rrripples Amid the File Sharing Wave
A great number of file sharing sites and applications compete for your attention today, with more creative (and lighter) versions of these being favored by users across different domains. A quick Google search on the term ‘file sharing’ predictably showcase the traditional peer-to-peer services (like Limewire) and the more integrated apps — which do both backups of your hard drive and sharing (e.g. Box.net). However, there is yet another model of file sharing — temporary transmission of one (or a few) files.
Temporary transmission of files (whether they be a large PowerPoint, PDF, Word, Excel, etc) has its own niche, and there are some great companies positioned in this realm (e.g. drop.io). Their strength is in their robust back-end systems, allowing quick upload, processing, previewing and ultimately, downloads of multimedia.
So what’s the bridge between peer-to-peer systems on one hand, and the more robust back-end infrastructure plays? Perhaps the bridge between both will be a visual user interface that can couple next-generation touch-based user interaction (think capacitive touch screens) with these existing back-end heavy products, to create a more engaging, easy to use and delightful user experience to share files with one another.
Users need the basic features, after all, for file sharing. But users are also now heavily nurtured in social media, so visual interfaces must also adapt to these social requirements. Thoughtful, delightful visual experiences are no longer the realm of just your Apple products (as one clear example) but required more and more across the web — rippling their way across the file sharing space, too.