Interaction Design for Rich Internet Applications (RIAs) October 16, 2008

Are you currently building web-based applications? Are you tasked with adding more interactivity to your web applications? Do you want to learn interaction design skills geared towards adding interactivity and richness to your web-based solutions?

As we manage more information, there is greater need for us to use more complex interactions to guide us through finding, selecting, creating, acting upon, sharing, and finally consuming the information around us. Whether through a web browser, an Adobe AIR application, or your cell phone, rich interactions can aid your users and provide differentiated value to the businesses that engage you.

Some problems you will be able to solve when done with this class:

1. You will work on the redesign of a mission-critical financial services application to be rolled out to 6,000+ financial consultants. The previous system was deployed as a desktop installed application using .NET services. You are tasked with redesigning it to work within a web browser. What is the right set of technologies to consider? What are the differences? How do I and should I replicate the behaviors of the desktop application in this new medium? What pitfalls should I be aware of when working on my design?
2. You are hired to design a hotel reservation system for the latest brand hotel to come from a major hospitality organization famous for top-tier service. What advantages are there in using RIA behaviors and technologies to help enhance this new brand? What can go wrong to cause a backlash effect?

To help designers with these types of problems, expert interaction designer David Malouf has created a seminar exploring the most important issues surrounding the web’s most sophisticated applications.

This course will teach you:

1. What defines an RIA, its building blocks, the environment and the differing and complementary technologies.
2. How to deconstruct existing applications to learn important lessons from those that came before you.
How to guide in the selection of technologies and make your designs more technologically agnostic.
3. What are design patterns and how they can help you over time increase design quality and consistency when used properly.
4. Documentation techniques that help you move from static pages to rich application design communications.

This is a 1-day seminar with exercises for practice and lots of discussion.

Official Website: http://smartexperience.org/classes/business-model-design/