[Sigia-l] The IA in RIAs

[Peter J. Bogaards]

Dear list members,

For various reasons, I got interested in the emerging design space of 
so-called 'Rich Internet Applications' (RIAs). My interest is triggered 
by the basic factors involved: (1) the new vocabulary and degrees of 
freedom for design fields (The Rich Factor); (2) high levels of 
connectivity and distributed computation (The Internet Factor); (3) the 
manipulation of data sets related to personal and collective task 
completion (The Application Factor).

Various kinds of technology products and initiatives are setting the 
RIA space already, such as Flash-based products (Macromedia Flex or 
Lazlo Systems), the W3C Compount Document Framework and others. Also, 
other platforms than the browser application evolve in the direction of 
a richer interface as well, like interactive TV, DVD publications, 
mobile applications and content, and consumer electronics. But where is 
the Design?

As well-described in the presentation of Gene Smiths 'Beyond the Page' 
(http://atomiq.org/archives/2004/10/beyond_the_page.html), RIAs extend 
the page paradigm. With RIAs, we can design information environments in 
which components are interactive, autonomous, and live with others in 
complex spaces. The behaviour of these components is driven by the time 
dimension. A dimension new to the field of IA, I would say.

But what is the influence of RIAs on the field of IA? What has the IA 
field to offer to this new design space. Or, should we rephrase IA into 
UX for this matter? Within a page-based space, UX relates to design 
fields like information architecture, interaction design, interface 
design, and visual design. But will these field be enough?

Should we connect RIAs with the design of CDROMs, multimedia, and 
interactive videos of 15 years ago? Should we look for inspiration in 
fields such as TV graphics, special FX, animation, game design and data 
graphics/visualization and see if we can link it to IA?

Lots of questions I have. Maybe this community can come up with an 
inspirational and compelling roadmap for the IA of RIAs.

All the best & Happy Holidays!
~pjb

Peter J. Bogaards
(m) +31(0) 622 557 486
'Sharing knowledge is better than having it.'