[usernam]

I'm not sure I've seen any "user interface innovation" done with HTML.

Pick a book on GUI interfaces of the 80ies (for example: Computers Graphics by Foley & al), and see that pretty much all UI paradigms themselves were pretty much explored back then. The concept of the "hypercard" was already there.

HTML just improved on the presentation of it, often worsening everything else. Somehow web apps lowered the expectations of what a computer /should/ do so much that usability itself became an afterthought.

Some of the best designed apps on the web mostly ditch the DOM and layout everything in JS. Hardly "innovative".

[BjoernKW]

I'd say that the web page itself is a pretty innovative concept. The concept might've existed before (Apple's HyperCard dates back to 1987 for example) but the web expanded on that by making use of resources distributed across the network.

There have been many smaller improvements, too. Google's Material Design for instance.

[TeMPOraL]

> There have been many smaller improvements, too. Google's Material Design for instance.

Could you elaborate on that? I.e. how this is an improvement, and over what? Serious question.

My overall impression is that it promotes dumbed down interfaces that maximize wasted screen space while minimizing amount of useful information displayed. But I might have just bad luck and constantly encounter applications using Material Design wrong. How does a good Material Design application look?

[BjoernKW]

The material metaphor and the purposeful use of animation ("Motion provides meaning"), dimensions and visual perspective in my opinion is an improvement over merely arranging information in grids.

It's a fresh approach to displaying information in a meaningful and consistent manner.

Both the new Google Calendar and Contacts application are decent Material Design applications in my opinion.