I just attended the An Event Apart conference this week, May 4^th and 5^th. If anyone has a glimpse into the future of the web, this organization would. It was an eye “re-opening” experience for myself, since I haven’t been involved deeply with the web client, as with server, for the last 10 years in any professional capacity. It was also the first non-Microsoft web conference I’d attended in years, and I was impressed with how web development and design has really blossomed. It was also interesting to see the adoption of advanced capabilities only supported only in RIA applications in the past; such as rounded corners, masking support, and an increasing use of jQuery to create visually and behaviorally rich experiences.

These are some of the messages that I heard.

• Web Standards are important, but not adhered to consistently. Even in this day there is impedance between all the browsers.
• Context is very important; it really matters what context content is displayed in. Without context content is not as comprehendible.
• Web developers prefer to avoid RIA where possible. They introduce accessibility and SEO issues. Tools such as Screenreaders don’t understand RIA.
• Content planning is undervalued. It is a second class citizen in web site design and needs to become a first class citizen.
• Social networking has some really interesting human problems.
• IE6 is a huge burden for web developers since it requires special attention and resources. The consensus is that it will soon be ignored completely.
• Browsers (and our browser) need to improve by conforming to standards better and being more proactive in supporting new standards. If not on a ship cycle with update cycles.
• Sites should not have a “Launch and leave it” mentality. Full site redesign is destructive. Site redesign should be incremental and frequent.
• Web forms, “wizards” and their proper execution are very important.
• Some fear that design is becoming a commodity and that designers need to defend their position by showing their real value to the customer. While I do see this as being a potential problem I see it the same as the classic art problem. No one wants to pay for art until they know that they want it.
• Designers really don’t care what browser it displays in as long as they display it the way it was designed.
• Simplicity is good. Hmmm where have I heard that before? I loved this.

Questions that I want to raise:

• What are we doing to address the standards and future standard issues in the browser?
• I’ve always had a serious aversion to web forms on sites. They tend to be fragile and show some of the inherent weaknesses of browsers since they can easily lose state in multiple ways; i.e. hitting the back button, or round tripping problems,or buying things twice. My question is: is this just a result of poor site design? Or is it some larger problem with limited browser capabilities? Or a little of both?
• What can be done to eliminate the black box of RIA applications?
• How can SEO be made more of a science than an art?
• How can communication be made better (more concise) in social applications on the web? Emoticons can only convey so much information. There is too much room for misinterpretation,misunderstanding today.
• What are some other interesting things that crowd wisdom can be applied to?

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