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Is your Rich poor?

What does rich really mean in the context of online experiences? The term most connected is rich internet application, which was coined in a paper by Macromedia in 2002. In its origin the term was geared pretty narrowly towards the technology layer, describing a would-be desktop application interaction moving to the online/browser world. With it (and a host of other integral concepts and technologies) came the end of install, the shift online from product sales to software as a service, a decrease in the need for the page reload model and many other amazing revelations leading us to the online world we know and love today. Arguably the most impactful of all the changes coming from this paradigm shift is the increased feasibility of “whiz bang” type features in web sites and web applications. Insert drum roll and choir of angels here. The impact these new models have had on the evolution of user interaction is clear, and it is also clear that this is where the word rich started to gain new meaning in the world of online experiences.

Almost daily we hear about companies out in the market experimenting with technology jargon like AJAX, web 2.0, flex, and rich internet application. But more and more the word rich is being used to describe the feeling that you would like to evoke in a user about a particular feature. You can hear sentences that seem to impress despite the nonsensical use of jargon and misrepresentation of technology. “Let’s do some rich web 2.0 type slider widget for that.” I can’t even start to tell you all the things that are wrong with this kind of statement, but when said in the right board room this kind of talk sells. Rather than pick apart the types of sentences I do hear ad nauseum, I think it best to tell you the sentence I don’t hear too often if ever. “Let’s give the user a tool to do x.” The difference being that the discussion focus here is on the task at hand, not the technology of choice (or the moment.)

In my mind, this evolution towards the misuse of technology terms in business strategy happened because the people in the driver’s seat of business innovation didn’t necessarily have the technical prowess to understand much beyond the interface level. So for example, we started using the term AJAX to describe any onscreen interaction that did not require a page reload, regardless of the need to go back and forth to the server to retrieve additional data.

Because of this “whiz-bang” “new is better” “fast is the new reliable” world we operate in today, much less attention is being paid to the implementation of new technology. We think of rich as a way to differentiate from our competitors, to woo our users with smoke and mirrors and not that rich in it’s new meaning is really an experience driven feeling not a technical attribute or a rich web 2.0 type slidey widget. If I was to try to define the term as I would like to see it evolve it would be, when a feature or site provides the tools the end user needs when they need them and allows their path through the experience to promote additional value-add for them. Unfortunately this kind of rich can’t be coded; it comes from experience with your users, planning and upfront strategy for your user experience.

So I have to ask you, is your rich poor?