In this “after the show” WorkFastTV interview with Mr. Office 2.0 Ismael Ghalimi by Robert Scoble and Shel Israel, a question popped up that’s near and dear to my heart.
Robert asks, what about multi-touch and rich user experiences with web-based Office 2.0 style apps?
Ismael gives his answer around the 10 minute mark talking about how a touch device larger than an iPhone and smaller than a Eee PC makes sense. I agree. Although I think it would have been interesting to hear Ismael get into how he thinks the Office 2.0 apps might adjust to these form factors. He’s not to sure it sounds like that people will be using a smaller device with Office apps. I think he’s missing something here: If Office 2.0 apps are going to really take off they need to support many of the devices out there.
What about using an excel spreadsheet on an electronic whiteboard during a meeting? Or a student using a small notebook to drive a slide presentation in front of a class? What will the interaction be like. We’re going to need to start thinking about what these Rich Internet Applications (RIAs)–if any–will look like and what makes sense for different form factors.
Might we see optional browser UIs akin to those for mobile devices that people might elect to use when they have a device that goes beyond the keyboard? Or might the web 2.0 office apps bypass supporting these specialized capabilities because their market is too small?
I hope worst case that the former is the case. Right now we see some rather boring Office 2.0 apps online. They’re very menu and mouse biased. This works fine on a desktop or a notebook, but not everything is going to be that way.
Another area that the conversation didn’t get around to that I think would have been interesting is that of preventing data cilos in web 2.0 apps. Location transparency and portability would be a good thing.