Early this week I read a couple of very interesting articles about a) the future of digital marketing and b) the evolution of website interfaces. I have been thinking about it and now I am ready to share some thoughts:

Interfaces 3.0+

I believe the biggest impact on the future of the Internet will come from the development of new user interfaces.

Nowadays most of the users browse the Internet on their personal computer screens, where they are forced to deal with a complex system of nested interfaces. Browsing on your pc requires the use of at least four different interfaces:

1. The personal computer interface .
2. The operative system interface.
3. The browser interface.
4. The website interface.

These interfaces have their own restrictions and live together under a relationship of inter-dependence, where the parent interface imposes strong conditions over the child interface. For example the compulsory use of a screen, a keyboard and a mouse as part of the pc interface sets massive conditions in the development of the operative system interface and that doesn’t always provides with positive user experiences.

The learning curve for this system of interfaces is in the best of the cases challenging and many times painful for its users. This system doesn’t speak the language of the users. Rather the users must learn the language of the system and accept a number of natural or imposed habits that we now call usability and accessibility standards.

The Internet is now moving from our personal computer environment to other platforms such as pda’s, blackberry’s, mobile phones, digital outdoor screens or even interactive TV. This is crucial, as the current model of interface doesn’t adapt well to other platforms and its own particular features.

If we want to provide with positive and consistent user experiences we’ll need to think of new models of interface much more focused on the experience (browsing the internet) and much less on the device we use to practice this activity.

Complicated systems of nested interfaces will disappear to bring a new generation of multi-platform standard and integrated interfaces that will provide with a more consistent experience closer to the activity and less related with a particular platform or device.

This changes will bring us a completely different type of Internet that will stop being computer-related to become much more organically integrated in many various aspects of our daily lives.

Comments and thoughts on content, interaction and marketing to come.

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