: Hierarchicons reside in windows and can be accessed by manipulating the view of the window. Thus, its footprint depends on the visibility of the hierarchicon.

Web Accessibility