accessible.ie

When the dot com bubble burst in 2001, it signaled the end of a certain way of thinking about the web. However the tech crash is now considered the beginning of a new online era. It brought about a renewed focus on the user through new ideals of collaboration and sharing. In effect, it gave “the web back to the user”.

In 2004, the first Web 2.0 Conference was organised by Tim O’Reilly. It discussed the current state of the web and strategies for its safe future. As the term “Web 2.0″ begins to proliferate around the web without any clear-cut definition, it is necessary to try to clarify what it can mean for the average user.

What is Web 2.0?

One of the initial user problems with Web 2.0 is the fact that not many users seem to have any idea precisely what the term means. The people behind the Web 2.0 Awards define the key elements of Web 2.0 as:

• User generated and/or user influenced content.
• Applications that use the Web (versus the desktop) as their platform.
• Use of popular trends: blogging, social tagging, wikis, and peer-to-peer sharing.
• Effective use of emerging web technologies like RSS, AJAX, APIs.

Markus Angermeier’s mind map is a good illustration of the key buzzwords, terms and phrases used in reference to Web 2.0.

You can also get a good understanding of Web 2.0 by comparing some of its key buzzwords and ideas with its “Web 1.0″ predecessor or equivalent.

Two of the most noteworthy of these transitions, which we will now examine more closely, are the move toward user participation and virtual desktops.

Participation

Participation refers to the integration of user comments and reviews or, in sites like wikipedia, a complete reliance on user-created and editable entries.

Like Wikipedia, technology news site Digg.com prides itself on having its content completely controlled by users. What differentiates it from traditional news sites like Slashdot and CNET, however, is that the hierarchy of the stories featured is defined entirely by how many users “digg” a particular story. This empowers the user with complete editorial control over the stories that are presented on the site.

Digg is also noteworthy due to its implementation of one of the most intuitive and user-friendly commenting systems online. It allows users to add and edit their comment dynamically [view video]. Users can also rate other comments and therefore dictate whether or not the comment is displayed.

The virtual desktop

Web 2.0 “Ajax virtual desktops” such as Windows Live or Pageflakes aim to create a desktop-style web portal, which is unique to each user’s preferences. They allow the user to include whatever news feeds or gadgets they desire, with Microsoft going as far as to offer “live” versions of many of its traditional software downloads. Virtual desktops such as these allow complete redesign and interaction through their use of AJAX technology. While the issue of “AJAX and accessibility” will be covered in a future article on accessible.ie, for now we will consider the general problems these Web 2.0 Rich Internet Applications pose for users.

1. There are major issues when a user tries to view content on an old browser or mobile device due to the reliance on rich media and the script tag.
2. There is little respect for web standards or accessibility conventions. An example of this is evidenced by the fact pageflakes.com’s homepage currently generates 1504 errors on the W3C validator.
3. Pages are slow to load due to the large amounts of data that need to be imported from xml documents or external RSS feeds.
4. At present, many of these systems are deliberately blurring the line between desktop and web interfaces (navigation, linking, button systems etc.). This may be confusing to users used to two distinct conventions of computing - the desktop and the browser.

Because Gmail operates on AJAX technology, it initially alienated many users using old browsers. However, within a few months of its launch, Google recognised this downfall and now offers the option of a plain html version that disables some of the extra features but will work across all platforms.

Conclusion

Many consider “Web 2.0″ to be nothing more than a buzzword used by corporations in their attempts to re-brand the web. However, the reality is it refers to a new way of thinking about the web, one which places a renewed focus on the user. In writing about the founders of the Flickr photo site in Time magazine, Josh Quittner writes the key to success for many Web 2.0 sites has been in “attracting people by encouraging them to create the content - thereby drawing even more people in to create even more stuff”.

Unfortunately, at present, a large number of sites that demonstrate the key elements of Web 2.0 violate web standards and rate poorly in usability testing. Developers need to reach compromises between the best practice XHTML/CSS we see in use today and the use of dynamic pages. This will create a user-centred web that transforms gracefully to different browsers and platforms. Let’s hope that by the time we reach Web 3.0, developers will finally have found the balance.

Tags: ajax, social media

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 30th, 2006 at 9:41 am and is filed under accessibility, standards, usability. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.