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Easy to Use Software Revolution

Cost-Effective IT: Easy to Use Software Revolution, by Richard Sonnier

Houston Business Show "Advisor" Richard Sonnier, of the Information Technology Services firm Nimble Services, Inc., provides weekly information on our show about business technology issues. He can be reached at 281-445-4800 x250 or rsonnier@nimbleservices.com.

This week I will discuss the coming revolution making software easier to use.

The Web is the New User Interface

The original Graphical User Interface (GUI) was developed in universities such as Stanford and commercialized by Apple. However, as discussed last week, the GUI has lost the power to keep software easy to use. I think the web browser will be the revolution to move software forward for the following factors:
  1. A huge number of people around the world know how to use the Internet. This reduces the barrier to entry for any software that uses a web interface, and it lowers the cost of training.
  2. A web interface brings the software to the user anywhere in the world that the Internet can reach. This reduces the cost of delivering and maintaining the software.
  3. A web interface can leverage all the information presentation and linking abilities of the Internet. For example, a web application interface can be linked into a portal like houstonbusiness.com.
  4. A web interface will work on smaller devices than the traditional PC, like PDA's or cell phones.
Driven by these factors, most new software will use web interfaces.

The Web is Easy to Use

The basic web page is easy to use. A web page is designed to present information. This is the key. People want information and the web provides it. With web applications, we take maximum advantage of this information presentation. Users may not even be aware that they are using an "application" since it appears to just be pages of information. The web interface allows the software to get out of the way of the user. The user focuses on the information and the software is hidden in the background taking care of the details. For a large number of business applications this is exactly what you want.

Next week, I will discuss future hardware trends in IT.
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