This grabbed me yesterday. The info I want to discuss is longer than a tweet, shorter than a regular blog post, but I just have to get this out until I can start testing it. So – here’s an interim thought. Just can’t drop everything to think about this at the moment. If nothing else, be sure and review the two videos mentioned below.
Touchscreens + HTML5 + audio/video = new docs?
Touchscreens
They’re here to stay, of course. I think they’re the future. That’s going to be more of my focus from here on out. The days of sitting at a computer using a keyboard are on the way out. Here are some links to review.
Touchscreens are here to stay; more proof:
The Touch-Friendly Web Keeps on Growing
Thoughts on why we need to think about touchscreens, and why they may make Flash-based tutorials unusable
Think Outside the Computer: Touchscreens, HTML5, and Flash
+ audio & video via HTML5
Look at the last video on this page:
It shows dots displaying when touching something and sound then playing.
= new docs?
You could point to something & highlight it. Play sound or narration. Maybe use it with something like an image map, where text pops up. Have some kind of sound or narration or something (I don’t know for sure; have to look at it.) This would be very good for accessibility, no doubt.
Then there’s VoiceXML to think about, and flexible screens that you can put on clothes. Somehow this will all fit together.
I know this isn’t much info in this post. However, I wanted to make you aware of this functionality available through HTML5. I’m going to try and start testing this over the next few weeks. It’s too exciting to ignore -
Update 5/26/10: I think this will go down as the age in which docs went cool. Very cool. You absolutely must take a look at this article about Wired magazine’s iPad edition. Run the video, and pay particular attention to the car graphics and other doc-type information in the middle of the video. It looks to me like there is an example of how something like the other item I mentioned above could be put to use.
Exciting times!
The title of your article reminds me of Arthur C. Clarke’s Third Law: Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.
You’re right, Julie. The technology is here. It’s not magic. It’s something we can use. We just need to open our imaginations and envision what it can do for us.