[Sigia-l] The IA in RIAs

[Welie, Martijn van]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Dave [mailto:dheller at gmail.com] 
>
> >From an information architecture (little IA) I disagree. RIAs open up
> significant new doors for findability that as RIA 
> implementations become more commonplace we will be able to 
> experiment with more and more. Right now if you just think of 
> it as less "page transitions" I think you are missing the 
> point. The term "Rich" in RIAs is very apt b/c there are just 
> more possibilities for interaction and thus a possible richer 
> experience.

Well maybe I am missing the point. I have been reading about it lately and
all of the examples that have been mentioned in the articles I found are
mini-flash apps within a site. Some of them read data once and others
continue interaction with the server.
So what exactly is new about that? That has been around for years with Java
applets and a bit less long with Flash 6 & 7. 

I have done a project myself which qualifies as a RIA by any definition that
I have read so far. The only major difference I see is that we can think
differently about how to create task flows in the interaction design because
of the possibilities Flash offers. That is basically what happens in most
examples. For example:
- When users select one item, other parts of the interface can be directly
updated (big advantage indeed)
- When users click on menu items or actions, the response is very quick so
you can do things you otherwise wouldn't think of doing in HTML
- You can use drag and drop functionality very easy
- You can easily get information-updates from databases using XML or Flash
remoting. 
- You can dynamically rearrange and update the layout of your page
- You can animate items easily
- and so on...(doesn't this look a lot like a list of what Flash has to
offer???)

So yes, when you use the technology (usually Flash) correctly you can
optimize the user experience. But then: RIA = using Flash for something
useful rather than irritating people.....;-)

But maybe I am still missing the point...

Best regards,

Martijn