Topic: Mobile and Wireless
Web forms suck, but they can be delightful, if designers will adopt a new mindset and use the latest tools. Luke Wroblewski has studied rich interactions in Javascript to find the best improvements over plain old web forms. He suggests novel ways to use data collected where people already live, in email, IM, and web services, so no forms are needed. And he delights in new kinds of interaction possible on mobile devices, with their sensors, soft keyboards, and advanced displays. Today, web forms can be wonderful.
With several mobile device platforms in wide use, the designer's job is more complex than ever. Suzanne Ginsburg sorts it all out, proposing several approaches and giving examples and tradeoffs of each. Should you design a native app only for the iPhone? A web app that works on Android and Windows phones, too? Or should your design fall somewhere between, targeting only a few platforms? Or take a hybrid approach? Suzanne gives guidelines to help you decide and describes tools that can ease the designer's task.
"Incumbents, Attackers, and Disruptors" are accelerating mobile Internet development. The ability to gain market share through innovation and motivating shoppers will sort winners from losers in the smartphone market, according to Mary Meeker. Currently, mobile Internet adoption is accelerating because of the demands of modern life, while angles such as flash sales and virtual goods are opportunities still not fully exploited.
Technology is changing: not only is it faster, more universal, and more integral to all facets of life, but each piece of technology is evolving to be quick, universal and integral by becoming multi-functional and interactive. Mark Rolston, Chief Creative Officer of frog design, gives a glimpse into the future of changing technology, predicting that present radical changes, such as touch screens and interaction like that featured in the Wii, will continue to grow and allow people to transmit data in any number of forms and function.
As many mobile phone companies have discovered, users have changed how their view their device, moving from a general communications tool to something that now has become a major part of their everyday life. Morten Hjerde, formerly of Vodaphone, discusses how mobile operators are learning how users value their devices and how this value has changed over the past decade.
The future is not just in social media's connection to people but in "discovery:" the virtual exploration of physical spaces. This is what Dennis Crowley, founder of Foursquare, believes is the future of location applications. The check-in provides more than just the ability to see "who" is around but to see "what" is around. Dennis believes the combination of rewards, badges, tips and discovery are what make Foursquare successful.
Dr. Moira Gunn talks about the emergence and power behind opinion space with craigslist Distinguished Professor of New Media at UC Berkeley, Ken Goldberg.
With memories of the recent Japanese earthquake and tsunami fresh in our minds, we hear Lisa Katayama deftly present her prediction that the 2011 earthquake will trigger a wave of innovation and reinvention. Katayama explores how the island of Japan and concerned people around the world used the Internet to cope and communicate in the aftermath. Pointing to signs of reinvention that are already noticeable, Lisa proudly declares Japan's willpower to overcome this crisis.
Dave Fetterman calls it a "match made in absolute heaven." The best social content is in the mobile world where things are actually happening. Social networks and mobile media are not just for users anymore, but are becoming channels for developers as well. Hear what is enabling this perfect storm of "mobile content" that is driving the way people interact with the web and each other.
Commerce enters a new phase which brings back "local and personal", Google's Osama Bedier explains. But the innovation won't come without its challenges. These trends require payments to become completely digital, inventories to move to the cloud and platforms that determine user identity to become interoperable. After hurdling these barriers, technology can bring commerce back to the intimacy of 50 years ago. Sellers hope to see the return of traditional consumer loyalty as well.
