Jim Fallows, writing in the New York Times article “Finally, Sisyphus, There’s Help for Those Internet Forms,” explains why real people should be interested in Ajax, or whatever Microsoft, Macromedia (Adobe?), or any other company wants to call the combination of technologies which is making the web more like desktop applications. For those in the web development arena, nothing new beyond a reminder that (a) everything old is new again and (b) every platform player wants to make sure their developers are seen as having the best tools for delivering this kind of experience. But it’s not the tools, it’s the experience. Closer to home, I think registration systems at work could definitely benefit from this hypothetical example Fallows describes:
For me at the airport, the difference might have been a box that let me try out user names and have them immediately approved or rejected, without affecting the other data on the screen.
Simple stuff matters, especially when it means getting through registration!