From Rich Internet Applications to Rich Internet Experiences
May 21st, 2007 - Mitch Olson
Ryan Stewart of ZDNet (and now Adobe’s latest Tech evangelist - congrats Ryan) posts about “Making business apps more like video games” in his latest Universal Desktop article. He asks the question “Will business apps evolve to incorporate video game-like interfaces?”.
I think for sure, led I believe by B2C (Business to Consumer) RIAs. For instance as we start to see more “Rich Retail” RIAs (nextgen web-based shopping sites & shop-browsing engines) an obvious enhancement is the virtualization & rich visualization of navigation - ie. being able to move through a virtual store to find and compare the goods we are interested in buying.
What non-gaming applications are starting to borrow from gaming applications is what I see as an aspect of a general trajectory from what are currently called “Rich Internet Applications” to what might be called “Rich Internet Experiences”. The articulation of this difference can be subtle but I personally see it evidenced by;
- Representationally & visually richer UIs (3D, video, rich media)
- The technology being more transparent
- Greater interactivity
- “Show, don’t tell”
- Something that engages the senses first and the intellect second
- The maximization of visual cues that create the sense of participation in virtual analogies to real-life experience
Some simple examples of experientially-richer UI artifacts include;
- chat bubbles vs. text chat window
- emoticons
- WYSIWYG
- avatars vs. presence list
- (3D) spaces vs. 2D pages
What video games are pushing the boundaries on is the “show don’t tell” mantra. The value in this for business applications and their users is that they make the navigation and comprehension of the applications more accessible. Technologies such as 3D are now becoming more reachable and in conjunction with the rich expressiveness of development tools like Adobe Flex and Microsoft Silverlight, it is not going to be long before we see Business apps incorporating much richer video-game-like representation. 
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