Window Manager Designed for Cloud Services with Function of Drawing Window Frame Edge

Abstract

Cloud services like web-based e-mail or hosted office suites are becoming widespread. With these services, PC users are likely to use several services and to visit several sites at once, e.g. document preparation with looking in a net dictionary, or Internet surfing with watching movie. As a result, several windows appear on the desktop, and their overlapping complicates access to hidden windows. In this study, the authors propose a window manager running on the browser. The proposed window manager employs a tiling style in order to improve the usability of multiple cloud services at the same time. It also employs a window placement method implemented by drawing frame edges, and a window replacement method using drag and drop. The authors developed essential functions as a window manager and as a browser, and evaluated by a desktop experiment and a trial experiment in a college class of dozens students. The desktop experiment showed that the proposed window manager was effective in reducing the number of operations for window placement or replacement. The trial experiment showed that it improved efficiency and it was user-friendly compared with other window managers.