Location is the next massive step the web of information is taking. Integrating location based details will be the norm in our designs in much the same way social networking integration became standard practice. Lets face it adding location to application and the data they generate can be kind of cool even if it does seem a little personally revealing.
The great thing about designing web applications is that it is still a relatively new field of design, the constant shift of peoples lives from the desktop to the web should provide work for web application designers for years. When you look at the work of 280 North you realise it will not be long before pretty much everything can be designed and built to work beautifully in the browser.
When designing web applications it’s natural to dive in and see how page elements will interact with each other, minimising and hopefully eliminating any crazyness that may occur when the app goes to development, or worse, live.
Social networks really are like Seth Godin believes, the birth of tribes. The tribe created within the network can vary widely in its ethics, values and overall manner. These factors can be encouraged to some degree by the interactions of community managers, but it’s the network features that can stimulate greater community cohesion.
The powers of narrative run deep in the human psyche, modern thinking has explored just how important the idea of ‘Qualia’, or ‘what it is like’ can be in relation to an individuals experiences. The power of stories to compel people to action should not be ignored when designing for interaction.
In an effort to gain a more accurate visual design style I have started to use Backpack and encouraged clients to develop their own mood boards
It can be quite difficult to stop the mind from trying to solve the problems analytically but after a while you will get better at it and then PING the answers you were looking just appear in your head fully formed and beautifully solved.
New interfaces beginning to be developed that are able to push the boundaries of interaction and provide the user with a much more simplified experience through something we are familiar with – movement.
If there is one common level of thought that people use to interpret the world around them then the most simple and widely understood functionality should be used, any break from these norms will most likely cause confusion.