Developer: RIA: Influence the Perception of a ‘Real User’

RIA

RIA: Influence the Perception of a ‘Real User’

There is a need for architects, designers & developers to take a cognitive approach towards building a resourceful and productive platform for the ‘Real User

Sandeep J. Alur

Thursday, March 11, 2010

Silverlight technology leads the RIA story on the Microsoft Platform. We are currently witnessing the 4 generation of Silverlight which is slated to be released to market soon. With the state of the art tooling support using Visual Studio and .Net powering the entire technology, this is the best in breed RIA platform that can energize existing or new portals to come.

Step 3: User Interaction Elements

Richness also comes from the fact that the usage needs are understood and fine-tuned for optimal usage. The user interaction aspects are another area which attributes to provide great experience on the site. Ease of Navigation, ease of discovery of specifics in the context of the domain & the ability to operate in a self-service mode become top priority during design.

Another important element of richness comes from the fact that it also brings in the element of interaction that typically happens with a desktop application. With the desktop application, one does not lose sight of the application, but is evident in the web world during page refresh and page loads. Hence desktop application has always been rich in terms of offering better navigation, performance and interaction. RIA is expected to offer best of desktop and browser world. Hence from a user interaction perspective, lot has to be thought through in providing a state of the art navigation and interactive experience in the web world.

Step 4: Measure Impact & Influence

The current trends indicate that most of the online innovation lands as beta. Reason is simple. While you have a feel of the market expectation, you do not have the exposure to assess their response and feedback. Hence one has to measure the impact from time to time to ensure that an expected influence is underway and the real user is impacted in a positive way.

A site that looks great, and do not serve the purpose, is of no use. On the contrary, a site may function really well, and lacks the richness would slowly fade out. The popularity of a site can be based on a theme alone and the concept. Popular social networking sites are a classic evidence of the outcome. Hence in an effort to influence and address online retention of a real user, a structured approach is required. One has to break the monotony that we witness in the way web sites are built today and innovate new ways and means to present data to energize online users.

(Sandeep J. Alur works for Microsoft Corporation (India) as an Enterprise Architect Advisor and focuses on Financial Services Industry.)

©CIOL Bureau

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