Re: "Good" Installation Examples?

On 18 Oct 2007, at 02:03, jaclyn schrier wrote:

> A client has a web-based ecommerce site that requires users to  
> install a
> "Download Manager" on their computers.  Ideally, users wouldn't  
> need to
> install anything at all, but the technical folks are certain that  
> there
> isn't another way to achieve the positive benefits.  If users must  
> continue
> to install this software, we want to make the process of doing so  
> as simple
> and minimal as possible.  Can anyone point to "good" user  
> experiences for
> installing software to a computer over the web?  Of course, this  
> will need
> to work on popular PC and Mac browsers (Internet Explorer, Firefox,  
> and
> Safari).  Thanks!

Java Web Start might be a possibility... Sun's software download  
manager is installed on users' machines this way.  However, this  
solution (a) requires that the download manager is written in Java,  
and (b) can be a little painful if the user doesn't already have Java  
installed on their machines, as the installation process will then  
also include installing Java first.  But on the upside, being written  
in Java would also afford the cross-browser/platform capabilities  
that you want.

http://java.sun.com/products/javawebstart/

Cheeri,
Calum.

-- 
CALUM BENSON, Usability Engineer       Sun Microsystems Ireland
mailto:[email protected]            GNOME Desktop Team
http://blogs.sun.com/calum             +353 1 819 9771

Any opinions are personal and not necessarily those of Sun Microsystems

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