General Interface's...well, interface.

I just followed the link on Joel's front page to check out what General Interface is doing with the web.  I clicked on the demos, and although they look great, the cardinal sin of the web application is still there - lagginess.

How are vendors going to overcome this?  By making the apps address problems to pressing, youre willing to wait 2 second between mouse click and screen reaction?

Norrick
Monday, June 28, 2004

Use Gmail and you'll see. It's the best web app I've ever seen as far as lag is concerned.

They got around the issue by doing tons of stuff client side, and doing updates to the server in the background via an off-screen IFRAME. Nothing new, but I've never seen it executed so flawlessly.

Brad Wilson (dotnetguy.techieswithcats.com)
Monday, June 28, 2004

Oh Gmail rocks! It actually feels faster to use than Outlook 2002 I reckon.

Matthew Lock
Monday, June 28, 2004

Those General Interface interfaces are awful from an accessibility point of view.

John Topley (www.johntopley.com)
Tuesday, June 29, 2004

I thought it was a pile of shite, to be honest.

Those demos were probably quite flash a few years ago, but who cares now, it's all trivial.

Also, I question how easy to use it was. Okay, so you can check prices by dragging an item and dropping it somewhere. Fine, but why not just tell me the stupid prices. Also, if I want to order something I have to drag/drop it somewhere else. Why?

It just looks like a really amateurish school project.

Pity really, as you can clearly do a lot with web apps (my whole business is built on this idea), but some people just don't get it.

One day, all web sites will be like GMail....

Steve Jones (UK)
Tuesday, June 29, 2004

I would love to see this Gmail.  Please, somebody send me an invite!

Ged Byrne
Tuesday, June 29, 2004

A lot of guys are giving them away on irc. That's where I got mine from.

Matthew Lock
Tuesday, June 29, 2004

Oh, I've seen GMail.  I agree that it is a fantastic interface.  But I still don't think it is as responsive as a desktop interface.  But then again, it doesn't need to be - I love it anyway.  ;)

Norrick
Tuesday, June 29, 2004

You can get one at gmailswap.com.  It's fairly simple to get one as many of their users are quite nice.

On Gmail and Loving It!
Tuesday, June 29, 2004

  Recent Topics

  Fog Creek Home