* Web apps: You ain't seen nothing yet
Yes folks, this is issue 700 of the Network World Web Applications newsletter. We started almost seven years ago with the first issue published Dec. 14, 1998 and in that time we’ve seen a huge change in what Web applications do and how we think of their architectures and value.
While we now have technologies that are astounding compared to what we had back in 1998 – I’m thinking of DHTML, CSS, XML, service-oriented architecture, AJAX … (the list is really long) – what we haven’t seen is a similar improvement in basic content presentation and organization: the actual deployment of these technologies.
For some reason, despite the fact that entire forests have been felled for paper to write about Web site design, many organizations simply don’t get it: If your site doesn’t meet basic organizational and accessibility criteria for your market, you are failing.
This comes down to simple things such as browser compatibility. For more on this discussion see my comments in Network World’s Backspin where I discuss FEMA’s requirement that users who wanted to fill out assistance forms online had to use IE6 (see “IE required: The government gets it wrong” and “Internet Explorer required: Your comments”).
There are also more complex issues such as misapplied technologies: the problem of Web sites that think using Flash is the be-all and end-all of getting a message across. Please understand that I am a big Flash fan but while Flash can be and often is used effectively, no amount of visual pizzazz can hide what is often an empty site.
Even more profound is the problem of how Web content is organized and what that content is. I’m shocked to still see so many sites that are based on what the company does in its paper-based marketing materials. The kind of crimes committed here include massive PDFs where HTML content would make much more sense, weak hyperlinking so that the content is essentially linear instead of richly cross-referenced, and a lack of visual appeal. In short, these organizations simply haven’t thought it through.
Another shortfall of many organizations’ Web efforts is that they still don’t measure what they are doing. If you don’t instrument and measure your Web performance you are wasting money and opportunity. You need to have a Web metrics program in place that is tied into your marketing if you expect your online efforts to ever provide you with a real benefit.
The key is to recognize that there is now nothing but ‘Net. You can no more remove the Internet from our culture and society’s daily functioning than you could live without your heart. And the ‘Net is just getting more pervasive, in fact 2005 was the Internet’s biggest growth year ever.
So as we head off towards issue 701 on our way to issue 1,000 (due in the middle of 2008 I believe) take some time to look at your progress with your Web applications. Ask yourself not only whether you are keeping pace with progress now but how will you capitalize on future opportunities because they will come, and fast. At the rate Web applications are evolving, you haven’t seen anything yet.
