How will increased interaction change the Web?
Everyone felt Java, applets and the increased interaction that is coming in the
future will mark significant changes in the Web user interface, with the
pessimistic participants predicting a shattering of the user interface, making
the Web much harder to use.
Some of the needs we recognized:
- Design guidelines, "enforced" by the tools. That is, the tools should
encourage good designs. But the tools should also allow for new ideas.
- An interaction language that operates at a much higher level than Java.
First, though, we need a model of this interaction.
- Problems identifying where these applets "exist". Are they part of a page in
a browser, a separate application, or more invisible to the user?
Some of the questions raised:
- Do we really want users "doing Java"?
- Do we really want applets to look just like other applications? Perhaps
"internet applications" should look different so that users build different
models for them.
instone@acm.org / 96-05-07