I often have some difficulty in making a business case for a good user experience. To play off Potter Stewart, I can’t define why experience is important, but I know it’s valuable when I see it. In the cold, technical world of software development, it’s even more difficult to reconcile. Which is why I like video’s like this so much.

A great experience gives us a very personal connection with the object we are interacting with. We experience art, we experience places, we experience things, and we also experience software. As the web becomes more and more important in our daily lives, the experiences we provide through the applications we build can have a very real effect on the users. The personal connection between the user and the application makes them more likely to come back, more likely to share it with friends and family, and more likely to make it a part of their life. That has some valuable brand implications as well as user retention benefits.

The more people interact with applications, the more chances we have to put our artistic vision into those applications. With the technologies that exist today, the line between art and software is blurring. We can immerse users in our application, give them full control, and let our creativity shine. If Leonardo DaVinci was alive today, I think he’d be a Flash developer.

Found via Items dugg by mdowney

Interesting post over at HorsePigCow predicting the demise of the browser (along with a pretty swanky cemetery picture). She has some good thoughts about why browsers are dead and why they’re being misused today. I’ve always felt that we are doing too much within the browser. Ajax is a great technology, but it relies too heavily on how that particular browser renders the code which causes headaches for developers and users alike. The next step for applications is to move beyond the browser, and take advantage of the content of the web without having to worry about whether or not you are running the most recent version of Safari.

Are “connected desktop apps” the answer? Not at all. Who wants to install 5 different applications so you can read a blog. But with tools like Apollo, we will be able to deliver desktop functionality in a Rich Internet Application package. And with technologies like Flex, we can serve applications directly from the web and run them above the OS and outside the browser.

It’s good to see that the marketing types are thinking about this, because it’s coming, and the more people start to realize that we’re close to making it a reality, the more attention RIAs will get. Kudos Tara.

Okay, I think I have most of the bugs worked out, although I’m sure there will be a few more. HostMySite was less than helpful with regards to converting all of my old blog postings (they don’t give me access to the WordPress database, so I’m SOL) but I have it set up right now so that if you’re following a link from an old post, it will still work. Also, visiting http://www.digitalbackcountry.com/?oldBlog=true will take you to the old blog.

Make sure to update your feed to http://feeds.feedburner.com/ryanstewart/ because (if I’ve configured everything correctly) that’s the only feed that will be updated. I’ve done away with the technology feed just because all I talk about is technology, and I usually won’t be delving into other things. If you have any suggestions, let me know.