This week I have been tasked, as a member of team B, to Blog about a good example of Rich User Experience in the form of a web application or some kind of service. Before I get into that, let me explain what exactly a Rich User Experience is. Rich User Experiences (RUE) are a combination of Graphical User Interface (GUI) type applications and multimedia content. User Experience is the core element in the spread of computers and the internet that has adapted and improved the most over the ages. Rich User Experience is the use of applications installed onto the desktop and transferring them with applications used from the web browser which work and give similar experiences to the desktop applications. However in the current generation, the number of web based applications created and already existing are growing much faster than desktop based application in the Web 2.0 generation.
These days there are a variety of services and applications that provide Rich User Experiences such as HTML5 and JavaFX these are web 2.0 application development tools, and also applications such as Gmail and GoogleMaps which already provide Rich User Experiences. However today, I shall be explaining to all of you why Panoramio is a great example of an application which has a Rich User Experience.
Panoramio is a Community driven site for exploring interesting places in the world through photography, not just landmarks but cities, forests, lakes, anything place you can take a photo of. Panoramio is not a traditional photo sharing website, while it lets you share photos with friends and the general public you are also contributing unintentionally to the community effort. Its main purpose is for users to find out about a location through the pictures other users have taken and posted. The quality of the pictures you see amount to the talent of the photographer that took them not a computer or a fancy photo editing software/app. Panoramio uses Google Earth and Google Maps API’s (Application Programming Interface) to access these photos and pinpoint on the map where exactly the photos were taken so the user can assess whether or not they want to visit a certain area. 
Panoramio has an App for IOS and Android as well as a fully functional website. It does not however have a desktop application, Nevertheless it makes up for this by having a great interactive interface with high user engagement and fast performance. Users can edit the name or place of other photos and there own from an computer that has internet or phone. The application has an independent platform and provides ubiquitous access and collaboration.
Panoramio is a simple application which seeks to engage its users through efficiency and simplicity. With a simple UI( User Interface) accessible to anyone and easy to use controls and easy to pick up features its a great example of putting simplicity and user satisfaction first. It also benefits from data entry optimization and client side verification and validation. It has a simple user account creation system, and the cost of using the application is nothing, completely free. They have made finding a photos for a location very easy with two main methods either typing the location into the search bar or simply searching the map for the area you wish to visit, all photos are pasted exactly where they were taken on the map. The most popular pictures appear larger than the others indicating that the specific area with the photo has been visited, viewed and liked a lot.
Technology wise Panoramio uses a combination of services such as JavaScript, HTML and Google Ajax API’s which when combined delivers a Rich User Experience. As mentioned before users can search for photos by tabbing the name of the place or the name of the user into the search bar or simply by exploring the map. There are also multiple categories that can help narrow down a search. This application is the best example of preserving the photos addressability by pinpointing them on the Google maps. 
Panoramio does not exactly offer personalization in terms of the actual user profile itself however the application does offer another form of personalization. It automatically suggests photos based on the user own photo gallery, the areas the user has been viewing and popular hash tags. Furthermore, Google company has improved their Google Earth “Tour Guides” by adding 100,000 new “Tours” and over a million photos from Panoramio 
Panoramio is a great application for those who like to travel and want to share their travel photos with others around the globe. Panoramio makes it really easy for you to upload and link photos to the locations where they are taken. This makes it more than just a photo sharing website; actually it makes it quite useful. I hope I have shown you how Panoramio is a great example of a Rich User Experience application.
References:
No comments:
Post a Comment