RIA for Expert Users
I would like to point to this Read/Write blog post discussing a Forrester study that suggests RIA technology is the best choice for Web applications used on a daily basis by decision makers and knowledge workers:
“While those options remain suitable for many scenarios, rich Internet applications (RIAs) are emerging as vehicles to enable the next generation of Information Workplaces that are best suited for decision-makers and task-oriented workers who engage in complex, multistep processes — people who need seamless, individualized, and highly visual user experiences.”
While it is difficult to predict the eventual outcome, there seems to be a growing awareness that expert or power users require more responsive user interfaces than the casual Internet surfer. See Björn Müller’s slides comparing the needs of casual and power users. At the recent JUGS RIA event, he called it the “Comeback of the Real UI Environment” and suggested that Java approaches may be better suited to meet these requirements.
This older Canoo case study summarizes a typical RIA scenario:
Choosing the technology for this new generation of applications was challenging. There were demanding and seemingly conflicting requirements: on the one hand, the IT department wanted a server-side J2EE architecture, because the applications needed to be easily installable and accessible both within the company and over the Internet. On the other hand, the users needed highly interactive, rich UIs because they are experts that cannot accept the action-wait-reload cycle of HTML applications. Finally, some of the applications must be installable offline, such that field agents could use them when visiting customers.
Typical expert user expectations include:
- High interactivity offering drag and drop, keyboard shortcuts, tabs, table resizing and sorting, desktop-like input and edit fields.
- Fast and responsive connection to the server, measured in milliseconds.
- Robust and stable application that can handle an 8 hour work day without getting sluggish.
- An attractive look and feel.
In a nutshell, RIA technology should offer the ways and means to offer a better user interface (e.g. to access old but proven and business-critical backend services), while increasing the productivity of frequent users.
See also:
