–Engage

Great collection of logos of Web 2.0 companies and products.
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I have to disagree on a few of these as being Web 2.0. Some are just AJAX apps, but most are pretty darn good.

One of the great parts of a good design process is around rapid prototyping. People seem to have taken this spirit to heart lately with the Web 2.0 movement. But is that really what is meant by design?

I don’t think so. To me, rapid prototyping is nice, but if all you are doing is having everyone working on one prototype you miss the important piece of design exploration, which is breadth of ideas.

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Here are a few reasons why I feel AJAX is such a timely event and why it matters?

• No more Netscape 4.x – Now that the browsers are closer to on par with each other and older browsers are less of a concern. Without having to worry so much about degrading gracefully, programmers and designers have been able to think about more creatively what to do with the current level of browser capabilities.
• Flash – Flash as a technology has been doing for years x-browser what AJAX is doing now. Designers have been able to think about what to do in this medium for a few years, but with little traction due to developer’s resistance to the technology. So as soon as the browser technology fell down, the designers were ready to go. This is sad news for Flash, however.
• Open Source – AJAX has one problem. Your code is pretty exposed–even more so than Flash. But with the philosophical approach of OSS (Open Source Software) being much less about code copyright and much more about total innovation first, people can use client-based technologies a lot more easily.
• Forget the Web. It’s about the desktop – As more complex tasks are being delivered over the open network of the web for trans-enterprise or non-enterprise purposes, there is growing value in subscription-based, collaborative, desktop-like interactions. These interactions require more client level interactions, or at least their perception. So with CSS2+, XML and JavaScript you have a richer document object model, and sub-page level server request abilities.
• No more Netscape 4.x – Now that the browsers are closer to on par with each other and older browsers are less of a concern. Without having to worry so much about degrading gracefully, programmers and designers have been able to think about more creatively what to do with the current level of browser capabilities.

I’m sure there are a lot more reasons than this, but these came to mind, and I haven’t seen anyone saying it yet.

The IxD Symposium is a one-day pre-conference event that focuses on the IxD discipline and its relationships with IA. The two disciplines are closely connected, and many individual practitioners have an overlapping set of skills and job roles. Whether IAs are already doing IxD as part of their job, working alongside Interaction Designers or simply want to learn more about the sister discipline, they will be able to extend their IxD knowledge and make it relevant to their IA practice.

The Interaction Design Association (IxDA) is proud to have put this event together for the IA community. It is our honor that designers like Kim Goodwin of Cooper and Luke Wroblewski of Yahoo & Functioning form have agreed to participate in this event.

The symposium is highly interactive and offers a variety of session formats, such as presentations, seminars and panels. The sessions include:

* Where IxD and IA meet – David Heller (VP IxDA/Principal Designer, IntraLinks);
* Moving from personas to a design: Removing the magic – Kim Goodwin (VP Design and General Manager, Cooper)
* The visual side of behavior – Luke Wroblewski (Principal Designer, Yahoo/Blogger, Functioning Form)
* Interacting with information in non-web contexts – Lisa deBettencourt (Sr. UI Designer, Bose Corporation)
* Interacting with socially mediated and participatory information systems – Panel (Luke W., Frank Ramirez [Consultant], David H.)

Handy URLs:
To register for and find out more information about the IA Summit: http://iasummit.org/
To learn more about the Interaction Design Association (IxDA): http://ixda.org/