I read this blog article and have been thinking about it. In a sense I agree - one ought not to be slave to imitation. And I do see the point of not trying to imitate something when you can't do it well enough.
But I find myself at a loss to say what a Web application *should* look like. One reason for designing Web apps that look like desktop apps is that there isn't a large body of practiced designs in the Web application world. If slavish imitation is bad, so too is innovation simply for the sake of difference. Trying to use something that should be simple - such as a calendar/scheduling widget - can be an exercise in frustration because every single airline, hotel, travel reservation, and restaurant site feels like it has to do things slightly differently. How much time should we expect our users to be willing to put into learning our new Web App Way when all they want to do is get their email/banking/shopping/investing/scheduling/whatever done? So, yeah, I design Web apps that look a lot like Windows desktop apps. It's probably not optimal, but it's also probably better than forcing people to struggle through novelty for the sake of NOT being like a desktop app. Best, --Alan On Wed, Dec 17, 2008 at 4:33 PM, pauric <[email protected]> wrote: > "The fact that you can create web applications that resemble desktop > applications does not imply that you should" > http://billhiggins.us/weblog/2007/05/17/the-uncanny-valley-of-user-interface-design/ > "we must ensure that we design our applications to remain consistent > with the environment in which our software runs. In more concrete > terms: a Windows application should look and feel like a Windows > application, a Mac application should look and feel like a Mac > application, and a web application should look and feel like a web > application." ________________________________________________________________ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ....... [email protected] Unsubscribe ................ http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines ............ http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .................. http://www.ixda.org/help
