2010 has been a good year for people in the industry, a year when smartphones took off in a major way. In this video, Kabir Chibber talks to Microsoft’s Charlie Kindel about the direction of web technology in 2011. Mr Kindel says that the ‘smart tiles’ design interface of the Windows phones were based on traffic signs and other iconic visual signals you see in everyday life.
“We have more and more natural user interfaces,” says Mr Kindel.
It has also been the year of convergence – when more products are doing the same thing. Foursquare co-founder Dennis Crowley is very much interested in the combination of mobile, social and geographical tools. Although this may be an obvious direction for the Foursquare team, Crowley also shows interest in areas away from location apps.
“I’m really enjoying seeing people do mash-ups of social media and TV,” says Mr Crowley.
As well as convergence, the big tech powers are in each other’s faces. Facebook is on every iPhone and Google Android phone, while Google and Apple both launched social networks in the past year. Head of design at Nokia, Marko Ahtisaari comments on how social networks have recently moved towards smaller group communication, yet not really evolved.
“There have been many social networks that emphasise privacy and small-group communication, and it’s interesting that they haven’t taken off yet, but I think their time will come,” says Ahtisaari.