Rich Internet Applications & Usability

It's been really challanging being a flash desinger in the rich media landscape. After the Usability gurus, fighting it over on Desktop, Applications, Websites and it's their time take the battle to the next level - Rich Internet Applications [RIA].

For starters, RIAs are applications, which dont have the hassles of HTML, particularly of refreshing windows, chking info. etc. Macromedia has so far pioneering the "thin client" computing using their flash player. For a detailed discussion on thin client chk this MM link. Since the adoption & usage of RIAs are slow, there are not quite no. of samples to show it upon.

Still, the Usability aspect of RIAs are started discussed about in details. Though, it is in its nascent stage, i strongly believe, by understanding and eliminating issues like Usability / accessibility & cross platform & back end issues, will help the people to provide better communicatin. Read this excellent article onUsability Heuristics for Rich Internet Applications at Boxes & Arrows. and if you are like me, closely relating this with a web application then read this article on Web Apps. to have a greater understanding.