[Roadster] browser-like behavior

[Nathan Fredrickson]

On Tue, 2005-22-02 at 14:26 -0500, Ian McIntosh wrote:
> If we can make Roadster work something like a web browser, it'll be easy
> for everyone to learn.  Examples:

I'd be wary of taking the model too far, but I agree with your examples.
It is a map browser after all, so it fits the browser model more than a
document model.

> A "Back" button in the toolbar, so you can always get back to where you
> were before a search (and we can auto-jump to search results without
> losing user information: where they currently are).

If there is a Back button, then there should probably be a Forward
button too.  Does it maintain a stack of previous views and present them
in a drop-down menu from the button (as web browsers do)?

> A "Bookmarks" menu item, where users could store their most common
> places (their house, work, etc.), or just cool places (some places just
> look neat!).

This would be useful and everyone knows this metaphor so it's better
than making up a new one like "pushpins".

> This list could be used for quick routing: "get directions from here to
> [Home, Work, Other location...]".
> 
> A "Home Page" setting, which would be the location to use when Roadster
> starts (unlike MS S&T, users won't necessarily have the whole country
> loaded, so we can't just start at a country-wide view).

Having this settable could be nice, but we'd still need a good default.
Loading an empty gray screen initially is obviously not good.

> The new search box in the toolbar is already very Firefox-like.

Yes, and very much like google maps.  Having this box intelligently
interpret the majority of searches would be ideal, and for the remaining
advanced searches a dialog could be accessed from a toolbar button or
menu item.

> Thoughts on modeling Roadster after a web browser or these specific
> proposals?

The tabbed sidebar is browser like too.

-- 
Nathan