Image-browser taxonomy and guidelines for designers

In many applications users must browse large images. Most designers merely use two one-dimensional scroll bars or ad hoc designs for two-dimensional scroll bars. However, the complexity of two-dimensional browsing suggests that more careful analysis, design, and evaluation might lead to significant improvements. Our exploration of existing 2D browsers has led us to identify many features and a wide variety of tasks performed with the browsers. We introduce an informal specification technique to describe 2D browsers and a task taxonomy, suggest design features and guidelines, and assess existing strategies. We focus on the tools to explore a selected image and so do not cover techniques to browse a series of images or to browse large-image databases.<
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