Apps are Headed for Extinction

Dateline: March 20, 2015

Welcome to our Friday WRAP – one thought-provoking idea to think about over the weekend.

Recently Paul Adams, VP of Products at @Intercom, a customer communications software company, published a thoughtful blog, titled The End of Apps as we Know Them on the future of apps.  In it he suggests,

The idea of having a screen full of icons, representing independent apps, that need to be opened to experience them, is making less and less sense. The idea that these apps sit in the background, pushing content into a central experience, is making more and more sense. That central experience may be something that looks like a notification centre today, or something similar to Google Now, or something entirely new.

Paul suggests that this will be a platform very different from any of our usual interfaces today.  His blog suggests a structure and set of functionalities for this vision.   How do we handle this? One of his suggestions is to start to experiment now,

Responsive design is a nice thing, but we’re heading way beyond that. We’re talking about designing content that may appear on an incomprehensible number of devices and in an incomprehensible number of situations. This will need new design principles, new ways of thinking about researching context. Push forward with this yourself, don’t wait for it to happen.

What role do apps play in the delivery of  your IT products and services?  Are they ready for an overhaul?

That’s a WRAP! Have a terrific weekend.

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