Peldi has enountered an impersonator. I had wondered whether the addition of video communication with Flash would reduce this kind of on-line mischief. By the way, I don’t think it is off-topic at all.

I suppose that if you don’t know what Peldi looks like or don’t know his personality, you might be taken in. Viswanath Gondi notes: “We all will soon evolve into learning not to believe every thing we see and hear. We will learn to fit what we hear by comparing it to their personalities.”

Nobody knows you’re a dog observes JD, linking also to a wonderful article that he wrote with some sage advice on debugging net rumors.

Reading these articles this morning reminded me of Julian Dibbell’s article, A Rape in Cyberspace: How an Evil Clown, a Haitian Trickster Spirit, Two Wizards, and a Cast of Dozens Turned a Database Into a Society. I believe there is a significant difference between manipulating psudeonyms in virtual worlds and impersonating real life identity; however, I enjoyed re-reading this thought-provoking tale.

There is an opportunity to take ideas from desktop applications and apply then to the web. All user interface design is information visualization. We can blur the distinction between dynamic content and transactions. In designing desktop UI in the ’90s, it was wonderful to see context-sensitive panels and toolbars gradually replace the modal dialog. Why make the user ask a question when we can provide the answer? Some of today’s web sites are already applying this principle in creating dynamic data-driven sites.

I’m not convinced that today’s desktop applications are the best we can do in terms of user experience, nor do I believe that most web applications benefit from the same designs that work well on the desktop. We can borrow ideas and design principles, but the graphical user interface elements and layout don’t always translate well. Most desktop apps were created to let you create and modify documents: word processor, spreadsheet, graphic design tools, etc. Most web apps let you ask questions, find information and perform transactions.

Unlike a desktop app, a web site is a place. I find this metaphor of travel oddly intuitive. It takes time to go from one place to another in real life, so it feels okay to wait when you ‘go’ to another page on the web. We design multiple web pages with a consistent design and user interface elements to create the illusion that a web site, these multiple pages, are a single place. Nevertheless as you troll for information or finalize a transaction, a conversation takes place. You ask questions, fill out forms, click links, and the landscape changes. It’s a completely different experience than the one you have on your solitary desktop, and provides fertile ground for innovative design.

Jed Wood has put together a nice site on the topic of flash usability. In particular, I really like that he includes examples of his various points and invites other folks to submit more.