User Interface: improving the technology that allows users to
effectively perceive and express information
"Web information will grow immensely in variety, and be used by a much
greater diversity of people than today. What is imperative is that
simplicity and interoperability continue to be of prime importance." --
Vincent Quint, User Interface Domain Leader
Mission
The User Interface Domain seeks to improve all user/computer
communications on the Web. In particular, the Domain is working on formats
and languages that will present information to users with more accuracy and a
higher level of control.
In July 2001 the User Interface Domain was split into two new domains: Document Formats and Interaction. Please refer to those
new domains to get the latest information.
This page is no longer updated. It is provided as historical
background.
Hypertext Markup Language -- known as HTML -- is the lingua franca for
publishing on the Web. Following the success of W3C's HTML 3.2 and HTML 4.0, the Consortium is
designing the next generation of the markup language. The new HTML, called
XHTML, is re-cast in XML and is being designed so that it can be used in
combination with other XML applications.
The HTML Activity also includes work on the next generation of forms. This
work started as a subgroup of the HTML working group but has now been spun
off into an independent working group (XForms). The key idea is to
separate the user interface and presentation from the data model and logic,
allowinging the same form to be used on a wide variety of devices such as
voice browers, handhelds, desktops and even paper. XForms brings the benefits
of XML to Web forms, transferring form data as XML. XForms aims to reduce the
need for scripting, and to make it easier to achieve the desired layout of
form fields without having to resort to using nested tables etc.
Style sheets offer precise control over the presentation of Web pages. Not
only can Web designers specify the visual effects they want, but also aural
style sheets give control over voice, pitch and other aspects of how the text
will sound when rendered into speech. After the publication of two
recommendations, CSS1and
CSS2, W3C continues to evolve
the Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) language to provide even richer stylistic
control, while emphasizing the importance of the thorough implementation of
CSS on browsers.
For more complex publishing tasks, such as automatically producing a table
of contents, and for converting documents written in XML into HTML for
publication, W3C is developing the Extensible Style Sheets Language (XSL),
which builds upon experience in CSS and DSSSL.
W3C's Synchronized Multimedia Activity focusses on the design of a
language for scheduling multimedia presentations where audio, video, text and
graphics are combined in real-time. The language, the Synchronized Multimedia
Integration Language (SMIL) is
written as an XML application and is currently a W3C Recommendation. Simply
put, it enables authors to specify what should be presented when.
Communicating mathematical and other technical notation is a challenging
and important task. The demand is high for effective means of electronic
scientific communication. To address the needs of the scientific community,
W3C has developed a core specification for embedding mathematical expressions
in HTML and XML documents. In April 1998, W3C published a Recommendation
entitled Mathematical Markup
Language, or MathML, which provides a way of encoding both mathematical
content and visual presentation for mathematics at all levels, from
elementary school to scientific research.
Graphics are the most visible part of the modern Web and arguably one of
the primary reasons for it popularity and explosive growth. Successful use of
graphics on the Web depends on interoperability across platforms, output
resolutions, color spaces, and software products.
In October 1996, W3C issued a Recommendation for Portable Network Graphics
(PNG), a format for
bitmapped images. Interoperable methods of integrating CGM vector graphics
have then been developed and constitute the WebCGM Profile Recommendation.
W3C is now developing Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG), an open vector graphics
format written in XML, and designed to work across platforms, output
resolutions, color spaces, and a range of available bandwidths.
W3C is working to expand access to the Web to allow people to interact
with Web sites via spoken commands, and listening to prerecorded speech,
music and synthetic speech. This will allow any telephone to be used to
access Web-based services, and will be a boon to people with visual
impairments or needing Web access while keeping theirs hands & eyes free
for other things.
The Web was originally developed to enable people throughout the world to
communicate with one another. Having a single system that can deal with all
languages and cultures has many advantages: when the same protocols are used
everywhere, the same software can likewise be used.
W3C has successfully stressed the role of Unicode as the basis for
identifying characters in documents. Work is continuing on providing markup
and style components for international needs.
W3C's Device Independence Activity is working to ensure a seamless Web for
all access devices by reorganizing the Mobile Access and Television and the
Web Activities into one. Web services are becoming accessible from a wide
range of devices from desktop PCs to in-car computers, TV, digital cameras,
and cellular phones. W3C is well-positioned to lead development to avoid
incompatibility and to achieve single Web authoring.
Amaya is a highly advanced and powerful Web client which acts as both a
browser and an authoring tool. It has been designed with the primary purpose
of being a testbed for experimenting with, testing and demonstrating new
specifications and extensions of Web protocols and formats.
Before Amaya, Arena has been
developed by W3C as a testbed for HTML and CSS.
Currently ten members strong, W3C's User Interface team brings together
some of today's most respected innovators in Web design tools. Its
representatives have considerable knowledge in markup languages, style
sheets, graphics, fonts, and internationalization, among other areas. The
team is led by Vincent Quint, whose areas of expertise include electronic
documents, document models, hypertext, and document production systems. The
team also solicits external advice from leading experts in the field.
