Iphone

Looking for some feedback.

Why do you think screens of web or client/server applications that connect to databases are so standard and "boring"?
I mean: what do you see on the screen of these kind of applications? Answer: textboxes, dropdownlists, labels, datagrids and gif or jpg files.

Just to use an example. Have you seen the screens of SAP? Are they not so borign? And it costs 1 million dollars.

What would happen if somebody decided to develop a client/server application with graphics of a 3D Game?

I think that this is not happening, because there is a generation gap between game developers and database application developers. Game developers are younger that web or client/server developers, and client/server developers don't know about developing 3D graphics.

Iphone

I have some ideas on why we havn't seen an introduction to fancypants interactive 3D business software. None of these are a sole reason, since I beleive that the reasons are many contributing factors that encourage business software to be designed the way it is. My short answer that wraps it all up though is that it's not cost effective.

First reason

In general, the typical development model of a buisiness application revolves around giving the customer exactly what they want, no more and no less. On paper, it kind of goes like this:
1. The customer go to the developers and tells them what their needs are
2. The developers go to their huddle and talk things over to decide whether those needs can be met, then go back to the customers to tell them yes/no
3. The customer tells the developers in broad terms how they want it to work
4. The developers helps the customer flesh out their ideas on how the product is suppose to work
5. The developers go back to their huddle and come up with something to show the customers, then find out if the customer likes it or not. Repeat this step as needed.
6. Maintenance. Ongoing until the product is no longer being used

The problem with this business model is that in practice there is a lot of room for misinterpretation between the customer and developer. Frequently, a customer will say one thing and mean what they say, but when translated to the way an engineer things, it means something completely different. So, you get a lot of back and forth, changing the way the program operaters all the time throughout its development. Especially in a fun environment, this can lead to a lot of problems like developers adding extra little "bonus features" that the customer will probably want removed later in this case. When doing 3D stuff, there's also an added layer of complexity there that will raise product costs and significantly raise the potential for instabilities. There is also the issue of getting the other commonly used applications to work with the new 3D app.


Second reason

Here I'll talk about the logistics of introducing a radically new style of software into the office place. If a company has, say 50,000 employees that will be using the new software, that means 50,000 people who are used to a certain way of doing things that need to be retrained, and potentially 50,000 computers that need to be replaced. This can be a doozy for large companies who are trying to save every penny they can on an order like this. That can easily lead to sub-par systems being purchased that can't properly run the new software, resulting in decreased employee efficiency and increased levels of frustration. The #1 cause of employee dissatisfaction is not having the all of the proper tools to do their job.


Third reason

Over time, most software that has a main focus of eye candy is going to severely look and feel its age in twent years. I know it can sound crazy, but business software really does live that long, and longer. It's starting to get less common, but I still see old DOS style programs being used at the cachiers stations at clothing retailers and supermarkets for instance.


That said, I do think there is plenty of room for adding some 3D fun to spread sheets, inventories, and whatever else that would help people do their jobs more efficiently. I think the key to it may be that every piece of eye candy that is added to business software needs to be significant in its own way and can be easily ignored during unrelated tasks.