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May 26, 2005
Web Browsers Have Their Limits
There are times that I really wonder about the web browser in its current form.
Take those of us who are using RSS aggregators to read blogs. I couldn't imagine scanning that much text on all those web pages without an RSS reader. It would be next to impossible for me to get through as much as I do and it would take way longer.
Long at Apple's use of widgets in the new Tiger OS. Another custom web-fed software tool for a specific task and it works great. In that instance, wound right into the OS.
I think one of the greatest strengths of this is the consistency. Ten web designer solve a design problem ten different ways, so it's hard to really get used to navigating different data sets when every site has it's own design - however usable an individual one may be.
I can really see a future of increased rigidity in how datasets get structured and where serving a "website" as we know it today is less about the combination of design and data and more about providing data. Essentially, the whole website becomes one big structured and progressively downloaded RSS feed. The user interface could then be totally customizable by the user in their own piece of software.
For purposes of accessibility for disabled users, this would be a huge leap forward. It's the designs that get applied that make it difficult for software to try to pull the data out of the design. This would be make it far simpler.
For these kind of reasons, I can definitely see a day when government intervention results in legislated levels of accessibility requirements being made mandatory in certain segments. I see it as no different than requiring public places to have wheelchair ramps.
In many ways, it just makes a ton of sense for all users alike.
Posted by Derek Leverington at May 26, 2005 1:05 AM
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