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Paper, plastic, stone: client side materials

I’ve been thinking about differences that different technologies (as such, regardless of what we do with them) offer in user experience. They’re like different materials:

  • DHTML = Paper: Transparent, accesible, malleable, fragile
  • Flash = Plastic: Vectorial, fluid, “stretchable”, shiny…
  • Java = Stone: Heavy, unchangeable (no right click), exclusive…

Usually, the choice of the technology to use for a project is based in parameters which are previous to the design of the experience (availability, developer skills, “client wanted this”…)

I wonder if we could take into account those intrinsic charasteristics when we think of the end user. In print design you would choose different materials depending on the effect that you want to cause…

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, December 13th, 2006 at 10.39 am and is filed under Design, Web, Interactivity, Thoughts. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

2 Responses to “Paper, plastic, stone: client side materials”

  1. harm Says:
    2006-12-13 at 11.07 pm

    And:
    1. paper = white
    2. monitor = black
    3. software = grey

  2. Egon Says:
    2006-12-14 at 12.31 am

    Siguiendo la analogía que propones con el diseño. El diseñador traduce la idea “concepto” con sus conocimientos en el terreno de lo material (papeles, tintas, estilos..). Asi pués el aterrizaje de una idea necessita unas herramientas para que sea tangible. Creo que seria importante matizar que estas ideas tienen la necessidad de cubrir ciertos aspectos en el terreno emocional.

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