Learning Conversations

Doing a quick comparison of modern SAAS applications such as Google Docs and Salesforce with your typical corporate, browser-based application reveals some key indicators about whether you may need to update:

• Does your application only work in one make of browser? How is that sustainable when the trend is towards people bringing their own devices?
• Does your application say it works best in a particular screen resolution? You're missing a trick if mobile access doesn't play a part in your application strategy.
• Does your application require ActiveX controls, or similar plugins, to work? Apart from making it browser dependant, this is a sign of out-of-date coding, when, with a modern browser, some JavaScript and CSS, there's little that can't be done. (The obvious exceptions are communication and desktop sharing tools which rely on the plugins to make best use of the available bandwidth and to interact with operating system elements outside of the browser.)
• Does your application force users to learn an interface that runs counter to accepted web conventions? Apart from being inefficient, this sends the message that we don't care about our users.

Do these sound familiar?