I was recently intrigued by the possibilities of different ways of accessing information from the internet. One of the things that struck me immediately, was the lack of attention given to the user experience for digital information assimilation. The following is a little concept that I fleshed out to help illustrate the point.

What if every website could be converted into a dashboard view that did not need the user to scroll on the given screen form factor?

Lets go through this idea in some detail, with the following considerations:

• Figure out the purpose of existence of an internet facing website/webapp with regards to its main use case for consumers.
• Understand where the idea of a “web page” might have come from.
• Understand the benefits of alternative user experiences that would be immediately applicable to different types of consumers.
• Apply the dashboard idea to the use cases of internet search and content generation/distribution.

Why does a website exist?

Every website exists to serve some use case for a set of users. In this sense, what it does is give out information or ability to interact with itself / other users through itself as a platform. Some of the major use cases of an internet-based website/webapp are:

·        Display some information related to an organization, products released by an organization, support options, etc

·        Provide an online shopping experience

·        Provide a web based interface to an app also widely used in cross-platform native devices

·        Is a source of general or specific news items, or other content primarily dealing with large amounts of textual data

·        Is an image gallery

·        Is a video streaming service

·        Is a user blog

and so on…

How did the idea of a web page originate?

Digital documents

I think the idea of a web page evolved from the idea of a digital document. A web page being just a document with links to other documents for navigation.

What is the problem with this?

A digital document was meant to be a digital twin of paper documents, such that the document could be printed.

A web page in general is not intended to be printed.

For each of the use cases noted above, a web page is more a source of information about the underlying data rather than the data itself. But in each and every case, the user is forced to deal with a representation of the data in raw unstructured format, at a level just above that of digital documents themselves.

A web page (note the misnomer) is an interface to underlying raw data that should provide information to a user in personalized/generic ways. The whole idea of scrolling the web becomes moot, when you consider that a web page could be much more than just a representative digital document.

This lack of attention to the user experience on the web may have severely constrained the development of alternative views of the data, potentially hampering the development of user experience on the internet over the half century or so that this technology has been around.

How do people generally use the web?

Without being condescending towards the vast majority of web users who have become accustomed to using scroll as a pastime, we can be sure that there are primarily two kinds of web users in existence: active and passive

Active users

The user is aware that there are websites that exist which have the information that the user seeks.

The user is aware that a search engine indexes these websites and provides relevant links as a search result

Passive users

The user is aware that going to a specific website/webapp will enable a passive scroll-based experience for media consumption.

The user follows linked media within the same website, for the most part, interacting with some of the media elements in a process called user engagement.

Use case examples

Search

Let us try to reason through the application of this concept to the use case of internet search by comparing traditional search results and the newer ai enabled search results.

In traditional search, the user is presented with a web page of results, which are each links to other web pages, there being a configurable number of such results on each page of the search output. This had been the standard way of displaying search results for over 25+ years, until some ai enhanced view came out recently.

In ai search, the user is presented with textual / media filled summary of so-called information which needs to be revalidated by the user, in the traditional manner just noted above, before using the information for legitimate purposes. This is again because ai results are provided with a disclaimer against their accuracy of information, and as of today do need to be revalidated for any serious work to be conducted, for example in peer-reviewed science, or other professional settings.

Now, what if the user was not allowed to scroll? Or somehow, the notion of scrolling disappeared overnight from the collective consciousness? The issue, to start with, becomes a matter of presentation, a view over the underlying. But we haven’t yet developed what the view could be in the case of search.

Any search should strive for presenting information that is accurate, reliably consistent over time and easily verifiable from original sources.

Let us now look at the user’s point of view. The user in most cases is one of the following, in no order of priority:

·        They are looking for some specific information

·        Knows how to best formulate a search query

·        They are unaware of the quirks of formulating such queries

·        They are not looking for anything specific

·        The user explicitly wants to be entertained for some time by content

·        The user is exploring the web through prebuilt links, with discontinuities, when the user opens a new tab and types in some other query/url.

These types of user states can be differentiated according to some other criteria as well, such as:

·        The case where the user is not looking for anything specific

·        Exploration (which is how I prefer to use the web)

·        Every user session can be mapped as forest of trees. A new tab creates a new tree only when the user applies his mind to come up with:

o   A new search query

o   A different url

The tree generated from simply opening in a new tab, is essentially just a subtree of the root session

Again, I have limited myself here to the way things appear to be currently done.

So, how could it be different? The tab concept, the url concept, the search query concept are all artifacts of a certain line of thinking and rapid technology advances and distribution mechanisms.

If it could be done, from scratch, all over again, what would be the ideal way to visualize the raw unstructured nature of digital data?

These are questions that will need further thought and consideration, which I will not attempt to do so in a single blog article. Hopefully, readers will find this article stimulating enough to do their own research and put out their own ideas or thoughts about this concept of alternative web based user experiences.

Why does a user search for something on the web?

Note that both active users and passive users are here thought of as being part of search.

The intention of the user remains the same-to perform the search operation to satisfy some current intent, regardless of the means of satisfying that intention (whether a search engine is employed or a scroll-based video feed, or a discussion forum, etc).

Traditional browsers enable the view of a website as intended by the owner of the website.

The owner of the website has to go to extreme lengths to collect data on the user so that parts of the website can be personalized for the user. This leads to all the troubles we have seen in recent years regarding privacy violations and data sharing agreements between companies, regardless of user’s safety or consent, in some cases.

A possible solution

What if the user specifies, for each session, the role they are playing out in a given search?

The data on user preferences could be something a browser collects and the user shares with the browser on personal devices / on work devices, leading to personalization from the client end rather than the server end.

The user has full control over the data about themselves that is stored in the browser, thus their “digital identity” that ever gets shared with other websites/apps is controlled only by this local / encrypted via cloud for sharing on multiple devices representation.

Privacy enforcing mechanisms could be a mandatory opt in/out from the client side, rather than a de-facto given per website basis.

What does this mean for the user?

When a browser is opened, the user sees an address bar, where search is initiated. This is the way it has always been.

What if, the user is confronted with a digital twin, at least in knowledge sharing terms, of a reflection of the user’s browsing sessions over a period of time? The twin would be in possession of data that the user sees at once as being either helpful or not to either the current session or as interests change over time, could instead choose to immediately delete from their online shared identity.

The user no longer searches the web

The user becomes part of it.

The user engages with the web in a much more emotionally attached way and learns and grows with it. I say this, because the twin can help the user to pick up lost threads of insights that tend to get lost as people search for something on the web impulsively. The digital twin interface can be built such that it is at once useful both for starting new search sessions and continuing based on stats of older sessions that haven’t been purged yet from it’s memory by the user.

From the realm of presentation views, we are entering the realm of automatic knowledge management.

A browser, instead of being a passive renderer, becomes the user’s interface to the external world by default. Mechanisms could be built that enable responsible data sharing, fully and easily configurable for each user without having to go through endless drop downs and wizard screens that require understanding more akin to legal language.

This could lead to an exponential increase in the amount of user generated content on the web, which would be good for everyone. The web was built around anonymity, and this shouldn’t act as a barrier to responsible data sharing for 99.999% of users.

Consider content generation

Users share content through specific platforms with a web interface.

Clients (website, mobile app) of these interfaces allow for both active and passive consumption of said content, which is usually an agglomeration of similar content provided by other content generators (other websites, other feeds).

The user’s digital twin browser, however, is now clever enough to understand the user’s specific needs for a particular session.

Consider an adult user who logs in to a session with some intention.

So, a user may go to a social media app, or to a search engine, or to a specific news provider, or an online retailer, etc

The user goes to these platforms because of a high degree of confidence that the intention will be satisfied by spending time on the specific platform.

Note here the execution is by the user.

The user has an intent

The user has a mental map of associations that map specific intents to specific ways of achieving resolution for that specific intent, currently being platforms that offer the content/service being desired.

Eg: Search -> associated with Google, shopping -> associated with Amazon (in the user’s mental map)

By putting the digital twin in charge of acquiring information based on the user’s public profile, the twin negotiates with other twins set up by the service providers over some protocol, in order to get relevant information back to the user. Thus, the user no longer associates search with Google and shopping with Amazon, unless the information provided by the twin and vouched for as being relevant by the user reinforces the belief in the twin, which can then display these associations, while also being fully editable and configurable by the user.

In the not very far future, provided something of this sort is realized in the real world, a user could:

·        Pick up the phone and speak to their onboard companion, describing the role they wish to play in a new session on the web.

·        Their digital twin is aware of what the user has requested for, primarily by intent, rather than by association.

·        Considering the web as a dynamic entity now empowered by robust data sharing, the search problem is one that the twin must solve rather than a platform.

·        The twin solves this by using its learned profile of the user as a springboard to generate a visual representation of the web that combines results in a meaningful way for the user’s current state of knowledge.

·        The user may always nudge the twin to provide more or less of anything, thus updating state.

·        Publicly accessible data could be automatically labelled by the twins of the platform providers/aka websites to enable new discovery mechanisms specifically for this twin approach.

·        This could enable the creation of new types of networks, including social, where search occurs between twins automatically, thus relieving users of real-world social tensions.

Each step here, could be text, visual or voice based.

Over time, it becomes the norm.

No scroll.

Once it becomes clear that a no-scroll approach to the web is preferrable, technologies could be developed so that the underlying providers of information, aka websites are built from the ground up in a manner suited to the new environment. This could be web 4.0 or wherever the number stands right now.

Navigation consequences of a dashboard interface

Suppose for a moment that this alternative user experience existed. Lets quickly go through some consequences with regards to some of the device form factors currently in the market.

Smartphone/Tablet/Desktop/Laptop

·        A user is able to navigate most websites and surf using only direct touch using the thumb on one hand.

·        A user is saved from repeated movement of fingers and wrist, which over a period of time affects the muscles of the hand in a negative way.

·        A user is aware that although the view presented by the browser is not the actual website (at the moment), they are getting sufficient information at a glance.

It should become possible for AI enabled voice navigation to use the dashboard view to enable a hands-free experience in all form factors.

With AI

Local AI agents could be enabled at the client end, that work with the digital twin architecture in order to provide useful services to the user. For example, before the user commits to any specific transaction as an outcome of the browsing session, the local AI could reconcile whether the information used by the user to arrive at a conclusion is validated by the actual data residing on the underlying pages used as reference. This is just a double check, that is done automatically, and not as a replacement for human validation, which we must remember that is always required, in this new world.

So, the user experience is transformed from one of passive scrolling, to an active seeking out of new information. For most people, it would be the definitive factor that makes them not just want to use the technology for their own needs, but to embrace ai and the digital presence over time without being overwhelmed or unjustly manipulated.

What is the value proposition?

Apart from the obvious ones noted above, this concept frees providers of information from having to personalize their content for individual users. This is now accomplished through protocols that navigate the complex web, twins sharing data and fetching information / enabling social interaction based on configurations that are fully under the user’s control.

A shift of power into the user’s hands would do more for human development than artificial binning imposed by algorithmic engines of the current web. It remains to be seen whether such shifts are allowed to occur in society, or whether the status quo of the master algorithm will continue to prey upon uninitiated souls.