Question

We’ve developed a security product which identifies certain types of unauthorized traffic on a network. The interface for displaying the messages is a Java Servlet generated page.

At this point, the page is a glorified console log. There is a big text box with lines of text added as warnings and messages are generated. A couple of cool features are the page is updated automatically using reverse ajax (DRW) and the latest messages goes to the top of the display.

Is there a way to make the look cooler? Also, we would like to somehow highlight or otherwise emphasize certain more serious warnings.

Any thoughts are most welcome.

Answer 1

Use established GUI ideas, particularly from AV suites. If you’ve any way of grading the analyses (from a ‘good’ state, through ‘moderate’ risk/danger to ‘high risk’), then use some form of colour to denote the grading. Ideally, and dependant on the increments, use something akin to

.all-well {background-color: #0c0; /* not using #0f0 because it's a little too bright, for me */
}
.slight-risk {background-color: #f90; 
}
.danger-will-robinson {background-color: #c00; /* again #f00 is just too much for my eyes */
}

Without details or screenshots of your app it’s hard to suggest anything that isn’t as basic and generic as above, sorry. If you add more info, I’ll try to offer better suggestions.