I’ve alluded in a previous post about the fact that the typical request-view-reload experience for web pages is capable of becoming a thing of the past with the advent of properly programed and usable web experiences via what has been coined as Rich Internet Applications. What this means is that your typical desktop user experience for a program reports an immediate response in updating the UI (user interface) so that the interactions signal to the user that they are getting something done in the browser. Read on for more of what I mean…

In the past, when you tell your browser to request a new web document by either:

1. Typing in the web address in the browser address bar
2. Clicking on a hyperlink (which in effect does the same thing as item 1–it’s just your browser doing the typing for you)

This invokes what is known as an HTTP request which sends a bunch of text across the network to the web server you are talking to. Contained within this request is the items or document that contains other items such as pictures and media, etc. Typically this caused your web browser’s page to go white or blank for a few moments while the web server is working on your task and the network is doing its darndest to push all that information back to you. If either of those two things are slow for whatever reason the user may think they’ve done something wrong.

Typical user feedback that the browser is working (and I see people ignoring these ALL the time) are what are known as spinners. These are usually the logos in the browser that show animations. 

For example here’s the one from the now historical precursor to Mozilla Firefox: Netscape Navigator 4.8:

If users don’t see their requested web page come right up, often times they think they did something wrong when in fact the browser is just chugging away waiting for the network and/or web server to respond to their request. (In some cases their own computer may be just multitasking). So they will hit the reload button or click the link again, or my favorite: double-click the link. What I’m saying here is that it’s just not intuitive to the user what they are supposed to do if they don’t see something right away, when in fact they are really being asked to do is be patient. Imagine that.

With Ajax (a coined term for Asynchronous JavaScript and XML) is that the browser is making little tine HTTP requests for updating little parts of the page without browser supported built-in feedback in the way of spinning logos. Sometimes these are present but not always. A lot of the time it’s not even worth it because we have faster networks and faster computers, and the data being requested is teeny-tiny compared to a whole entire page of text and images. An example of this is google suggest.

All of this stuff updates the typical web user’s experience to a point somewhere in between a desktop application where all the computing power and data to complete the task is local to the machine and not on the network or "in the cloud" as it is now becoming popular to say.

With that all said, here is a presentation I saw earlier this week on a talk given by some Ajax user experience experts that I think really hit on this. If you have a spare hour I suggest taking a look at it. A lot of programming terminology is in there but I think it’s important if you are a technologist and expect "cloud computing" or "RIA" or "AJAX" to become part of your instruction

This is Sarah Outwater, a young woman who has been blind since she was 3 years old. She’s a cancer survivor (metastatic retinoblastoma) and has been in her condition ever since she had surgery on her eyes to protect her from the deadly disease.

I was invited to participate in a charity project for a little girl she had heard of on the news who was in a similar condition as she was at her age, except technology has advanced and this little girl (last I heard) was free of her cancer and still able to see.

Sarah is an extremely intelligent girl and can play several different musical instruments and uses technology to support her education and professional career goals. In her charity project, she was compiling a music album and asking for donations to help the family of the girl who was receiving cancer treatments. As part of my donation, I offered to build a web site and create/donate some multimedia presentations for benefit concerts and post them on the website (This was before I heard of YouTube). Sarah brought her laptop to my workplace and we cut some video interviews together and I showed her how to edit content for the website. Later we were joking together in a group meeting about how people and technology interact. I made the quip that people who talk to their technology to get it to do obscure things are borderline bonkers, and she retorted "well that’s nothing. My technology talks to me!"

Of course it was true. In our interactions for her laptop was equipped with screen reading technology that allowed her to complete her work for school and work on her music projects. This is a prime example of adaptive use of technology for a population that predominantly gets their work done despite the fact that they can’t see what they are doing.

However, that’s not the only way people who can’t make use of their eyes to do their work continue to survive. They must be able to use their other senses. Audio alone in my humble opinion is not the savior of interaction with technology. People must be able to use their other senses too. Which of the remaining  4 senses makes the most sense for HCI for blind people? Touch or tactile surfaces is what’s coming to mind.

Here is something that Macrodobia (Adobe the company and Macromedia‘s Technology) have been pushing for a while…the idea that consistent technology for authoring multimedia content be available on a multitude of devices. What this means is that soon someday we will be seeing flash on tons of personal handheld devices.

I also suspect we will see flash interfaces on other devices too such as kitchen appliances and home entertainment center components. Even more sobering would be to see it in public facilities and transportation devices such as elevators.

Adobe is really pushing their flash platform which is really good for people like me who enjoy learning about their platform. What I would really like to see is an concerted effort to research what accessibility options exist for persons who can’t use their eyes to interact with interfaces that will potentially be flat and non-tactile.

Even Apple’s iPhone with all its glitz and glory has its issues. How does a person who can’t see be excited about an iPhone for their communication needs? Sarah had no problem using her cell phone to communicate, and could very easily find the buttons to push because she could feel them with her fingers. Voice activation is probably on the horizon and may become mandatory for devices using these interfaces, and I will be waiting to see what advances are on their way with Adobe’s technology.