Rob Ballou

Web Application Fatigue

Following several different discussions and articles recently has pointed out a new reoccurring theme: fatigue with certain aspects of web applications. For example:

1. Social networking signup/friends management
2. Google Maps mashups (via A list apart)
3. Lightbox

Both problems only exist, more than likely, for those people that spend a lot of time on the web and a lot of time using web applications. To quote the classic example, I doubt my parents are tired of any of the above.

I think the first is more commonly a problem, at least among the Super Social Networking crowd. And this same crowd (or at least a segment of this crowd) is throwing technical solutions at the problem (like OpenID, OAuth, etc. etc.). I think this encompasses both "signup" fatigue and "contact" fatique. Registration fatique is becoming less of a problem with more apps adopting OpenID's simple registration or even allowing their customers access to the application without registering (e.g., Tripit). The portability of this information is currently limited, but as new applications adapt functionality like the GMail and Windows Live contact APIs, other applications will need to follow or risk trapping their users.

While I think that mapping mashups can become tedious, I think that it is not as severe for most internet users. Paul Smith definitely makes some good arguments (in his ALA article) about why rolling your own map is a good thing and I have seen some mashups that became too busy, combining Google Maps and ads, and other interface pieces. I think mapping becomes tiresome when an application maps because it can. It's too easy with Google Maps and Yahoo! Maps to integrate a GIS layer into your app without considering if it adds value to your product.

But what else are people becoming tired of in web apps?

Archives