Designing Web Usability

Chapter 8. Future Predictions: The Only Web Constant Is Change

• 348 The Internet Is Hard

• 348 Long-Term Trends

  • The Anti-Mac User Interface

  • The Invisible Computer

• 353 Information Appliances

  • Drawing a Computer

  • WebTV

  • Designing for WebTV

• 362 Death of Web Browsers

• 363 Slowly Increasing Bandwidth

• 365 Metaphors for the Web

  • The Telephone

  • Different Media, Different Strengths

  • Telephone Usability Problems

  • Contact Tokens

  • The Television

• 372 Restructuring Media Space: Good-Bye, Newspapers

  • Media Distinctions Caused by Technology

• 376 Conclusion

This chapter is mainly about the short-term future of the Web, that is, over the next five years or so. During this time, the Web is expected to increase by a factor of 20, meaning that there will be about 20 times more sites on the Internet ...