Graphical History List with Multi-window Support on a Mobile Web Browser

Abstract

Rolling back to previously visited Web pages and opening multiple browser windows or tabs at the same time are common activities in a Web browsing session on a PC. When using a mobile device for Web browsing, these usage patterns have to be supported seamlessly in the mobile environment under the additional constraint of limited screen real estate. In this paper, we introduce a solution called rolling history, a user interface targeted for mobile devices with 4-way navigation control and graphics acceleration hardware. We tested the usefulness of a rolling history prototype in two small-scale user studies and the results indicate that rolling history is a useful feature for Web history navigation and browser windows management. The rolling history case demonstrates how to design a unique user interface for a mobile device without displacing the deep-seated use patterns that people have found useful on a PC.