Rich Internet Applications from a user experience perspective

When I wrote enthusiastically about the arrival of Rich Internet Applications a long, long time ago, I assumed that by now every web application would be an RIA. Plenty of people use AJAX today, but given all the activity, the real boom is yet to come. And I have to say that as a user it rather scares me.

The web browser looks like an all-in-one platform that can already serve as the chassis for most applications. Unfortunately, people often use that chassis in ways that make little sense given what users expect. People have some established habits in the browser. They use tabs, expect a link to move the application into a new state, bookmark URLs, and so on.

You may take all those habits for granted until you find you can't use them in the browser. Although I have plenty to criticize about AJAX, as a user I have to give it credit for feeling natural. The Back and Forward buttons still work in my browser, and I can middle-click a link to open it in a new tab and add it to my bookmarks.

Simply put, the application follows the rules Roy Fielding set down long ago in his dissertation. He called the result REST (Representational State Transfer). As a user, I hope that the wider adoption of RIAs won't mean each application changes the habits I've acquired while using the web.

I have to use one RIA every day, and my experience has been a pretty good warning. The developers didn't realize that using the browser as a chassis naturally leads users to expect the application to behave at least a little like the ones they're used to.

I don't worship Google and its services, but I'll give them this. Most of their applications that incorporate RIA ideas try to respect users' habits. That strikes me as a sensible compromise between what users expect and the desire to make applications do more.

We'll see how the developers themselves handle the RIA vision. The complete technology stack seems to be available. Adobe made a welcome move by opening up Flex. Microsoft has put together Silverlight, and at JavaOne Sun could put itself in the running with its F3 language. That's before we even get to XUL, AJAX, OpenLaszlo and other technologies that have been around for a long time.

Let's hope the flood of wonderful technologies doesn't blind developers to the fact that users bring experience of their own, which does a lot to shape their expectations. But perhaps this prediction is just as wide of the mark as my old one about when Rich Internet Applications would arrive…