Rethinking the web: verso un nuovo concetto di interfaccia?

Un articolo di Dirk Knemeyer sembra dare ragione alla previsione che facemmo tempo fa sull'avvento di un nuovo concetto di interfaccia.

Lettura: 2 minuti

Molti di noi avranno presente la canonica distinzione nello schema di Garrett fra il web come interfaccia software e il web come ipertesto (interfaccia per la fruizione di contenuti). Ebbene, sia certe applicazioni software sia certi sistemi di classificazione a faccette sembrano infrangere questa distinzione, producendo una ibridazione fra i concetti di browsing e searching, contenuti e prodotti/servizi — in ultima analisi fra interfacce web e interfacce software. Qualcosa sta cambiando nel modo di interagire col computer: emergono nuove esigenze (velocità di ri-trovabilità; minori confini fra i vari media e le varie applicazioni) e ciò a sua volta produce cambiamenti anche nel modo di progettare il software e le interfacce.

Scrive Dirk Knemeyer nell’articolo Completely Rethinking the Web:

Apple is doing a lot of things right at the moment. Among its more innovative and successful solutions is the iTunes Music Store interface. A desktop application that behaves like a Web site, iTunes provides customers the best of both worlds: The speed and power of a thick client with the content access, communication power and transaction model of the Web. Even better, it behaves like a cross between the two, blurring the boundaries between Web and the desktop, encouraging customers not to make a distinction (Dirk Knemeyer).

E, guarda caso, dal cilindro salta fuori il nome di Andrei Herasimchuk: proprio Herasimuchuk, infatti, era intervenuto (circa un anno fa) in un dibattito fra Hurst e Merholz sui concetti di navigazione e wayfinding.

My business partner, Andrei Herasimchuk, has deep insight into interfaces and applications that span both the Web and desktop environments. In discussing these issues with him and getting his editorial feedback on this article, I’ve applied those lessons to my own thinking and innovation and come to some pretty clear realizations […]

Again, consider Apple. Long a provider of both software and hardware, the company is achieving new creative heights because the environment is finally right for their marriage of hardware and software. Apple is bringing to market hardware optimized for the lifestyle they design software for. […]

On the business side, Apple is enjoying meaningful differentiation and bottom-line success because they are designing the entire digital experience – computers, electronics, applications and the Web are successfully fused together. On the consumer side – the user experience – Apple is not just delighting its customers, it’s creating the infrastructure for a truly integrated digital lifestyle. […]

Apple understands that hardware and software are not completely disparate, but part of the same continuum and benefit from a fusion in conceptualization and design. Rather than simply make hardware bigger and better and faster and more, Apple thoughtfully creates or evolves hardware to support the lifestyle and behaviors that software creates in the digital world. […]

For Apple, it is as much their synthesized approach to the digital product problem as it is their great design that is changing the way we think about personal computing (Dirk Knemeyer).

Quello di Apple è probabilmente il caso più appariscente, ma anche molte altre realtà testimoniano un’evoluzione simile, sintomo di un cambiamento non marginale in atto. Per citarne alcune: