On using partial orders for web application design

This paper aims to deal with some design issues of web applications using partial orders to enhance their navigability and extensibility.

The paper uses a static web applications model as a deterministic labelled transition system in which states are html pages and transitions are urls.

By using this model it is possible, on the one hand, to characterize the temporal evolution of a web application and, on the other, to classify web applications into several types according to the way the information is organized over the web application. This classification captures interesting properties related to the navigability and extensibility of web applications.

These ideas are applied to develop a simple web application, namely, a small virtual museum based on approximations of original paintings. Moreover, based on the extensibility characterization, the virtual museum is extended with different paintings approximations, while preserving navigability properties as well as browsing of paintings' approximations of higher quality resolution.

The results of this work provide useful and practical insights into the design of web applications that ensure navigability and extensibility properties.