Businesses are moving away from "web pages" toward rich interfaces that enable immersive customer experiences, bringing opportunity and challenges.
With nearly 60 percent of active internet users connecting via broadband, businesses are moving away from "web pages" towards rich interfaces that enable immersive customer experiences. This shift brings enormous opportunity to innovate and separate from the pack, but these are uncharted waters and there are some challenges to consider.
This article summarizes the paradigm shift at hand, and the top five opportunities and challenges to consider as you navigate this new territory.
A quick bit of relevant history: The concept of today's web came from Tim Berners-Lee's idea to link research documents together via hypertext. Out of this concept, HTML was born and along with it, the browser, which allows your computer to read HTML. For more than a decade, we have repurposed these basic building blocks to connect with consumers, business partners -- in essence, the world. Billions of pages later, the system works pretty well.
While this page-based paradigm is still great for sharing information, anyone who has used it to bring a brand or product to life -- or to facilitate a complex decision-making process like booking a trip or buying a product -- finds it falls short. We have maxed out the web in its current form, and it's time for an upgrade.
Fast forward to 2005. What had been a group of pages was transformed into fluid experiences blending applications, video, voice and other data from a myriad of sources. Flash and AJAX brought new applications to the web and simplified clunky processes like shopping. Next: the baby steps that were taken in 2005 will turn into great leaps in 2006 as user expectations rise.
So what are the opportunities and challenges of this paradigm shift? First the five opportunities:
Opportunity #1: You can create immersive brand experiences
We've come to think of the web as a place to put either a magazine ad or a "sell-sheet" with product features and benefits. Video and rich media will change that. Companies are going to put their most state-of-the-art showroom online. Imagine a 3D virtual space where the consumer can find everything he needs to learn about and experience a product. And what about sound? The web doesn't have to be a silent movie, and it won't be as marketers turn to sound to help bring their brands to life online. Some sites that are headed the right way: Sony's, Vodafone's and Kodak's.
Opportunity #2: You'll truly delight your buyer
In a page-based world, we take linear steps through the purchase process. In the real world, we change our mind throughout the purchase process. Who hasn't selected an item to buy online, only to find out at the end of the process that the item isn't in stock? In the world of "fluid experiences," buyers can change a variable at any time without starting over. This is a huge leap forward in the worlds of retail, travel, financial services and B2B. Check out the Gap's shopping cart and Disney's Wish Book for steps in the right direction. Those who can develop a responsive purchase process and bring the brand to life will be the bonus prize winners.
Opportunity #3: You'll discover new paths of navigation
The richness of this new paradigm provides all kinds of interesting ways to present information. Finding a new way to package information and making it intuitive is no easy task, but the window is open for gaining market share with this kind of move. Think customizable paths, relevance through localization and cross-disciplinary searches. See http://www.etsy.com/, http://www.homepages.com/, and, of course, Google Earth http://earth.google.com/ for some compelling examples.
Opportunity #4: You'll allow (and enjoy) real-time interaction
Social networking has taken the online world by storm. According to BusinessWeek, MySpace.com accounted for 10 percent of all interactive advertisements viewed in October 2005. Yet, people participating in these digital networks are still confined to separate, contained profile pages. Next-generation community spaces will overcome these boundaries. They will feel more game-like and collaborative thanks to rich media interfaces and broadband connections. Imagine a place where musicians can collaborate in real-time, where business associates can have productive online brainstorms, where teens can truly hang out online. For a basic, but fun example, check out Just Letters.
Opportunity #5: You'll make the old new again and make money in the process
Consider how this shift in customer experience can improve your current business. Are there new revenue streams out there for you? Are there new marketing tactics? In this new paradigm, the new business model may also be your most effective marketing tactic (think: NikeID).
That was the good news, now the bad (or at least the tough news). What about the challenges?
Challenge #1: User education
Users have come to expect a certain type of experience from the web. While the new paradigm will be much "better," it will also be quite different (imagine trading in your car for a rocket). Any change will require education. Involving users in the process, particularly during the beta period, will be critical to success.
Challenge #2: Tracking user behavior
Most of the current behavior-tracking software is designed to track page impressions. Flash and AJAX have been treated as separate applications that require the creation of event-related 'hooks' to be tracked as users navigate through the Flash file. Ultimately, these tracking packages will evolve to track the fluid experiences. In the meantime, you must consider tracking as part of the development process.
Challenge #3: Advertising standards
Today, we have standards to measure an impression based on a web page loading. When a page loads, a new set of ads loads. This is considered an impression for those ads. But what happens when pages don't load? When does one impression end and the next begin? What is the value of these new impressions? What happens when only part of the screen changes? Just when we got comfortable, the rules will need to change.
Challenge #4: The right context for your content
When lots of data -- your content, users' content and advertisers' content -- gets thrown in together, how do you know that the context is correct? And when you change one of those elements, does it still hold together? True, this is mainly an issue for publishers, but it's something that advertisers will need to consider. This is a vast topic that will get more attention in a future article.
Challenge #5: Making it searchable
The great thing about the page-based web is that there are reliable rules for making it searchable. Add Flash and AJAX applications, video and audio and you have a problem. Attaching meta data to these new types of objects will be key to making sure that search engines can find them.
Of course, the greatest challenge for any business in the midst of a paradigm shift is maintaining a solid business model. No amount of Flash, whiz or bang is a substitute for the responsive and reliable service customers ultimately demand. Joining the new media pioneers is clearly prescient and exciting, but choosing the right experience to match your business is key to your online success.
Pete Stein is vice president, clients services of Avenue A | Razorfish, the largest interactive marketing and technology services firm.