HOME Builder
JAMES HEIN
We are getting close to the end of our discussion of Web 2.0, interspersed with some other topics of interest. This week we start with the user experience of Web 2.0.
The Web 1.0 approach was to provide information or to give basic access to a service like checking your bank balance. These sites started off fairly simply with basic HTML rendering. Later came some dressing up via CSS and some activity via DHTML, but apart from some basic colouring and a few nice effects when your mouse moved over an item, things were still pretty much the same.
As early as 1992 the Viola browser was delivering applets, or active content within the browser, and the introduction of Java in 1995 was based on the same idea. Basically the aim was to provide programmability to give a lightweight client side and a richer user experience.
This gave us the term "rich Internet applications" from Macromedia with its Flash application, something that I don't endorse very heavily, especially on the primary pages, because it just take too long to get going. I understand that the aim was to provide a GUI-like experience, but most users want speed over a flashy presentation.
The WWW as a medium to deliver full-scale applications didn't really hit its stride until Google gave us Gmail, Google Maps and the combination of technologies called Ajax.
So we have come full circle: Ajax was not a technology but a combination of them used in a newer, more exciting manner. XHTML and CSS were included to give some standards. The Document Object Model (DOM) provided the dynamic display and interaction. XML and XSLT gave the data interchange and manipulation. The gem in the technology mix is the XMLHttpRequest that gives asynchronous data retrieval and JavaScript is the glue that binds it all together. This rather lengthy series has touched on all of these technologies.
Underlying the technologies, and just as important if not more so, is the design. I don't mean the colour scheme. These are personal things and attract different people in different ways - I mean the site design in terms of ease of use, and providing simple paths to what people are looking for.
We covered the term "the long tail," the huge number of small sites that make up the bulk of the Internet. Customer self-service is the key here, so that you can reach the whole of the Web, not just those people with your proprietary access pathways. The centric approach is not Web 2.0 thinking.
The data becomes the important part of the service, you need to find some unique data that users can then add value to. We looked at Google Maps and similar approaches from Yahoo! and Microsoft as the perfect examples of this concept. Given that most people will not be adding value, you need a way to add value just by people visiting your site or using your application.
Drop the barriers to adoption so that people will experiment or "hack" the system (in a positive way). Follow the basic standards, but have licences with few restrictions.
Remember that your application is in never ending beta. Introduce new ideas often and drop those that do not work or are not adopted. Get away from the long development cycle and make sure your implementation team, i.e. operations, has the best support. This way your users will become your best testers.
Don't try and control the system too heavily. Web 2.0 systems are built around a network of cooperating systems. Your web services interfaces should be open and allow for content syndication. Reuse the data services of others and find ways to incorporate them into your system. Use lightweight programming models that will allow you to loosely couple different systems together.
Remember that the PC is no longer the only access method so you will need to think about hand-held units. Web systems can now be as rich as a PC application so make sure that yours is not some old fashioned web screen. Remember that the technologies have been there for a long time, it is how you mix them that matters.
Web 2.0 is still evolving with things like Orkut from Google, basecamp and backpack from Yahoo! popping up all the time. It is the time of user interface innovation.
The delay caused by Microsoft fighting with Netscape over the browser standards have all but vanished so the focus can now shift to the user interface.
It is now in your hands.
Email: jclhein@gmail.com.
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