App VS. Page
Software Development on the Web is undergoing a revolution. We’ve had the ability to build responsive, useable, dynamic applications for quite a while now. But no one has capitalized on it. No one has been building those applications. Most web developers are still stuck in the WebPage mode of design and not the WebApp mode of design. Thankfully, companies like Google are starting to give the WebApp design philosophy some high profile attention with apps like Gmail and Google Maps. So what exactly is the difference? There are a number of radical differences between WebApp and WebPage Design modes. Each has a use in website designing.
Webpage Design is about presenting information. It focuses on making the content readable, understandable, and locatable. Reference sites, and online literature sites do well with this design philosophy. Blogs are another instance where the WebPage Design philosophy works well.
\
WebApp Design, on the other hand, focuses on responsive, dynamic, realtime action. Sites that allow the user to do something benefit the most from this approach. The Administration front ends to Reference sites, a WebMail site, and Online Game sites are all excellent candidates for the web app approach to design.
Elements of these approaches to design are now getting combined in interesting ways. Google’s autocomplete feature is one example. A melding of the two can only be beneficial to Web Development trends. In future articles I will be talking about some of the technologies that make these trends possible.
April 19th, 2005 at 1:08 am
Warning! Spoilers ahead…
Technologies (in my mind) that are pushing the boundaries in traditional web app usability: Ajax, Laszlo/Flash, XUL (and perhaps Avalon on down the road).
Some technologies, like .NET or JSF’s traditional GUI approach to web interfaces, make developing web clients more like developing traditional GUIs, but that’s not a difference the user will notice (in terms of interactivity, useability, etc.).
Other technologies, such as REST web services, are making it easier to decouple the back end from the GUI, allowing users to attach multiple GUIs (traditional web apps, Flash-based apps, etc.) to the same back end.
Definitely some interesting stuff going on–one web site I just discovered today that embodies some of the stuff we’re talking about is http://blablalist.com/ .
April 24th, 2005 at 8:57 am
The real defining technologies right now I think are Ajax, XUL, and perhaps Avalon (if it ever gets released and can be cross platform). They all define more traditional interfaces than the standard static html page. More point click and see something happen now, less point click and wait for page to reload. Web pages are becoming applications. And that excites me. I can’t wait for more interfaces like that. There is no reason my blogging software shouldn’t be able to show my a realtime preview of my entry, never refresh the page when I publish the article and just generally be as responsive as my word processor when I use it. That’s the next big wave I think.