Gesture driven interfaces are coming but not for rich/dense data. People will want to access your application in new ways, so what does this mean for applications? Are you beginning to take device independence into account?
Pretty much everything is/has a text-based interface. We as users need to draw meaning from a stream of data.
How do users benefit? Clarity & understanding often develops from immediately interacting with the data.
How do developers benefit? User adoption & success
5 ways to get words right
- be authentic - a strong sense of service focus. Add the human touch
- be engaging - ref: http://schoolofeverything.com/ immediate clarity of offering. Involves elements of empathy with users.
- be specific - disambiguation of meaning ref: http://etsy.com/
- be appropriate - understand what the role of your application is in your users' lives. Use copy, tone & concepts to build rapport.
- be polite - as long as you're considerate and respectful of what users are coming to do, users can be very forgiving ref: http://feedburner.com/ ref: http://subtraction.com/ - social engineering and implicit standards through copy
8 kinds of bad
- don't be vague
- don't use unnatural language (e.g. banks wanting to 'expand your relationship')
- don't be passive (e.g. third-person)
- don't be too clever/cute
- don't be rude
- don't be oblivious to your surroundings - you don't know how people are going to be accessing your app
- don't be inconsistent, e.g. my vs. your
- don't be presumptuous
Take home:
You will still need designers.
"You are sociable and entertaining"