Since my last post on UI design and thinking about the common language we all use when interacting with objects, I've given some more thought to how we access 'functionality' in today's browser dominated environment.
'Functionality' is just a fancy work for 'stuff we like to do' - like email, IM, picture sharing, information sharing, etc. When we want to do one of these things, we'll go to the site we use. These sites are either boomarked, in our browser History, shortcuts on our desktop, or even links on our customized browser home page (iGoogle anyone?).
Considering we access all this functionality through our browser, wouldn't it be easier to access ALL functionality the same way? i.e. not having to actually open a desktop application? Say you want to run Word - www.msWord.com. Excel? www.msExcel.com. And so on.
Of course the url would be meaningless, as these are local desktop applications, running locally. Although some functionality could be remote. And of course, they wouldn't open and run the way they do now. They would exist more as 'tabs' in some hybrid browser environment
You could re-design the entire desktop environment to act seamlessly with the way we access functionality on the web. I think it would work.
I guess these things float around in your head when you're building a SaaS product.
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