WEB APPLICATIONS (Web-based application)
Without being overly concerned about semantics or classification (if that’s actually possible on a site like Boxes and Arrows), it is important to establish an objective means of differentiating between a web application and a traditional website. To wit, in contrast to content-based websites, a web application possesses both of the following observable properties:
One-to-one relationship: Web applications establish a unique session and relationship with each and every visitor. Although this behavior is fundamental to Web applications it is not present in either content-based websites or desktop applications. A web application such as Hotmail knows who you are in a way that Cnet or even Photoshop doesn’t.
Ability to permanently change data: Web applications allow users to create, manipulate, and permanently store data. Such data can take the form of completed sales transactions, human resources records, or email messages to name but a few. This contrasts with web services like Google that allow users to submit information but do not allow them to permanently store or alter information
Although these two characteristics alone result in a fairly broad definition of web applications, websites that possess both of them necessarily contain a degree of application behavior, logic, and state lacking in traditional content-based sites. In addition, they require a significantly more sophisticated level of user interactivity and interaction design than what is associated with content sites.
This distinction between websites and web applications is most obvious in situations where a given site is almost exclusively composed of either content OR functionality. Newsweek.com (a website) and Ofoto (a web application) are two such cases. However, even popular web destinations such as Amazon, and myYahoo!, sites that combine both content AND functionality, should be considered web applications because they meet these two criteria and therefore exhibit the interactive complexities and behaviors associated with applications.
In the case of Amazon, this takes the obvious form of personalized content and complex transactions, as well as a variety of other functions including the creation and storage of images, the uploading and ordering of digital photographs, the editing and tracking of orders, and many others. That’s not to say that all online stores qualify as web applications; in fact most don’t. But Amazon and other stores of similar sophistication have the same characteristics and design considerations as more traditional applications such as email and contact management.
Granted, consumer sites like Amazon and myYahoo! typically lack the level of complexity found in licensed enterprise applications such as Siebel, PeopleSoft, or Documentum, but as a tool for classification, complexity is both inadequate and subjective.
Whether any particular application has sufficient complexity to require a highly skilled interaction designer is a question that can only be answered on a case-by-case basis. The point remains, however, that if a web property establishes a one-to-one relationship with its users and allows those users to edit, manipulate, and permanently store data, then it possess certain capabilities and complexities that distinguish it from traditional content-centric websites.
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