Web Application Solutions: A Designer's Guide

As the Web continues to extend its reach into our daily lives, an increasing number of our interactions will happen online. The practical implication of this for interface designers is lots of Web application projects that cover everything from filing taxes to sharing photos.

“The fundamental purpose of Web applications is to facilitate the completion of one or more tasks”. But depending on the type and complexity of the tasks involved, different technical solutions may be better suited to enable the specific interactions each product requires. Flash, Java applets, DHTML, Active X, Smart Clients, Java Web Start, SVG— what do you choose and why? What types of interactivity and visual presentation does each technology enable? What does each limit?

As Web application interface designers, these are questions we encounter time and time again. As a result, we decided to document what we’ve learned and research what we didn’t know about the opportunities and limitations that characterize some of the most popular Web application presentation layer solutions available today. We evaluated each solution against a consistent set of criteria and described it with a concise definition, set of examples, and references that enable further analysis. We also shared our findings with a team of expert reviewers to ensure we were on the right track. The end result is this designer’s guide. (Via Functioning Form)