An introduction to Rich Internet Applications: Addressing the "usability wreck" of today's web
Ian Karnell, President & Founder | One to One Interactive
May 31, 2004
“The
World Wide Web is a usability disaster… It's
because browsers send and retrieve data in batches, like a 1975
mainframe terminal, not like a modern, interactive software
application.”
— “Enriching the Browser,” Rafe Needleman, Business
2.0
The quantitative and qualitative facts surrounding
today's Web experience demonstrates that there remains a
significant opportunity for many companies to optimize their
customer conversion, retention and satisfaction rates.
- The average online retailer fails to convert fully 97% of
their site shoppers into site buyers, while a number of studies
have demonstrated that as much as 75% of potential customers
abandon their online shopping carts before they have consummated
a purchase.
- The vast majority of users will also abandon a Website if
they feel that the number of clicks required to complete a
transaction or located the desired information is too long and
cumbersome. The average checkout process takes 4.93 clicks to
complete — far more than users would prefer.
- According to Gartner research, retailers that fail to meet
online customer service excellence will experience an average
turnover of 100% of their customer base every five years.
(Gartner Research, August 2002)
Rich Internet Applications (RIA) offer the potential to
radically enhance online user experiences and dramatically increase
online conversion, retention and overall satisfaction.
Introducing Rich Internet Applications
RIA technologies promise to deliver the next generation of
Web-based applications. Applications, according to Macromedia, that
promise to combine desktop software functionality with the broad
reach and low-cost deployment of the Web.
To date the Web is almost entirely made up of HTML-based Web
sites that have been designed within a click-command interaction
model — the same model that existed when the Web made its
commercial debut in 1992. Users today, like in 1992, interact with
most sites by clicking a hypertext link within an HTML page that
results in an asynchronous page refresh that displays the requested
content. The Web has revolutionized our ability to access
information instantaneously; however, Web-based technology
limitations greatly inhibit the ability to translate rich desktop
software functionality and experiences into an online environment.
IDC identified a number of complexities with the existing
click-command interaction model in a recent white paper:
-
Process Complexity – the existing click-command
interaction model requires that common multi-step or multi-option
tasks be broken down into separate component pages that require
users to switch pages to complete tasks, often resulting in back
and forth page flipping to address changes made in sequential
steps that affect one another. Thus, an "artificial interruption"
of the user experience is created that was never part of the
original process workflow.
-
Data Complexity – today's Web does not easily
allow users to examine the inter-relationship of pieces of data
or information. This limitation prohibits users from visualizing
and manipulating intricately related data.
-
Configuration Complexity – Web sites have been
limited in their ability to present a rich and dynamic picture of
custom built products. A real-time representation of custom built
products introduces a number of significant complexities that are
difficult to address with standard Web technologies. The
challenge lies in the application presenting to the user all the
possible valid combinations of product options, allowing users to
create one product from what could be thousands of options.
-
Scale Complexity – The Internet allows users to
access a whole new scale of data requiring new techniques to
search and compare data. This is mostly accomplished today with
textual-based search tools. The user enters in a search phrase
and the resulting page presents result text-based descriptors
that match the criteria.
-
Feedback Complexity – Today's Web is
predominately server-based. Thus, a site's ability to respond to
a user is contingent on the user's click command. Today's Web
limits the ability to have highly interactive, locally
intelligent, client-side applications that can respond to user's
input and can change their state or interface without the need
for a page refresh.
RIAs fundamentally break the mold of the traditional
click-command interaction model and will empower companies to
create new kinds of engaging Web applications with features and
functionalities that overcome the aforementioned complexities.
For example, RIAs will:
- Allow sites to provide visual representations of data that
will allow users to easily visualize and drill down into
increasing levels of detail without page refreshes, thus greatly
mitigating data complexity.
- Significantly help to streamline user inquiries in product
selection and configuration. For example, a user visiting an
online florist site could navigate through the multitude of
flower and arrangement options by selecting criteria options
through dynamic check boxes or sliding tabs that instantly
add/remove the floral arrangements that match his or her
criteria.
- Enable marketers to build online applications that can learn
and automatically adapt to a user's passive and active
interactions, delivering more personalized one-to-one
experiences.
One needs to experience an RIA to fully appreciate the full
potential of its application. Laszlo Systems' Web site
showcases RIA technologies and the opportunities they offer to
online retailers:
http://www.laszlosystems.com/demos/.
Generally, RIAs are well suited for many types of applications.
According to IDC, the ROI from RIAs will be particularly high in a
number of key areas. These include:
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Characteristics of Rich Internet Applications that
Deliver Highest ROI
|
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Application Challenges
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- Multi-step processes
- Direct manipulation
- Complex selection
- Client-side processing
- Data visualization
|
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Application Types
|
- Product selection and configuration
- Customer self-service
- Business Intelligence
|
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Verticals
|
- Financial services
- Retail/e-commerce
- Broadband portals
|
Online marketers that begin to address the user experience "hot
spots" listed above will realize increased acquisition rates and
customer profitability without increasing acquisition costs. As
companies begin to make the move to Web services, they would be
well served to consider how RIAs can mitigate user experience "hot
spots" and drive substantially greater ROI.
Conclusion
We currently are witnessing the first wave of RIA technologies
in the marketplace.
Laszlo Systems and
Macromedia have taken the lead in
delivering development tools and technologies for enterprise RIA
implementations.
Laszlo, specifically, has taken many steps to advance the
adoption of RIA technologies by providing innovative,
standards-based technology solutions and component libraries that
allow for rapid application development. Laszlo's XML-native
platform allows online marketers to easily deploy RIAs across all
major browsers as well as gain deeper levels of visitor data by
capturing highly specific visitor behaviors and usage patterns.
Lastly, Laszlo's platform allows for easy integration within
developer's existing IT infrastructure, including their J2EE server
environments.
RIA technologies will initiate a new chapter for Web application
development and design that will enable companies to overcome some
of the most prominent usability barriers for online success. One to
One is committed to driving usability innovation through the
application of RIA technologies to help our clients quickly
overcome such usability barriers and realize, at long last, the
promise of the Web as the most efficient channel to drive ROI.
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