Using SVG for an User-Interface to a Digital Library

Interfaces for users on the web are usually created using standard HTML-technologies. Although dynamic textbased features are widely available on the web (e.g. by using DHTML) there are still some limitations in the user experience when using dynamic graphical elements. In this article we focus on a GUI-prototype using Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) as an interface to an existing Digital Library. First we describe the current situation of the running system and explain some of the limitations in the GUI. Thereafter we compare the document-format with other electronic formats. An overview of the prototype and a description of the used framework will be given in the main section of this article. Finally we are going to show an improved version of a search task using an SVG-category viewer. The currently supported SVG-recommendation (SVG 1.1) by the SVG-plugins have some limitations. The upcoming release will solve some of the problems and introduce new features related to data-handling and database access. An outlook of these new features and lessons learned in implementing the prototype will close the article.