The UIRC posted a great interview this week. Kent Seki was the Visualization and HUD Supervisor for Iron Man.  I loved the futuristic interfaces for Iron Man I put them right up there with the UIs from

Minority Report:

and The Island:

For Ironman , Kent really needed to make UIs that were credible, realistic and modern in order to establish the main character’s identity. The Article really does a great job of giving us some insight to the challenges that were presented to him, and Kent’s creative process that addressed those challenges…

Catch the article here:

http://www.uiresourcecenter.com/user-interface-design/articles/inside-iron-man.html

Another noteworthy article released this week was with Kim Lennox from Adaptive Path.  She discusses designing for exceptional mobile UIs:

http://www.uiresourcecenter.com/user-interface-design/articles/designing-exceptional-mobile-experiences.html?s=1_1

Adobe recently announced Flash search-ability, and it is starting to stir up renewed excitement for the Adobe platform. Neil McAllister at InfoWorld raises a couple of good question on the relevance of Flash content being searchable (view the entire article here):

“if today’s RIAs no longer resemble what we would call the Web, then is shoehorning those applications into the Web’s infrastructure really the right way to go? If application developers feel limited by the constraints of standards-compliant browser technologies, should they really be targeting their applications for the browser?”

I spent some time today chatting with Rebecca, our Chief Marketing Officer, about how she views “Search”. Rebecca did a ton of marketing consulting for large organizations before she joined the EffectiveUI team, and she had some terrific insight to share with me on the subject:

“Marketers are challenged today with how to drive traffic and leads towards their website; search engine optimization has become an attractive (if not the MOST attractive way) of driving qualified leads to your online presence. I always hated (as a marketing consultant) having to recommend to my clients that they had to make a choice between find-ability (search optimized html) and usability/engagement (Flash)”

Rebecca also lead the charge in creating the User Interface Resource Center. One of the core requirements of the UIRC was that its contents be search engine optimized. A recent article posted to the UIRC was an interview with Ethan Eismann, Senior Experience Design Lead for Adobe. After the interview, Ethan poked a little fun at us, asking why the site did not have a few “more engaging” elements (obviously commenting on the lack of any Flash content) - Rebecca’s answer : “If we used Flash, people would not be able to find this article!”. True… until now.

This renewed excitement for search in Flash content begs a much larger question to be asked:

“Is Search Always Relevant?“

The reality is, as “Web 2.0″ starts to live up to its true potential, Search becomes less relevant. There is a major shift happening on the web right now, one that could threaten Search’s dominance. So, what’s the threat?

“Usefulness“

Search is all about content, and content (contrary to the cliche) is NOT king …..anymore. Describing the internet as a sum of all its content is diminishing its true power. The internet can (and is) so much more. The internet is the new Software Platform - where people not only go to get informed and entertained (view content), but also to pay their bills, collaborate with co-workers, upload and edit photographs, connect with family, manage projects, track sales, and a million other useful things… For all of these services, Search is irrelevant — Let me clarify : Search will not help your customers pay their bill or edit their photograph - it will only help your customers FIND these services. Ultimately, companies that spend the time to provide true online usefulness will be the ones who dominate on the web. (and by the by, Sales Force, 37 Signals, eBay are already dominating because they found a way to extract great utility for their customers).

One of my favorite stories about the responsibility of marketers is one that I heard third hand (not even sure if its true). The story begins with Lee Clow, the Chief Creative Office for TBWA\Worldwide. Lee is a true visionary, and a legend in advertising. Once, a customer of TBWA (a major auto manufacturer) complained to him that their dealership visits were way up, but their sales remained flat. He responded with a simple, blunt and confident truth: “It’s our job to get people in the door, its your job to build a great product”. Search is NOT the answer to all of your online marketing woes - start with creating a better user experience, offering your audience something of real value, and respecting your customer’s time –in other words, build a great product.

Finally, trying to optimize your site for Search can have a negative impact on its usefulness. Optimizing for search is creating your site for another computer to understand and consume. In almost every circumstance, this means you are making compromises to usability in order to make the site more searchable - you are making your product less meaningful in order to drive more traffic through it  (Lee Clow would be ashamed)

Early Sunday morning (really early) - donno why this caught my funny-bone so hard -

once i saw this i knew i needed to craft a SOAP API in Web 2.0 so i could publish a wiki blog about this.

Thank you Sean for sending me this link, hilarious!

Sean Christmann from EffectiveUI has released a benchmark to understand the performance differences between Flex/Flash, Silverlight, and HTML/Javascript….

Great for development teams trying to figure out what framework will perform the best for “real-world” RIA use cases.

http://www.craftymind.com/2008/05/22/introducing-guimark-an-ria-benchmark-for-flex-silverlight-html-and-more/

Eric Knorr, from Infoworld had a very interesting perspective on the end the browser era:

http://weblog.infoworld.com/editor/archives/2008/05/web_browser_app.html

It’s funny how cyclical technology can be. The early days of computing had mainframes and thin clients, then we went to desktop computing. The “Web 2.0″ revolution (alright, I’ve succumb to the lingo bingo) is bringing us back to the thin client - now we are talking about the end of the second wave of thin clients - browsers and going back to desktop computing.

- I believe that browsers, like the OS, will become less relevant but will never go away. They will simply be a matter of preference. Browsers will always have a purpose - a common GUI framework that is safe (or should I say “safer” than desktop applications).

 eBay asked EffectiveUI to build eBay Desktop not as a way to bypass the browser, but as a way to offer eBay’ers a richer, more engaging user experience - an experience that was not possible in a browser. Adobe AIR should be looked at as another tool to create applications that have more utility and purpose - to pick up where the browser leaves off. What is the most critical feature that Adobe AIR gives us? - It is  certainly  not its ability to make a connected desktop application. In combination with Flex, AIR gives us the ability to write once, and deploy anywhere (browser, OS - and soon mobile devises) - this is critical for large enterprises and small start-ups alike. These companies can now consolidate development efforts, focus on “getting good” at a more common, unified development practice, and not worry about cross-platform cross-browser compatibility issues. In other-words, they can now start focusing on more important things, like their customers …

Adobe, Microsoft, and EffectiveUI have contributed to the launch of a really cool community site, focused on user experience and the new UX technologies. The articles and white-papers are focused more for the business managers… Adobe and Microsoft have contributed some great pieces that talk about the technologies, but geared for the “C-Level Exec” types that are looking for some ammunition to get their company on board with a more user-centric approach to their online business. 

A description from the home page:

Designing an engaging user interface dramatically enhances user experience, increases productivity, drives user adoption, and creates a sustainable competitive advantage. If your organization competes online or relies on mission critical applications, leveraging the latestRIA technologies, such as Adobe® Flex™, Adobe® AIR™, andMicrosoft® Silverlight™, is essential to your success.

The User Interface Resource Center (UIRC) provides free articles and White Papers written by industry leaders about user interface design and rich Internet applications (RIAs). From business strategy and implementation to hands-on techniques, this site is packed with valuable content.

My favorite articles so far:

The Age of Experience, by Thomas Lewis from Microsoft

Check Your Ego at the Door, By Lance Christmann =from EffectiveUI

Keep on Keeping Up, by Lynda Weinman from lynda.com

Eye on the User, by Jared Spool from User Interface Engineering

Technology Disrupted (the making of eBay Desktop), by Alan Lewis from eBay

Stealth Mode “Thermo” (an In-depth look ad Adobe Thermo), by Steven Heintz from Adobe

I was lucky enough to be interviewed as well for an article:

Chanting New Mantras, the value of rich internet applications

In total, there are over 30 articles and white-papers, not bad for a launch. The UIRC is still seeking opinions and insights from community contributions, so if you would like to contribute, here’s the link:

http://www.uiresourcecenter.com/submit-an-article.html?s=6

I’m speaking at AJAX world this morning on RIAs. I’m asking the audience to challenge me here on my blog once the keynote is done… 

Question: Who the hell goes to a keynote @ 7:30 in the morning?? 

 http://www.ajaxworld.com/general/sessiondetail0308.htm?id=118

 nice work ! http://www.geni.com

This time each year, technophiles are asked to part the curtains and peek into the coming year. While last year brought unprecedented growth in RIA adoption— especially by Fortune 500 companies—RIA adoption in 2008 brings a new onslaught of risks, rewards, challenges, and opportunities for companies of all sizes.

Let’s start with something positive. Last year, the overall demand for RIAs outpaced the qualified supply chain. This trend will continue. This year, companies facing both job growth and decline will need to continue to leverage innovative, usable RIAs to hone their competitive edge to outpace their competition and improve core business practices with fast, reliable, productivity-enhancing internal and external tools. However, building and deploying effective RIAs is not something companies can jump into with blind assumptions.

Without the right leadership at the helm and the right team in the trenches, the world of RIAs is fraught with risk that can cost dearly. The flip side of the coin is that good RIAs can provide your customers with user experiences that leave your competition in the dust. If you keep the following risks and rewards front of mind, you can turn the 2008 RIA challenge into successful opportunities.

Risk: Developer inexperience
Reward: RIAs that work result in user adoption
Since many underlying RIA technologies are still emerging, finding developers with the appropriate level of experience can be tough. Thinking that you can find good Java or .Net developers immediately turn them into expert Flex or Silverlight developers is not good thinking. Inherent to these powerful new frameworks are challenges that require mastery of the technologies. Rich client applications differ greatly from server, HTML, or desktop applications and require very certain development expertise. Beware the typical developer optimistic mindset that believes problem-solving skills are platform independent.

Risk: Designer inexperience
Reward: Well-designed RIAs make people want to use them
The gap between sexy and usable is huge and dangerous. A great print or web designer is not necessarily a great application designer, especially not right out of the gate. It takes a considerable shift of discipline and time on the front for designers to transition from page based metaphors to RIA necessities such as features, tasks, hierarchical navigation schemes, and transitional animations. Oddly, understanding how to leverage new technologies like AIR and Silverlight means that designers may have to unlearn some of what they have relied on in the past as successful solutions. 

Forrester Research stat: 70 to 80 percent of all IT projects fail. The number one reason why they fail is a lack of user acceptance, not technical issues (caveat: user acceptance may be poor simply because an application just doesn’t work). An effective RIA designer who respects user input and usability measurement studies will dramatically mitigate the failure rate of an IT project. Look for RIA designers with experience and/or education in human factors.

Risk: Poor hires
Reward: Powerful designer/developer collaboration
Managers may see the words "Flex experience" on a resume and assume that, in-and-of-itself, Flex experience makes the candidate qualified. Differentiating between experience and quality is very hard for an IT manager to assess since they may have not yet seen what a good RIA developer really looks like. The same premise holds true for design talent. Hiring the wrong developer or designer obviously will likely point to costly disaster on any project.

Consider outsourcing to proven experts. Or build teams consisting of blended internal and external talent and give them prudent product management guidance. 

Risk: Lack of process and culture
Reward: Integrated workflow and new behaviors
Let’s say that you lucked out and put together a great team. Now you have to get them to collaborate. Establishing the right culture to enable the team to work together is critical to the success of creating engaging applications. It takes a delicate combination of humility, passion, confidence, knowledge, process, and realism to execute against business and user requirements.

Also, carefully consider reporting structures. Should the designer sit in Marketing? IT? Companies trying to build effective teams may be challenged by traditional organizational and hierarchical silos and boundaries to get the right people in the right room with the right priorities and agendas.

Risk: Messaging from platform providers
Reward: Great news across the board
Both Adobe and Microsoft have emerging RIA platforms (AIR/Flex/Flash and Silverlight respectively). While the hype for Silverlight is hitting stride, currently the Adobe Flash/Flex/AIR platform is the way to go for most robust online applications. Microsoft’s roadmap is very exciting, and I believe that we will see some great moves forward on their platform in the next 12 months. However, the Silverlight runtime just does not offer enough functionality or the ubiquitous reach that the Flash Player does.

The opportunity, no matter the platform, is abundant. Microsoft entering the RIA game is great news for everyone, even Adobe. They have helped to validate that RIAs are the future of how companies will engage, inform, retain, and entertain, their customers.

Risk: RIA providers on overload
Reward: Consistent home runs
Many providers in the RIA space are growing more rapidly than they can realistically support— flirting with implosion and growth rates of 1,000 percent and higher. Without dedicated, qualified team members in place, RIA providers have no business taking on work just to take on work. If you come across an RIA provider who has people available immediately, beware. At EffectiveUI, we would rather turn away work than fatigue or dilute our human resources.

Risk: Inadequate budgets
Reward: Proving the value of an RIA
The return on investing into a great RIA—even a simple one— can be astounding. Applying the same budget approach as you would, for example, a micro site or an HTML calculator is not the model to follow. Find guidance and build your case. Deploying an application that is truly going to engage users and deliver a measurable ROI requires appropriate budgeting of dollars and time.

Risk: Inappropriate intention
Reward: Focused discipline for the job
Hiring your advertising agency to build a critical business application is like asking your interior designer to engineer a new building. While both disciplines are important and somewhat related, they absolutely require pinpointed expertise and focus. Make sure that the person or company you engage to build your RIA understands and respects the difference.

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One of my jobs at EffectiveUI is to talk about our services to new customers… sometimes I am asked to discuss and defend the "issues with Flash". Here are the common objections, and how I talk through them:

Flash content is heavy

You are going to read several times in this post this phrase: "it is not the content or the platform, but the execution that causes most of the issues people see in the Flash Player". The fact is, most of the applications we build would be much heavier in HTML than Flash (if you could build them in HTML). Flash content should be smaller because:

• Flash reuses components and can layer images on the client side:
  A simple example of this would these images I used as icons for our NoMokin site:
  
  
  Each image has to be an individual bitmap in HTML. With Flash, I could have created 1 large image, and 2 small transparent images and compiled them in layers to get the same results, thus reducing the file size. Now imagine this same optimization application wide.

• Flash uses lightweight vector graphics
  the same images above would be even smaller if I was about to draw them using vector graphics rather than as bitmaps. Additionally, the graphics would be infinitely scalable, so I would not have to re-create different sized icons for different uses as the below example illustrates how a bitmap looks when scaled versus when a vector graphic is scaled.
  
  

• Flash can reduce server round trips by scripting logic on the client side.
  Things like simple email validation, sorting of records in a data grid, and data charting can all be done on the client’s machine. A reduction in server round trips reduces the overall load on the server and improves application performance for your customers.

• Flash content can be compressed.
  A SWF file is actually compressed when it is compiled using the LZW compression scheme. We have see 10 fold improvements on the footprint of a Flash application when using compression methods.

Flash is not good for Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

A very common misuse of Flash is to build entire web sites with it. I know what might be saying "But Anthony, your web site is all Flash" — True, but it is Flash only because we needed it to do something VERY specific. At the time we build it, SEO was not as critical a requirement as usability and sexiness were. EffectiveUI builds applications using the Flash player, most of which consider "search optimization" irrelevant. After all, if you were building a mortgage calculator, or a rich email client, would search engines care about the inner workings of the application, or would you want them just to care about the location of the application in your web site?

If SEO and user experience are equally important, than you should create dual web experiences, one for the search engine robots and one for your customers. Attempting to build one site that serves both needs could mean that you will make compromises on usability in order to conform to search.

Flash content is not accessible

This is just plain wrong. The Flex components are Section 508 compliant. In fact, Adobe has a whole department dedicated to ensuring the Flex framework is, and remains 508 compliant. However, If accessibility is a requirement for your online applications, than I would encourage you to think about creating 2 versions of the application. One that is compliant and one that is engaging. I go back to the last topic: Attempting to build one site that serves both needs could mean that you will make compromises on usability in order to conform to accessibility.

Flash content is hard to localize

Well, it is, "kinda". Localization is a requirement that you need to identify during the design phase of an application, otherwise it is very difficult to go back and localize it later. Localizing an application simply requires you to externalize the text (a good practice anyhow) and embedding the right font. There are considerations on some Asian languages to make (like right to left navigation schemes versus left to right) … but for the most part, there are established best practices for creating applications that are language agnostic.

I don’t need no stinkin animation on my web site

Flash has a bad rap… probably caused by the early days of sites with lengthy intros and really bad sound effects. It is also, however, a powerful development tool. It is a long knife that you can do great things with, but you can also cut yourself really badly. Animation can be (and has been) way over used. It can also be used to immerse your customers and keep them engaged with your application. Further, it helps to provide context in navigation, just look at the iPhone’s use of animation and you start to get the picture.

My development team does not know how to use Flash/Flex, how will I maintain it?

Ahh … finally a question with some real meat behind it! It is difficult to tell a large organization’s IT department that they need to learn something new. They are already dealing with hundreds of technologies … I even worked on a project last year where we had to integrate with a machine running on vacuum tubes (no joke). So how can you possibly ask to have them add yet another platform on top of their .Net, Java, PHP, Ruby on Rails, Fortran, C++, Pearl and Cobal skills? Well, I first start with the fact that Flex does not replace anything, rather it augments their existing infrastructure… they do not need to go in and rip out the .Net infrastructure and replace it with Flex. Flex and Flash will simply sit on top of their existing SOA and APIs to meet specific business objectives where usability is core critical to success. Then I talk about how Flex and Actionscript is an ECMA compliant language, pretty easy for a Java developer to pick up (in fact, many java developers are relieved to work with a good, extensible GUI framework).

I don’t want to have to ask my users to download a plug in.

At the time of the writing of this post, Flash has 98% ubiquity. The latest version (Flash Player 9) is at 95.7% (view the latest stats here). At some point your competitors are going to leverage the power of the platform and see a huge boon in user adoption (if they haven’t already). About 20% of the engagements EffectiveUI does today are about "leap-fogging" a competitor that has already leveraged the Flash Player sone some manner. If you allow 2% of your customers dictate how you engage the other 98%, than you online business will always be well behind your competition’s…

Flash has security flaws

This is the question that started me writing this post. Recently, The Register published an article "Serious Flash vulns menace at least 10,000 web sites". The article discusses an inherent, "serious" security flaw in the flash player and in Flash content. This article reminded me of a "breaking news" story I saw on the Today Show about a year ago. It was about these things that would capture your personal data and report it back to a web site. These things were called "cookies". Although I’m sure that security nazis will tell you to turn off cookies, I actually like the fact that when I go back to eBay, it remembers who I am. In fact, almost every Fortune 500 company web sites utilize cookies to track user behavior and provide a better online experience for their customers.

Cartoonist Scott Adams put it best:

Anyhow, back to the article. It discusses a flaw in the Flash Player. The article does not go into details on exactly what the flaw is, so I am required to speculate based on this Adobe Whitepaper referenced in The Register article … the security hole requires the following to be true in order for it to be exploited:

• You have a Flash application that ties into business logic on your server
  AND
• This application is not served over a secured (https) connection
  AND
• This application takes a very specific set of instructions directly from the HTML it resides in
  AND
• Your middle tier services layers allow for any query on your data without validation or sanitization
  AND
• You have placed a"cross domain" file on your web servers that allows ANY other Flash application on Any other domain to access your domain
  AND
• You have not already fired your IT manager for the all of the above being true

(btw, I have NEVER seen all of these things in one place at any company doing business on the web)

The Last Word

I am always amused by those that see things only as black and white (or more appropriately only as "ones" and "zeros"). Flash is "bad" … Flash is "good". Both can be true at the same time. Flash is bad if you do not execute well, if you are new to the technology. Flash can be very powerful in the right hands and in the right circumstances.

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