Quick post to let everyone subscribing to this blog and not Goplan’s own blog that there are three very important updates with the application. We just opened a public sandbox (a server everyone can access and test, even you! Now!), opened our SOAP API and announced our pricing model.

Without going into too much detail (all details are on the Goplan weblog), we have been getting a lot of requests to see bleeding edge updates on Goplan, as well as press requests to see the application, so the now open sandbox server can be accessed by anyone freely for evaluation purposes - but you need to keep in mind that data in the sandbox server is NOT preserved, as we frequently update the code and conduct tests on it (so don’t use that one for production).

Here’s a thought I’ve been meaning to write about for a while. Why don’t we have location-aware operating systems yet? I want my laptop to know when I’m home, when I’m at the office or when I’m traveling - and I want it to give me relevant information and perform tasks based on my geographical location.

One can argue you can already mimic some of the functionality I’m talking about using existing tools (virtual desktops, multiple user accounts, etc.), but now that the physical technology to actually develop something like this is readily available - using GPS to figure out where you are and programming associated behaviors into the system -, why isn’t anyone working on it?

Imagine the experience

You are at work, doing your documents, reading your email and RSS feeds. Work time is over and you close the lid on your laptop to pack it home. You get home, open the laptop lid again. The laptop realizes it is in a different geographical location, recognizes it as “home” (through GPS, RFID on your home desk or even though your wireless connection) and switches the running application environment. It automatically starts itunes, downloads your music and streams the news (it gives you “home stuff”).

One machine, several environments. With a system such as this, we wouldn’t need the concept of a home PC or a work PC. Any machine would work on any environment, because it would adapt to it, and we’d always feel comfortable with it.

Getting hands dirty

Implementing such a system isn’t hard. It may not be at the grasp of a single developer down at one basement (because it is a complex system), but it sure is at reach for a team of people willing to make peoples’ lives with computers a little easier. And since none of the big players (Apple of Microsoft) are tackling this issue, why not get the ball rolling as an open source initiative?

Everyone seems to be talking about online office solutions - and how apps like Google Docs and Spreadsheets seem to be going in the right direction. While it is easy to agree that progress is being made, it is hard to ignore some of the problems with the current solutions.

A new mental model

Bringing the desktop experience to the web is a tricky problem. People aren’t used to the web browser as capable of doing dragging and dropping, file management, rich editing text (at a level they would expect from an office solution), or correct printing. In fact, people are used to the simplicity of the point and click, and expect that behavior, and little more, inside the browser.

Changing this mentality is the complex part of the equation. In very recent years, the web has seen such fast evolution that the technology to bring an online office solution to reality actually exists. Improving the experience, however, should be the main focus.

People are accustomed to failure

There’s something about the web that you can’t really explain, but that I’m sure you feel. Like most people, you’re probably used to seeing the web “fail”. Websites go down, pages move places, links are broken, popup windows and ads everywhere are annoying. Being completely honest, the web as an “experience”, well… it kinda sucks.

Thats why only a slight percentage of people understand the concept of rich online experiences - not because everybody else is dumb, but because they’re not afraid of experimenting. Try telling someone used to computers but who doesn’t understand the concept of “Web 2.0″ to drag and drop something to a shopping cart. When you see the “huh?” face, you’ll know what I mean. This is the kind of reaction we need to get rid of.

It’s an exciting time to be a designer

The role of the designer as a “manufacturer” of experiences and user advocate is now (more than ever) of uttermost importance. It is up to the designer to figure out new metaphors for online interactions. Taking the “online office” problem as an example, designers need to come up with systems that allow for real-time preview of documents. Or file management. Or saving, sharing, printing. Designers need to get thinking about how to interconnect these experience bits together and form real solutions.

But I digress

While coming up with solutions for online collaboration is a big part of the puzzle to move people’s work to the web, the key to the future “online office” is not porting desktop metaphors to the browser but coming up with new, meaningful solutions to the problems at hand. Once we get that out of the way, feel free to release any “docs and spreadsheets” solution. Until then, design real experiences.

Ending notes: Here at Webreakstuff, we’re working on tackling these problems on a daily basis. If your company is launching web-based products and you need our product design and user experience expertise to guide your process, get in touch.

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