As I wrote in a previous post, one of the issues that I have with the way that Jay Cross is defining workflow learning is his heavy emphasis on ubiquitous web services applications with a high degree of business intelligence built in. I just think it’s way too early to be quite so confident that this is going to happen any time soon.
In contrast, the most interesting workflow learning apps that I have seen to date all get their data on workflow from a different source: the application’s user interface. Using various technologies, these tools sit between the user interface and the user, intercepting clicks, adding guidance, and automating certain parts of the workflow. I think this is where most of the action will be in workflow learning for at least the next couple of years. The folks at ActiveGuide have just posted an outstanding example, made with ActiveGuide.
So far, I’ve been pleased with what ActiveGuide can do. It works fairly reliably (which is difficult with this kind of technology), it has the advantage of not requiring any client-side plug-ins, and it is priced very aggressively for what it does. It has some of the rough edges and feature holes that you’d expect to see in a new product, but overall, I’m impressed.