Alertbox #7

In the Future, We'll All Be Harry Potter

We may not be flying on broomsticks right now, but with the way things are going right now, we are more like Harry Potter than people think.

Next-Generation Magic

Let's take a look at what Harry Potter has and what we have now or could have.

Harry Potter	Us
Daily Prophet- alive pictures	Tablet PC 3.0 w/eye tracking
Smelly socks scream	Smart clothing, computerized
Quidditch action players move	Barney but lacks personality
Pensieve	Digital Cameras
Mirror comment on appearance	Fashion designer advice
Omniculars w/ instant replay	Binoculars w/ digital cameras
Marauder's Map	Smart Badges

Don't Harm the Muggles

In Harry Potter, the wizards are not allowed to play tricks on the muggles who no nothing of the wizarding world. Web designers should take the same advice. In our world, the vast majority of people know nothing of computers and internet. It is all magic to them. Thus, web designers should not play any tricks on them. Every page that doesn't conform to the expected design conventions undermines users' ability to use a website and those designers are being bad wizards.

This article was very interesting in its ideas and concepts that it brought up. The way that technology is going, there are a lot of things from Harry Potter that are not so far fetched. However, those of us who are performing this magic and bringing about these products, should do it to the best of our capabilities so that it promotes the item or web design as something that a user can and will want to have and use.