Using Drag and Drop on the Web
While exploring some existing web applications with drag-and-drop capability, we found out that there are at least two situations where drag and drop smoothes up the user interface and the interactivity between human and machine. Drag and drop can be successfully used in:
Shopping carts
Sortable lists
Shopping Carts
You’re probably familiar with traditional e-commerce websites. In the light of the new AJAX boom, a new generation of shopping carts has appeared, where visitors have to use drag and drop to add products to their carts, instead of clicking an “Add to Cart” button. While one could argue the real usefulness of this “feature” (my grandmother still prefers the button, she doesn’t know how to drag and drop), the visual effect is pretty impressive.
A few websites have already put this into practice. One such example is Panic Goods—selling t‑shirts! The URL for this is: http://www.panic.com/goods.
Notice the light blue bar on the bottom of the screen? That’s...
