Question

In Chapter 14 of Designing Web Interfaces, authors Scott and Neil define the ‘Periodic Refresh’ pattern and cite Digg’s DiggSpy as a canonical example.

I agree that the pattern and its manifestation are excellent ways of serving real-time information to the user.

I’m facing a similar challenge. I’d like javascript (and jQuery) to continuously update divs of information on a web page.

My layout will differ from DiggSpy in two important ways:

1. Multiple divs will be updating simultaneously (but not synchronously).
2. The divs will not span the width of the page.
   1. In other words, they will be more square than rectangular.

In spite of my desire for updates, I’m mindful of the principle that you should use animation sparingly so as to avoid confusing (or boring) the user.

My question:

Have you seen any improvements or
variations of DiggSpy that exemplify
the ‘Periodic Refresh’ pattern and
might be appropriate for my purposes?

Answer 1

Try multiple simple spy instances.

Here’s the ‘How-to’ page.