One of the key themes we'll see emerge this year is an evolution in user interface design and information architecture. It seems to happen every year.
In 2008 we saw the news feed and real-time web rise. In addition, we watched as social networking became more deeply embedded into an array of experiences, like news sites. Over the break I had a chance to update my XBox 360 to the new experience and I was knocked over by the design and new social networking features (note: Microsoft is an Edelman client).
What's next or 2009? I am not sure, but I do agree that context will become increasingly an important theme. Read Write Web has a great post summarizing where context is heading.
For an early taste of things to come, check out Visual Wikipedia. They're really on to something. The site, which is unaffiliated with the Wikimedia Foundation, layers on a ton of context around Wikipedia articles. It gets you thinking about what search and/or news delivery might look like one day.
For example, check out this article on Web 2.0. It's a reproduced page from the main Wikipedia site but it also includes an awesome map that points users to other relevant entries.
That's not all though. At the bottom of each page Visual Wikipedia pulls up videos from YouTube, as well as links to other services that offer additional context - Google, Yahoo News and Google Maps, to name three. This is the kind of context I wish that Mahalo would provide. When you couple their human-powered curation with contextual features, the result is something bigger.
In 2009 I am sure we'll see more experimentation with user interface design. It will be interesting to see which new models emerge and stick but I like where Visual Wikipedia is going.
