If this is how the actual user experience looks and feels like than something very good is going on at MSFT. First Project Natal, then the interesting interface of Windows Phone 7 Series and now The Courier.
The future of magazines? We don’t know. But those are some very interesting interaction patterns here in this video by Bonnier R&D.
We had to share this with you! We videotaped Bill Buxton demonstrating touch screen on Casio Watches from 1984. Would you believe that the technology was here for so long? It’s pretty amazing that we had to wait two decades before we could use it in our everyday lives. By the way, the amazing watch to the right is AT-550, and this was the original ad. The technology is here. Why do business applications still suck?
Are you touchable?
No, that’s not another post about how great or not the iPad is. We’ll leave this debate for other blogs. However, the iPad might mark the beginning of a new era. Touchscreen technology improves at a crazy pace. It’s only a matter of time until we’ll start seeing new and innovative user interfaces that will adjust to this new world.
Well, in PipeJump, we’ve built it into the product from the very beginning. The biggest challenge, however, is to make the app user friendly for a Dell user and still make sure it’s ready for those new kinds of interactions.
Enough theory. Let’s look at an example from PipeJump’s interface. The way people used to move a deal between different stages of a sales process is: (1) Click the deal name; (2) Click “Edit Deal” in the deal info screen;(3) Click the stage drop down; (4) Choose a new stage for the deal; (5) hit save button. This is how a typical SalesForce.com interaction looks like. Yes, five actions to move a deal to the next stage.
In PipeJump it works in a completely different way. You have to … drag the deal to the next stage. Yes, it is that simple. Now, here comes “ready for the future” thing built into PipeJump. Right now, you can do that by using your mouse. In the near future, using a touch screen, you can simply drag it using your finger.
The challenge of having an alternative still remains. For that, we have a dropdown that shows when you hover the deal which let’s you move the deal to whatever stage you wish.
Drag and drop is only one example of how interactions can be simplified and future-ready. We promise to share more ideas soon.
