Think, for a moment, about the dashboard in the vehicle you drive. Whether your vehicle is a 1973 AMC Gremlin, a yacht, or a Boeing 747, the characteristics are the same. They all provide:

• Instant, visual indications of the most important operational parameters of the vehicle.
• Visual and/or audible indications of abnormal conditions.
• Controls for certain important functions.
• Indications that are arranged to be seen all at once.

From an application-development standpoint, one of the shortcomings of HTML is the fact that it is, first and foremost, a markup language, not a programming language. Although HTML5, the latest version, lends itself more to interactivity than previous versions, it is still mostly about presentation and not so much about applications.