The role of UX & form factor in Creative Products – Predictions & Analysis [Part 1]
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I have been exploring creative tools & products for more than a decade now and have seen technological advancements influencing the kind of art that gets created. In this series of articles, I'll document my observations, mention predictions and analyse the potential of the creative industry – visuals, audio, interactive, gaming & more. Generative Extend by Adobe in Premiere Pro yet again solidifies my point: 💡Here’s another claim about creative products I’ve been making for years:
Native apps for desktop, laptop & tablets are the only reliable way to go. Mobile apps can at max take care of one small task of the overall creative process (Ableton Note, Apple’s Voice Memo etc are a few examples) or help in onboarding new users.
And web apps are NO apps imo; instead, the browser is the app while the web page is just a tab and nothing more (yes, now & then some innovative products show up as web apps, but none of them will work in the long run unless ported to a native app version). At max, these are proof of concepts.
I’ve advocated for web apps in the past, and I sometimes still do. But I’ve come to a conclusion that these are good only as prototypes or to host other features like license logistics. Splice had to go native, so did Soundtrap. And one day, WavTool will have to as well. Frameworks that can port web apps to native have the potential to grow. JUCE 8 has some interesting features to cater to this.
💡And just to make a claim-hattrick in this post, here’s one more:
Server based processing will get accepted. This is a user behaviour change and Apple’s Apple Intelligence in iOS 18 and MacOS Sequoia will help bring that change & acceptance amongst users to be okay with letting a better AI model to do the processing in the cloud. Which means, Avid’s AudioSuite, Celemony’s ARA (Audio Random Access), Steinberg's Direct Offline Processing and similar offline render processes will thrive if used smartly.
In essence, either the native apps will use server features like “save projects in the cloud”, “render in background” etc. or web apps ported to native will bring these features with them and take over the user base.
📌 Note: Now that you know the claims, if you happen to like these ideas, I’m happy to discuss further & collaborate. Reach out using the Contact Me page or drop me an email at queries@prashantmishra.xyz And if you happen to rip off my ideas, don't forget to give credits 😃
In the world of AI in creativity, UX and form factor is everything. Researches to make great AI has already picked up pace, and now it’s the product mindset that will bring the next big upgrade.
💡Bonus: This is more of a wish than a claim. Version control of creative projects will become a reality. With dawProject in progress, I feel Bitwig could make it happen.