02/11/2020 (From the archive – first published 28/09/2019)
I would like software in 5 years time to be incredibly fast, make use of simple yet clever touch gestures, simple to navigate, ubiquitous, cloud-based, dynamic, attractive, innovative. What does this mean?
When I turn on my computer in 5 years I hope it will turn on in an instant, a bit like my iPad, or for those with a Mac, like your Mac I guess. I would hope it is instantly connected to a very fast Internet connection and all my apps would be instantly accessible. I say apps because I do believe the app revolution will continue and grow, but at the same time I think apps are coming to an end. I’ll explain this later. Running your selected app is still a pain, if you have lots of software installed it’s always a kerfuffle finding it to open it. I have solved this on my Windows machines by implementing a keyword system from the Run dialogue, too complicated to explain here, but I know the keywords for all my software and can just type it in there.
In 5 years time I would like to select my app and it would load instantly. The information displayed would be attractively presented and take advantage of simple yet innovative design paradigms to paint pictures of a thousand words in the interface controls and data display techniques. The controls would be dynamic reacting instantly to my touch or other interaction. I believe the mouse and keyboard will still be in play, because, like the steering wheel and brake on a car, it’s a great and accurate way of interacting with a computer. I can’t see it changing in the medium term. However of course Apple have proven that touch can be fantastic and I am sure that will continue to be integrated into our human computer interactions. I would hope there will have been other innovations as yet beyond our imaginings, but I don’t think it will be gestures or voice. I can’t really see either of those working in a busy office.
So more on what I mean by the app revolution growing at the same time as it comes to an end. I think the popularity of native apps are bound to reach their peak. What apps have taught us is that it’s important to have clear differentiation between different applications. Something I think we should, and will apply to the web. The web at the moment can give you a headache. It’s just too open ended. You click a link in Gmail on the web and it takes you to another website and therefore another paradigm. You then have to close the newly opened browser tab to get back to GMail. This works OK for Gmail but other web applications will sometimes completely remove you from its context and leave you feeling slightly uncomfortable. What I mean by this is demonstrated nicely by say the Facebook app on an iPad, or equally web by the GMail app. When you click a link in the app the software doesn’t go off and open up a browser app and take you completely out of the original context. It shows the web-page within the existing app which you can close when you’ve finished with it.
How do I see this working on the web? Well, rather than having an infinity of web address you have to type in I would like to see, for each web application, an app which takes you to that web resource but within the context of the app rather than the context of a browser. If you click on any links within the app then the link opens still in the context of the app, rather than a ubiquitous browser page. This way we can harness the interoperability of the web, we can access our web apps from anywhere and from generic browsers, but can make the app also self-contained on contextually relevant throughout its use. Imagine your desktop, with all its shortcuts you see now. Different icons and all your different ways of navigating to them. Then when you open them they load up quickly but they are all just containers for a web browser, but without the usual trappings of an address bar, shortcuts etc. The web software within them will be dynamic HTML5+ and to the user’s point of view there is no hint that this is a web app, it’s just an app.
The web is going to continue to grow as the method for delivering software, certainly business and information management software. It solves so many problems for support, maintenance and availability, but by taking the browser, with all its workings out of the equation we give the user the slick, delightful iPad type experience, but with the advantages of the dynamic, modern web.
Why is this better than just having different shortcuts to your main web apps on your desktop? It forces developers to bear in mind context all the time. If provides the user with a higher level, less technical experience where less can go wrong. It keeps everything in the context of the device’s operating system navigation, rather than the user having to learn the browser navigation tools as well as the OS navigation. It allows web-developers to market their web-sites as apps making the market differentiation far clearer (it’s not just another website).
I believe this process is going to take place before our very eyes and pretty much over the next 5 years, and we are developing our apps with that in mind. We are moving down the single page web-app route taking advantage of dynamic client-side processing to do the work.
Put this level of dynamic interaction in a app context and I believe we’ll be beginning to use the software of the future. Let us know if you would like a demonstration.