Sarah Allen (formerly of Macromedia) is now working at Laszlo Systems. We're working on a project togetehr called "Laszlo Blogging Widgets" (LBW) and it's gonna be totally cool.
Not only will the LBW support (n)Echo-Atom and other burgeoning micro-content standards, but it's gonna show the world what Laszlo's all about and why the time is NOW for rich media apps.
There is an opportunity to take ideas from desktop applications and apply then to the web. All user interface design is information visualization. We can blur the distinction between dynamic content and transactions. In designing desktop UI in the ‘90s, it was wonderful to see context-sensitive panels and toolbars gradually replace the modal dialog. Why make the user ask a question when we can provide the answer? Some of today’s web sites are already applying this principle in creating dynamic data-driven sites.
I'm not convinced that today's desktop applications are the best we can do in terms of user experience, nor do I believe that most web applications benefit from the same designs that work well on the desktop. We can borrow ideas and design principles, but the graphical user interface elements and layout don’t always translate well. Most desktop apps were created to let you create and modify documents: word processor, spreadsheet, graphic design tools, etc. Most web apps let you ask questions, find information and perform transactions.
Unlike a desktop app, a web site is a place. I find this metaphor of travel oddly intuitive. It takes time to go from one place to another in real life, so it feels okay to wait when you “go” to another page on the web. We design multiple web pages with a consistent design and user interface elements to create the illusion that a web site, these multiple pages, are a single place. Nevertheless as you troll for information or finalize a transaction, a conversation takes place. You ask questions, fill out forms, click links, and the landscape changes. It’s a completely different experience than the one you have on your solitary desktop, and provides fertile ground for innovative design. [Sarah Allen's Weblog]
This fertile territory is what I call 'the new paradigm of tools'. But don't say that to a VC. They think it's impossible to make money off of tools. They think that Macromedia, Adobe and Intuit own the market.
But Sarah worked at Macromedia for 10 years, and I created it 10 years before that and we're both trying to say "there's a whole new things going on right now". It's a completely different kind of tool we're talking about. Yes - OLD SCHOOL tools companies are impossible to start right now, but it's all about NEW SCHOOL tools nowadays.
Context sensitive UIs, data driven UIs, UIs that adapt themselves to who the user is and what their ability level is. That's just the beginning. Built-in content, tied into the world's public domain libraries. Micro-content formats supporting open public servers.
Another cool aspect of these 'new kind of tools' is when the tool blends in with the web page. Go check out FOAF-a-matic. You think it's a web page, until you see some non-descript CGI fields. And then it's start to look like a FAQ or spec page. It's three- three- three things in one.
