There has been a lot of recent improvement in the design of user interface, inspired in part by leading examples for the iPad, such as Flipboard. Flipboard was named iPad app of the year in 2010. Such highly visual, simple interfaces have now been captured in websites and the general media. Fuse Project's website is a good example, Ferrari has a great site and this rendering of the NYT is my favorite. Two new businesses following this trend are Pinterest and Prezi.
Pinterest is a relatively new site that allows one to tell stories in pictures. The company has reportedly just raised capital through a venture round lead by Andreessen Horowitz. What is more noteworthy is that their user statistics are reported to mirror Facebook in the early stage.
Prezi is a cloud-based alternative to Powerpoint. That is the simple explanation. The more complex explanation would be mind mapping meets Flipboard meets Powerpoint. For the presentation of complex ideas Prezi may be the answer. Now I just have to figure out how to use it.
