rails conf talk slides

Meanwhile, In theRest of the World...RailsConf 2006 - Chicago, Illinois

Practicalmadness

Hello, my name is David, andI’ve come here to tell you what

you’re doing wrong.

I make:

✦ E-commerce sites for online and bricks-’n-mortar retailers

I make:


✦ CRM and client account management webapps for small real estate companies

I make:



✦ Content sites for artists, publishers and other perfectionists

I make:




✦ Little fixes, tweaks, improvements or total catastrophic revisions to any of the above

I make:




✦ Little fixes, tweaks, improvements or total catastrophic revisions to any of the above

✦ Money

But before that, I worked intech support.

While we’re all excited about the “new” Web, much of our potential audience is still discovering the old one.

The new hotness

The new hotness

✦ Create online communities, organized around communication and sharing of information.

The new hotness


✦ Participate in the web by publishing text and multimedia content, which can then be shared

The new hotness



✦ Enjoy newer, more agile means of consuming content via RSS readers or mobile devices

The new hotness



✦ Enjoy newer, more agile means of consuming content via RSS readers or mobile devices

✦ Spend less time waiting thanks to “live” Ajaxed UIs

Surf di!erently.

Surf better.Surf di!erently.

And the user says...

✦ No!


✦ No!

✦ What?


✦ No!

✦ What?

✦ Huh?


But what the user means is:

But what the user means is:

“Why?”

Some faulty assumptions

Customers know what their browser can do

Users know what they’re talking about

“Everybody lies.”- Dr. House

User requests are often aspirational in nature

✦ The user would like to make it easy for someone to send him/her a message...



✦ ...and that maybe that message should include a file attachment




✦ ...and perhaps also some tags





✦ ...and that incoming messages should be available via RSS





✦ ...and that incoming messages should be available via RSS

✦ ...and this feature goes unused when the user continues to use e-mail for all their communications needs


✦ The user needs to be able to post files to their website for friends or customers to download...



✦ ...and maybe also news items and calendar items and contact information and link lists and photos




✦ ...and maybe they want these items to be organized into subfolders




✦ ...and maybe they want these items to be organized into subfolders

✦ ...and the resulting complexity has them coming back next year wondering why it’s so hard to post a file to their website

Users are choosing their environment

What they’ve got

✦ Windows XP + Internet Explorer 6.x

What they’ve got


✦ E-mail via Hotmail, Yahoo Mail or Outlook/Outlook Express

What they’ve got



✦ Instant messaging via a proprietary client (e.g., AIM or Yahoo)

What they’ve got




✦ Listening to music via whatever music player they’ve got (e.g., iTunes or Windows Media Player)

What they’ve got





✦ Broadband (with a catch)

What they’ve got





✦ Broadband (with a catch)

✦ Search engine

What they’ve got

The problem

The problem

✦ People are not aware of the new hotness

The problem


✦ People don’t think they need the new hotness

The problem


✦ People don’t think they need the new hotness

✦ The new hotness has not been properly explained

They don’t think they need the new hotness.

Many people are only casual Web users who visit a relatively small number of sites

They already have a circle of people they communicate with, and established means for doing so

Many people who use computers every day feel that they don’t fully understand them

And even relatively tech-savvy people don’t see how the new hotness fits into their lives

So why should we care?

AwarenessMany Web 2.0-isms would be a hit with your users, if only they knew how to take advantage of them

Market opportunityWe’re not just talking about Grandma

VisionWe wanna change the world, remember?

So what’s the solution?

Do your homework

Talk to people.

The solution is more than just a feature set

Think about the future

And now, errata

CmereThe next generation of web invites

MightyShelfWhat the world would be like if Delicious Library didn’t take two hours to do something

NomaticBecause searching for an apartment in Wicker Park sucks.

My projects

(They’re not here, unfortunately)

It starts with how you think about the product

Before you start

✦ Who’s gonna use it?

✦ How will they use it?

✦ How often will they use it?

railsconf

Syndication

RSS Awareness

RSS Awareness

✦ Only 12% of internet users are aware RSS exists

RSS Awareness


✦ Only 4% have knowingly used it

RSS Awareness



✦ 27% of users consume RSS via web portals like My Yahoo! without ever knowing what RSS is

RSS Awareness



✦ 27% of users consume RSS via web portals like My Yahoo! without ever knowing what RSS is

✦ 28% are aware of podcasting, but only 2% subscribe to podcasts

FeedWhat? NetNewsWho?

RSS requires the use of specialized software



✦ ...which many users can’t / don’t want to install



✦ ...which many users can’t / don’t want to install

✦ ...or which just doesn’t seem like something they want to use

Night of the living bookmarks

Or the use of (dare I say) poorly-concieved browser features



✦ What’s the di!erence between “Live bookmarks” and regular old bookmarks?




✦ What’s the di!erence between Safari RSS and a regular old web page?




✦ What’s the di!erence between Safari RSS and a regular old web page?

✦ Is the user aware that these features are even there?

Portals are, like, so 1996

Or is built into personalized home pages like My Yahoo and Google



✦ These pages are so full of advertising and commercial content that it’s not obvious that they can be tailored to user prefs




✦ Users don’t find navigating to three di!erent pages to do three di!erent things inconvenient




✦ Users don’t find navigating to three di!erent pages to do three di!erent things inconvenient

✦ Your website doesn’t have the right button

“RSS” is invisible to end users

“RSS” is invisible to end usersAnd that’s the way we want it.

(Boy, these website buttons are tiny!)

User, RSS. RSS, User.

✦ Describe RSS in lay terms, as it pertains to your app



✦ Don’t assume that the user will make the connection between your app’s RSS and someone else’s




✦ Think about how your RSS will be consumed and target that




✦ Think about how your RSS will be consumed and target that

✦ And finally...

Know your mystery meat

Hey look! Words!

Flickr

?!railsconf

What is a tag?

What is a tag?

No, really, what is a tag?

Tags are “microcomments”

Things to consider

Things to consider

✦ What sorts of things are users looking for when using your app?

Things to consider


✦ What are the most logical ways to describe those things?

Things to consider



✦ Are users likely to need to group items using tags?

Things to consider




✦ The scope of taxonomy: is it open- or closed-ended?

Things to consider




✦ The scope of taxonomy: is it open- or closed-ended?

✦ How much overlap is there between the scope of your app and somebody else’s?

Practically perfect tagging


✦ If the app is narrow in scope, suggest that the tags be narrow in scope



✦ If each tag is considered a separate, discrete item in your data model, consider presenting them that way to the user



✦ If each tag is considered a separate, discrete item in your data model, consider presenting them that way to the user

✦ Don’t rely on users to decide how to best use the tagging feature -- show them

ExtraTasty!skinnyCorp

Self-supporting UI

ExtraTasty

Cork’dTundro

Tag clouds

✦ What exactly does larger text signify? How does the user know that? Do they need to?

✦ Are the tags in the cloud meaningfully related to each other?

✦ How does the cloud relate to the item the user’s looking for?

They’re not the devil, but are often a lesser demon

Meaningful collections

rails conf talk slides

Technology

windows media

total catastrophic

practically

mortar retailers

shared enjoy

personalized

surf di erently

di erent pages