Analyse of Interactive Graphics in HTML5 from the View of a Practical Application.
Stefan Huovinen Ottosson · 2011
HTML5 is a part of the Web Applications 1.0 standard, which aims to take native web browser functionality many steps forward in order to allow for a richer and more interactive browsing experience. The HTML vocabulary has been extended with new multimedia elements such as and , and there are also two interactive graphics elements to choose from: and . Web standards are important because they allow for easy and free com- munication of ideas and applications. This however demands a wide support among web browsers.The problem described in this report has been to design a web application for programming a home security device using rich visualisations, resembling that of a flowchart. Furthermore, the problem has been to assess whether or not the offered interactive graphics technologies were adequate for creating such an application, if browser support was wide enough and if performance would be a limiting factor.The project has resulted in a prototype application that has been analysed thoroughly, along with tests for determining standards conformance and quantitative animation performance. Web browser market share statistics has also been collected and used to put the results into perspective.A solution based purely on HTML5 was not recommended at the time of the study because only 50 per cent of end users had a browser that supported the standard. The remaining half, however, used browsers of a common brand that would acquire HTML5 support in its upcoming version. A test has been specifically designed for SVG and can be used in any browser to determine general stand- ard conformance. Performance has been harder to measure accurately but should at least not pose a problem to the application that has been developed. The browser that seemed to have had the lowest performance has been identified and has been recommended for further testing when the application is developed further.