“Three Screens and a Cloud” is Microsoft’s latest vision for software development as articulated by Ray Ozzie. The idea is that users will interact with computing devices through three general types of interfaces:
1) Mobile device (phone, kindle, etc.),
2) Web browser on a laptop/netbook or standard PC
3) Big Screen on Wall
All of these interaction points or “screens” will use services from the cloud. While there is not much that is revolutionary in the vision, it’s a nice framework for thinking about application architecture. You have to consider not only the impact of designing User Experiences (UX) across the “three screens” but also the resulting code base.
I also like the vision makes the Big Screen on Wall (BSOW) a first class citizen. This type of interface is just about to starting to make its way into corporate offices and home use. Now that multi-touch is built into the operating system and gesture based interface are not that far away, this is a very exiting area with new paradigms. We’re spending R&D efforts to understand the cognitive differences in using very large displays vs. typical 17-22 inch monitors. While we’ve used BSOW for missions control and command centers, we don’t really understand the implications of these types of screens for personal use.
In any case, the three screens and a cloud is a nice framework for conceptualizing solutions.
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