Splice Now

Looking back, maybe we could say 2009 was the year the playing field got a little more level. It was the year competition seemed to return, the year some of the hoopla subsided and people settled in around the idea that no single application is perfect and that each has its strengths and weaknesses.

For my money that’s a very healthy development, one that can only improve our tools. Competition drives innovation, and our applications are anything but finished. Most of us are eager to see improvements in simplicity, transparency and responsiveness.

In my dreams I hope for an interface like that in Minority Report, with a huge canvas on which to work and a lot of physical feedback. But even without such a fundamental re-imagining, there are big strides that could be made in terms of an interface that’s always on, so you could make changes and continue to work without stoppng video playback. And I look forward to what’s been described as “common timeline,” where all our tools operate on the same sequence and where exporting and importing, when needed, are so transparent that you barely notice them and collaboration becomes a lot simpler.

So, here’s to a brighter year, where our newly flattened playing field will result in significant innovation. I hope you all have a happy, healthy and safe New Year.

This entry was posted on December 31, 2009 at 9:04 am and is filed under User Interface. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments. You can comment below, or link to this permanent URL from your own site.