In September a group of HCI students at the University of Michigan’s School of Information began a series of design jams focused on the future of the browser. These awesome events aim to contribute ideas to the Concept Series. When we launched the series we put out a call for “industry, higher education and people from around the world to get involved and share their ideas and expertise as we collectively explore and design future directions for the Web”. These students are doing just that.

Headed by Liz Blankenship, a current Masters student in the HCI program, the first satellite Labs night encouraged brainstorming around how to create a better browser. The students divided into four groups – Tabs, History, Automation, and Web Apps – and discussed use cases present in each. Check out a complete wrap up of the event on the Student Organization for Computer-Human Interaction website. The second event, held in October, took ideas generated at the first session and expanded them into mockups and sketches. The students again broke into teams and dove into fleshing out details around each concept. More details here. The third and final jam will tackle creating functional prototypes.

Great work by these students. We would love to hear about similar projects. What are your thoughts on the future of the browser?

Add them to the Concept Series in any state – crazy idea, sketch, mockup, prototype, all are welcome!