The automotive, fashion and entertainment industries are paving the way for enriching the online user experience through rich internet applications. The landscape is rapidly shifting from data displayed in neat columns and rows for ease in navigation toward interaction and production of the ‘wow’ factor. The internet is becoming the medium in which companies are generating the primary source of ‘oohs’ and ‘ahhs’ for their products. Of the top 8 Flash applications (as voted* on by consumers like you and I), 3 applications are clothing companies, and 2 are car companies. Gone are the days where we would venture onto a showroom floor or into a fashion boutique to learn about products and make purchasing decisions with an eager sales person before us. Now, as an internet-empowered society, we peruse the web and conduct rigorous competitor comparisons before determining which companies deserve our precious – and limited – face to face time.
Leveraging the power of Flash, Silverlight and HTML5, there are millions of developers that are drawing users and consumers into a total experience, not just a web site. Car companies provide their potential customers the ability to design the car of their dreams, enabling the opportunity to truly picture ourselves behind the wheel with perspectives that reach beyond technologies of the Web 1.0 days. The fashion industry draws consumers into an application that invokes a certain mood and perception by enabling the feeling of flipping through pages of a high-fashion magazine and model cards. The entertainment industry is no stranger to creating appeal within rich internet applications as a user peruses various Flash pages, each of which provokes a psychological attachment to a particular television series.
Let’s face it, rich internet applications are here to stay – and as more companies catch on to how these applications are enriching the experience of their users, we will only continue to witness these companies scrambling to keep up with the demand. As these companies come online with rich internet applications, it will be imperative for each of them to ensure that their users are achieving the best possible experience. Here is where web performance becomes critical. The experience is missed or wasted when it takes the RIA application a long time to render, or when other components fail to load.
The ultimate user experience is more than just a pretty face. It needs a solid base with all images, objects and third party applications working in harmony to invoke the desired emotional state, and thus to create a strong customer following. Through web performance monitoring, companies can safeguard their web experience by identifying, on a continuous basis, any potential issues, degradation or necessary areas of improvement before their users do. It’s about following the money, and the money trail begins with the consumer.
* http://www.topflashwebsites.com/
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