Usability: Why is displaying PDFs side by side using iframes not recommended?

Question

My stakeholder would like users to have the ability to compare two PDFs side by side. They aren't content with users having to flick between PDFs (as normal). Instead, they'd like them to be embedded into a web page, next to each other. They would also like a drop-down menu above the second PDF to allow them to change the PDF to another one. I've included an image of this below to give you an idea of what this would look like. I hope you can see it:

I've built a quick and dirty demo of this working (see screenshot above) using iframes and a bit of javascript for the menu. The way this would work is that users would click on a button on a website saying 'compare PDFs' and that would bring up a separate screen in a new window which would contain only the two PDFs and the menu to switch PDFs (as per the image above).

The issue here is that although it's technically possible to achieve, it just seems so crude and wrong! But I need to be able to justify this with logic and reason. Is my instinct right, and if so:

• what are the reasons why this approach is not recommended? (e.g. could it be damaging to our reputation if we put something like this on our website?! Why?)
• do you have any alternative recommendations?

Or is this a perfectly good solution?!

Many thanks,

Katie

Answer 1

Katie, Your question is "why is this not recommended?"

• Because computers are better at comparing data than people are.
• This task is potentially tiring, inefficient and inaccurate.
• It is essentially a screen-real-estate-management task, and doesn't add value by summarizing, interpreting, transforming, clarifying, innovating or enlightening.
• It puts all the work on the shoulders of your users.
• It violates the "Don't Make Me Think" principle.

This might be a benchmarking task, and you might not need every line of that data in those PDFs to deliver something innovative and valuable.

I challenge you to talk with your stakeholders and brainstorm innovative ways to combine or summarize the key data. Are these credit reports? Grades? Medical test scores? Phone bills? Legal contracts? There are lots of great patterns that you could use to pluck out a few values and compare them to each other. Think tables, graphs, or charts. Look at what TurboTax does with tax data after you are done filing your taxes -- this is what you paid, now look at what the average person with your income earned, deducted and paid. A simple table, with two columns, You and Everybody Else. What data are they looking at, and what will they learn by comparing the two documents side-by-side?

Summarize, enlighten, clarify, and remove noise. Cut to the heart of what they want to see, and just show them that.

Best to you!