In 4 days, I'll be Speaking at Ajax-World, "RIA 2010, Next-Generation User Experiences" - San Jose

I am headed to San Jose on Sunday for 3 days of giving talks, learning, talking, discussing, poking, prodding and representing Roundarch at the 2008 AJAX-WORLD RIA Conference.

I've been anticipating this event for quite some time, as the theme for this event grabbed my interest when SYS-CON Media first announced it: "2008: Decision Year for RIAs".

As someone who has been actively involved in the strategy, design and development of Rich Client Interfaces for the Web since the mid-90's, and who's been an advocate for better user experience-enabling technology my whole career, I was honored to have been accepted as a speaker at this event.

Not only do I really like the people that work at SYS-CON (they really are nice, smart, fun and passionate about what they do), I know this event draws people from across industries, and more importantly... across the spectrum of Web and software technologies and corporate camps.

We really are at a really important time in the theoretical timeline of what the industry refers to as "RIAs". To me this acronym refers to "Rich Internet Applications", and started being used in 2001 or so with the release of Adobe's "Flash MX" development software. Flash MX changed the game for interactive agencies and software development companies everywhere, as it was the first ubiquitous and stable platform for developing data-driven Web interfaces that didn't "feel" like static Web pages.

While no first incarnation is perfect, in my mind, Flash MX was a game changer. The follow up to this was Macromedia creating the intial Flex framework for RIA development, Adobe buying Macromedia, Microsoft .NET, AJAX & Advanced HTML usage and more sophisticated browsers (and browser alternatives). We've come a LONG way since I started using "The Futuresplash Animator" in 1996.

AJAX-WORLD Talk

I will be giving my first of several talks at the conference on the first morning (Monday, Oct. 20th) right after the kick-off keynote. Because of the time and place of this presentation, I should have a pretty large audience, which is terribly exciting and fun for me because I think my presentation will be a nice introduction to the overall theme of the conference, and I a hopeful that it will leave the audience with a bit of energy to explore what the conference has to offer.

My talk description is something like:

Take a sneak peek at some of the concepts that have surfaced with Web 2.0 and learn how they appear to be evolving into the next wave of Rich Internet Applications. From 3-D interfaces and data visualization to whole new models of interaction, this session will provide you with real-world examples of how Web applications are moving towards the future.

I came up with that a while back, and since then, my presentation has expanded a bit. Doesn't that always happen?

I plan to take the audience on a contextual journey of Rich Internet Application technology as well as other technologies related to user experience. This journey will lay out the past, present and future of our quest to enable ourselves to be able to design what we dream, and build what we design... the way we want it, not the way that we had to due to the variety limitations we've been faced with.

IPhone Developer Summit Talk

Also at the conference is the iPhone Developer Summit, where I will be also be speaking.

I will be giving a presentation focused on the challenges that can/may be faced when working to gain adoption of the iPhone and iPhone applications within the "enterprise". I use that term a lot (enterprise), and buy it I basically mean "Corporate America". Just for the record. :)

The challenges of introducing any new technology or technology innovation to large organizations that typically reject change by default are many and encountered by anyone who does what I do on a daily basis. The thing that is most important to acknowledge is that these challenges are able to be overcome. With a solid business case, support from your client partners and good judgement, all it takes is a little healthy debate before those opposed to technical and user experience advancements are usually won over.

I will be talking about these challenges as they pertain to iPhone adoption, including things that we've heard when dealing with our own fortune 500 clients and what we've done to address them.

"Power Panel" Participation

Also at the conference I will be one of five participants in a panel discussion. The topic of this panel is "The Future of Rich Media and Content Across All Four Screens". This should be a lot of fun!!

The other participants on the panel will be:

• Brad Abrams (Group Program Manager, Microsoft)
• Matthew Quinlan (Appcelerator)
• Ben Rushlo (Director of Web Performance Consulting, Keynote Systems)
• Bill Scott (Director of User Interface Engineering, Netflix)

This panel discussion will take place at 7:15 PM on Monday in the Imperial Ballroom and promises to be full of interesting information related to the future of how people consume content, regardless of type.

Come talk shop with Roundarch (Or just come to say hi!)

I love the people I work with. Not only are they extremely talented and some of the best professionals in our industry, but generally very interesting, fun, laid back, witty and nice people. We don't have a "marketing team" that goes to these types of events and sets up shop in a booth, but as a sponsor of the event, we do have a booth that needs to be staffed by someone!

This is where we pick some of our sharpest minds to fill in the gap, and get out in the community to talk about what we do, who we do it for, and why it probably makes sense for you (potential client, employee or partner) to talk to us because chances are, after you meet some of the gang, you will want us to do it for you. That's not corporate puffery, that's just what I've encountered after having been part of the Roundarch team for just about a year now.

Joining me at the conference will be three of my favorite people: Scott Judy (Director of User Experience), Paul Buranosky (Marketing Manager) and Marc MacIntosh, who is an all around expert in the mobile space and one of our mobile practice leaders. If you are going to be at the conference, I encourage you to stop by and meet our team at Roundarch. We aren't your typical bunch and if we don't have a great conversation about something... I bet we at least make you laugh.

Keynote Address: Sarasota International Design Summit with Chris Bernard (Microsoft) and Ryan Stewart (Adobe)

There are a handful of conferences held each year that stand apart as being totally unique in terms of content and attendees. Sponsored by The Target Corp. and The Ringling College of Art & Design, the Sarasota International Design Summit clearly fits this description.

Every year, the conference picks a unique theme that all of the sessions touch on in some way or another. For folks working with creative technology... this is the year to shine. The theme for this year has been summarized as "visual. social. mobile", but followed up with "How design and design thinking are transforming technology innovation".

I am honored to have been chosen as a keynote speaker at the conference, and when deciding how to best approach the subject at hand as it pertains to the Web, I thought it might be most interesting to look at how design has driven technology companies to provide tools that can bring big ideas to digital reality.

In my position at Roundarch, I manage the partnership relationships with both Microsoft and Adobe and work with both of the software giants' platforms to design, develop and deploy next-generation applications where user experience drives the technology and often blurs the line between desktop and Web functionality.

To help me tell the story of where the Web (and software in general) is going, I decided to recruit two of my associates to pitch in and take the stage with me. I wanted the basis of my talk to be the evangelism of the importance of design as it applies to digital experiences. We are far past the point where technology alone is enough to differentiate digital experiences.

Who better to assist me with my story telling adventure than officially titled "evangelists" for both Microsoft and Adobe?

Fortunately, I know a couple of these folks, and they were more than happy to share the experience and seize the opportunity to address such a unique audience about the future of the Web and digital interactions. I work with both of these gentlemen on a regular basis and respect them both for their thinking on the topic at hand.

So, who are they?

Chris Bernard is a user experience evangelist for Microsoft. His job is working with the software design, development and business domains to communicate Microsoft's position on the importance of user experience in software design. To learn more about Chris, and understand what a wealth of knowledge this guy is, head over to his blog, Design Thinking Digest.

Chris has a ton of experience in visual and interactive design and is no stranger to the challenges associated with enterprise-level software design and development and is considered an expert in his field.

Chris's unique approach to the design of products, services and systems often incorporates the principles of contextual research, cultural, human, physical and social factors.

Ryan Stewart works as a Rich Internet Application Evangelist for Adobe Systems. He has been tracking the Rich Internet Application (RIA) industry and doing RIA development for quite some time.

Ryan's responsibilities at Adobe include being the evangelist for Adobe's AIR platform as well as the highly touted new software design tool that Adobe is creating, code-named "Thermo". Ryan is an integral part of the Adobe developer community and works every day to help companies understand Adobe's technology and how it can be used to create Rich Internet and Desktop software applications.

He is a regular blogger, both personally as well as for ZDNet, where he publishes "The Universal Desktop" Blog.

What to Expect

We have been kicking around a variety of ideas for how we want to present things. Aside from the amazing sample applications and examples that Chris and Ryan will have in their arsenal, I think that I will probably open the talk in an attempt to provide a little bit of context of "Where we've been" in our journey to create great user experiences that leverage the power of the Internet. After all, our thoughts are going to mostly focus on "The future" of the Web as we know it. I truly believe that before we can understand where we are going, we need to have some sort of context around "where we have been".

After a quick introduction on the topic, I am going to moderate a discussion where Chris (Microsoft) and Ryan (Adobe) will be able to share their perspective (and the perspectives of their auspicious employers) on a variety of topics.

I'd encourage anyone who happens to read this to contact me, or leave a comment with your own thoughts about what would make for interesting conversation with two experts who work on the bleeding edge of digital design and development.

Other Points of Interest at the Conference

This event looks fascinating. Every single one of the speakers has a unique background and equally unique message. Some of the people that will be featured that I can not wait to see speak and hopefully share ideas with include:

Michael Alexin, Vice President, Product Design and Development - Target
Michael joined Target in 2002 as Vice President, Softlines Design and Product Development, responsible for all creative direction, product design, materials R&D and technical development of Target's apparel and accessory products. He also is the executive co-chair of Target's Sustainability Council. Michael's previous experience includes leadership roles with Eddie Bauer, Nike, and Levi Strauss & Co.

Brent Britton - Squire Sanders & Dempsey.
Brent C.J. Britton, is an intellectual property lawyer at Squire Sanders & Dempsey. He is also a radio personality, a software engineer, and the only lawyer who is a graduate of the MIT Media Lab. Britton published one of the first internet 'zines in 1985, was the first volunteer law clerk at the EFF, founded the first internet law journal, and, according to his wiki, was influential in establishing the legal framework that ushered in the late 20th century internet boom in San Francisco and Silicon Valley.

Charles Warren - Google
Charles Warren is a Senior User Experience Designer on Google's Mobile product development team, where he designs applications for iPhone and Android users, as well as for users in developing markets like Africa, India, and China. He's also responsible for Google Mobile's front-end product-concept development process.


Tom Crawford - VizThink
Tom Crawford is the CEO of VizThink, an organization dedicated to the creation of a sustainable, global community of people who use any form of the visual arts for learning and communication.


Bruce Damer - The DigitalSpace Corporation
In the 1980s, Bruce developed some of the first graphical user interfaces on personal computers while the 90s saw him help catalyze the virtual world and avatars medium. In the 2000s, Bruce brought online virtual worlds to NASA which uses them to design future missions. Most recently, in 2008, Bruce initiated the global EvoGrid project to demonstrate how evolution can be made to occur in Cyberspace. - Find out more about Bruce and the DigitalSpace Corporation

Jennifer Magnolfi - Herman Miller
Jennifer is co-author of Always Building, is an architect and technologist whose research explores the intersection among architecture, interaction design, and building systems.

Duane Bray - IDEO
Duane Bray is a partner at IDEO where he heads the firm’s global Software Experiences practice. Duane joined IDEO in 1995 to lead and develop the discipline of interaction design, now one of the firm’s most sought-after capabilities.


Brandon Oldenburg - Reel FX Entertainment
Brandon began his career as a co-founding member of Reel FX in 1995 doing a combination of design and special effects for television and film. There he worked with such clients as Troublemaker Studios, Pixar, Disney, Dreamworks and Blue Sky Studios. Early on, Brandon recognized the potential for limitless storytelling with computer animation.

The Sarasota International Design Summit

October 27th - 29th 2008

Sarasota, FL

Speaking at the iPhone Developers Summit - San Jose, CA -- October 20-21, 2008

After working with the folks at Sys-Con on some thoughts around my talk for the Ajax-World RIA Conference, the opportunity to share my thoughts and ideas at the iPhone Developers Summit (which runs in parallel with Ajax-World) was presented to me.

I've recently been quite focused on mobile strategy and research into everything that is going on in terms of mobile content delivery due to a variety of client situations at Roundarch where next-generation mobile applications have become quite the topic as of late.

The impetus behind the iPhone Developer Summit is undoubtedly the overwhelming chatter within the development community about the newfound potential brought to mobile devices with the launch of the Apple iPhone.

On top of that, everyone knows that Google Android is coming on strong, and most of the RIA experts that I know are all over these next-generation mobile platforms, and working with clients to define how multi-touch, location aware and network connected handhelds will play out in their digital strategy.

From what I understand, this event will be the first 2-day dedicated iPhone-specific event that anyone has produced, and with a lineup of extremely talented people presenting, it is gearing up to be a very unique and worthwhile event.

iPhone Developer's Journal editor-in-chief Kevin Hoffman is the Technical Chair of the event and hopes that it will provide answers to many of the biting questions that are out there such as:

• What's the impact of the iPhone going to be on the delivery of rich content to mobile users?
• How does Google's new Android differ from the iPhone SDK and iPhone Safari development?
• When should you use the iPhone SDK versus developing web applications?

Kevin Says

"The release of the Apple iPhone and the iPod Touch has renewed interest in computing devices controlled with direct hand input (either by touch and/or pen), putting 'gesture-based' interfaces squarely onto the menu of what developers want to learn more about. But gesture-based design is just one of the myriad topics that have suddenly become red-hot. Others include questions about how to build apps using the new ASP.NET MVC framework, how to build 'social applications,' and how to develop high-quality, iPhone-style web-based GUIs for applications. "

What I think will be really interesting is the inevitable discussion around when it makes sense to create an iPhone binary application as opposed to a Web application designed for the mobile browser (but utilizing Javascript for interactivity).

There are clearly pros and cons to both approaches, and I look forward to hearing the opinions of others in attendance. To me, (like with any technology choice) it really comes down to the specific business requirements and user experience strategy of the application itself. It always irks me when someone insists one approach is better than another by default.


Anticipation...

I really do look forward to learning from the other speakers as well as attendees as one of my most favorite part of these industry conferences is all of the great side conversations that usually take place. I think I probably bore the hell out of many of my friends as I sometimes slip into "shop talk" mode... so it will be really great to have a few hundred iPhone/Mobile enthusiasts in the same room to express their thoughts and ideas about where things are going.

I am also quite eager to share the stage with some of the other speakers at the event. Per usual, Jeremy and the event team at Sys-Con media have done a fantastic job of lining up industry experts to lead the conversation and provide a look at what is happening from their own unique perspectives.

Some of the folks I am quite excited to hear share their own perspectives on things are:

Kevin Lynch (Adobe) - Kevin will be giving the Keynote talk at the conference and as the CTO of Adobe, he is sure to have some interesting things to say. Everyone is aware of the industry cry to have Adobe's flash player (or Adobe AIR!!!) as a standard on the iPhone and other mobile devices. As we all acknowledge, Flash Lite hasn't really been ideal for deploying "real" applications on phones.

Ujjal Kohli & Tony Nethercutt - There are a lot of folks out there thinking that these next-generation mobile applications will be the new holy grail for marketing and promotions. Do you sell your application via the iTunes store? Do you give it away? If you make it free... how do you make any money? Ujjal and Tony will share their thoughts around how to Monetize free mobile applications and will also address tactics for mobile marketing on the iPhone.

Marcus Franz - I think that some of the most compelling features of the iPhone are those that are designed to stimulate location-based services and the ability for 3G or wifi-connected users to share information with each other and collaborate. Marcus will be talking about mobile collaboration using the iPhone platform. This will be interesting for sure.

Christopher Allen - Chris will be discussing what I think might be the most applicable topic to many of the attendees (and the industry as a whole). Chris' talk will be focused on the discussion of the differences and pros/cons of using the iPhone SDK to develop and application as opposed to simply developing an application designed to run in Apple's mobile safari browser. This is sure to stimulate a good amount of debate and should be rather interesting indeed.

While these are just a few of the people that will be featured at the summit, it is a great indicator of the level of content that will be presented. It will be a great group of experts and I am really excited to have been invited to share my thoughts along with them.


My Talk

Having just been asked to speak at the event, I have not yet decided upon a subject to present on, however I will most likely utilize some of my ongoing research related to mobile user trends and device usage preferences and organize some of the findings so that they help the audience of iPhone developers understand what it is that users really want from their mobile computing experience.

Fortunately for me, working at Roundarch provides me with a pretty deep view into what is happening across the industry, and our teams are working with clients to lay out their mobile strategies and design a handful of really compelling mobile software experiences. One thing is for sure... Mobile is officially here to stay!

If you are interested in iPhone development from a technology perspective, or if you are a business person who is eager to understand more about what rich mobile experiences can do to solve your problems, I'd love to hear your questions and comments about what you feel would be valuable for me to address.

Lastly, If you happen to be in San Jose for the Ajax-World conference, or the specific iPhone Developer Summit, I encourage you to let me know. Perhaps we could talk shop over your beverage of choice. It is always great to meet new and interesting folks in the industry.

iPhone enables Orientation Specific Content - This is a great proof-of-concept

Today I was turned on to a Web site created by Dave & Alex at Engage Interactive, an interactive design and development shop in the UK (Harrogate to be specific).

I have had a variety of recent conversations and personal thoughts about content that is optimized for Apple's iPhone platform (and potentially many other devices). Check out what the guys at Engage have done to put a smile on my face.

I hope it is a sign of things to come from everyone and anyone who is creating multi-channel (multi-device) content.

For lack of a better term, I will stick to the phrase that these guys have used in describing the technique that they have implemented for their own Web site: "Orientation Specific Content".

What are we talking about here? Well, it is exactly what it sounds like. Based on the orientation of a user's device, the content on the screen changes accordingly. I can think of a multitude of ways to implement this as a design tactic, and really think that the proof of concept they've implemented in their own Web site is a fine example of how it can be used.

Let's take a look.

How it Works

From a user experience perspective, it works just like you'd think it should. By rotating your mobile device you change orientation of the screen, and when this is detected by the javascript in the page, the content reacts by changing itself based on your actions.

Think of it as a new way to interact with content that we haven't really seen in the past. We were, of course, all thrilled when we realized that the iPhone's Safari browser would change it's display orientation as we moved the phone from portrait to landscape modes... and now it appears that we can take it one step further and adjust the actual page contents based on how the user is holding the device.

I am quite encouraged by this, and look forward to seeing more and more smart and creative uses for this simple, but effective, user interaction/input.


It ain't perfect though...

While I do love what these guys have done, I still see this as a proof of concept. I am not sure how usable I think incorporating page navigation into the device's orientation really is. In time, this might change, but to your average user, this might come across as a tad bit confusing and "bad-magical".

Having said that, these guys have successfully proven out the concept that you can detect the orientation via Javascript in iPhone's Safari browser and allow your content to react to it in one way or another.

Some ways I think this could actually be very useful:

• When a user switches from portrait to landscape browsing, perhaps you could programatically bump up the page font size a couple of points to make for easier reading and to utilize the additional horizontal real estate.
  
  
• Hide or show additional images based on a flip of the phone's horizontal or veritcal orientation.
  
  
• Allow a user to access "comments" or other page content that is not shown in the portrait orientation, but when flipped to landcape, these more interactive areas of the page become visible

I'd love to hear everyone's thoughts on how this might come into play as we start to really focus the design and development of our content to conform to computers, televisions and mobile devices... which are clearly gaining traction as the platform of choice for on-the-go content for just about everyone.

If you want to experiment with what these guys have done, you can download the source code from the Apple Developer Site.