Question: is the browser chrome important?

By Paul Farnell
7 Mar 2006

Question: is the browser chrome important?

I’d like to canvas opinions on this. Presently we deliver screenshots in two styles: Window and FullPage.
How important is the Window capture? I know personally I never look at the Window capture, I go straight to the FullPage capture, without the browser chrome, because I find it far more useful.
Just wondering if we can simplify the interface by removing the Window captures. What do you think?

Ted

I suppose that the Windows capture does give a sense of where one is.
http://www.36-degrees.co.uk Stuart Frisby

I think if you took out the chrome, you would need to have some sort of reference within the image of the browser, as that is the visual clue once you’ve downloaded the image.
I like seeing the chrome, if only for the above point, and i think the current option of both full-screen and windowed captures is better than only offering one. Plus, with windowed, you do not have a sense of what is above the fold as you do with a windowed screenshot.
Stuart.
http://adamhopkinson.co.uk/ Adam Hopkinson

It’s important to have the chrome when looking at how a site looks at smaller resolutions. The chrome shows how much of the canvas is visible (and which action points of our site) without the user having to scroll.
http://www.sitevista.com/ Paul

Thanks for the feedback guys. Adam: apologies, I should have made this clear, but we’d keep the chrome on the tests for different resolutions either way – as you say, it is important then.
http://vertomedia.com Benjamin Reece

I think it is VERY important
- gives developer sense of placement
- fullpage is sometimes buggy
- If you are looking to reduce server load, take out full page (IMHO)
http://abscond.org James Darling

It’s important for showing clients. It’s much easier to convey that the site works in lots a browsers if you show them screenshots including the window. I think pages of (hopefully) identical webpages may confuse them a bit.
http://www.sitevista.com/ Paul

Thanks for everyone’s input, this has been really helpful. We’re going to _keep_ Window captures now, based entirely on this feedback.
http://www.51shareware.com/multimedia-design-video/aimone-screen-recorder10862-3.htm Bill Kenny

Window capture is interesting, you can see a totally different world!
this is a good capture window tool
AimOne Screen Recorder
Prova

Chrome always. Update it to IE7 tho..

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