Eloquation

I’ll admit that I’m not a developer, so I may be a bit clueless when it comes to the intricacies of web application development. I am, however, a voracious user of web apps of all types and kinds, so I figure I do have every right to comment on the state of web apps as I know them, and why so many of them are going wrong.

Of course, this post was inspired by the fact that the Future of Web Apps conference just wrapped up in London yesterday. I wasn’t there to attend the conference—and being someone that doesn’t really develop web apps, I’m attending the Future of Web Design conference instead—so I apologize to anyone if a lot of this repeats things you have heard incessantly over the past few months, but I have compiled my thoughts and thought I’d share them with you.

Basically, I’ve come up with four key points, and I’ve got examples for each one of them. There are tons of other things that need to go right when building a successful web application, but these are the four that stand out in my mind. Here goes.

Your app doesn’t have to be social

I’m not going to be crazy like Steve Ballmer and say that social networks are a fad; after all, these same networks have helped me make contacts for both friendship and for employment. I will, however, claim that a web app doesn’t need to be social in order to be successful.

I’ve found that some applications, in their rush to add ‘social functionality’ instead of being inherently social, have lost the core reason for their existence, and therefore fail to garner critical mass. There are, however, some applications that have done the complete opposite: instead of rushing to try and become social, application developers have created solid, value-adding applications that appeal to the end-user.

There are a few examples that illustrate this point quite effectively. The first is My Mile Marker, an application developed by Sidebar Creative that allows you to track gas expenditures and mileage for your automobile. It seems as though Sidebar has forgotten about this application—there hasn’t been any changes or features added to the site in over two months—but M3 is now indispensable for me. Instead of tracking my mileage on a spreadsheet, I now have an application with an easy-to-use data entry interface and robust charting systems to help me manage my automobile expenditures. Tracking your automobile mileage is not an inherently social activity, and Sidebar Creative hasn’t tried to pretend that it is; instead, they’ve created an interface for a simple solitary activity, and have done so in a fantastic way.

Another web app that I’ve been using quite often these days is Jumpchart, an online interactive sitemap tool by Paste Interactive. Now, of course, Jumpchart is a collaborative tool at its core, but it is not inherently social: I’m not on Jumpchart to make friends, I’m there to create excellent websites using the ideas and skill set of other selectively-chosen collaborators. The folks at Paste Interactive, instead of trying to create a tool where information architects and web designers can hang out and talk about sports, have created a web application where collaboration can occur seamlessly and effectively. By focusing on making their tool set relevant and useful for the end-user rather than attractive to the social network junkie, Jumpchart has created a tool that is a must-have in the arsenal of any information designer.

Your app doesn’t have to be productive

This second point might baffle a few people: after all, what is the point of creating a web application if there is, actually, no point to it? What I’d like to point out, however, is that I am not denying the fact that web apps need to add value. What I am saying is that this value doesn’t have to be rooted in productivity and efficiency. Sometimes you just need to be entertained.

The best example I can find in order to illustrate this fact is the highly entertaining Twitter Blocks. When it was first introduced, it received many accolades for its visual aesthetic, but was largely panned for its utility. Popular web personalities like Dave Winer and Russell Heimlich were quick to brand the application as useless or pointless. On the other hand, I thought Twitter blocks is (and continues to be) one of the most engaging ways to kill some time on the web.

In response to the criticism, Tom Carden made an excellent point:

It’s fine to ask “what’s it for?”, especially of new tools or things that aim to improve the efficiency or effectiveness of this or that. But why not also accept that some things might just be for entertainment and ask “am I having fun” once in a while instead of looking for a problem to be solved or an important statement to be read? Some things just are.

Tom’s exactly right: Twitter Blocks’ utility is in its entertainment value rather than its productivity value. I agree with Jim Bumgardner when he says that “wonder and delight is all we should require of our toys, and it is all we should require of our art.” If you spend even thirty seconds being delighted by the great things you learn on Twitter Blocks, it has been successful.

Then again, the application does serve some purpose as well. When it comes to visualizations, Twitter Blocks has to be one of my favorites: it takes the frivolous-yet-engaging element of Twitter (the often seemingly un-purposeful status updates) and blends it with discoverability, one of the best parts of the world wide web. Letting me discover new people and new things is at the core of the social web, and Blocks is doing that quite effectively. If that’s not useful, then I don’t know what is.

Your app doesn’t have to be comprehensive

I call it the Facebook curse: everyone these days wants to create the one web app that does everything. Sadly, in the effort to create an application that does everything, a lot of developers fail to make their app do anything well. Sure, Facebook seems to be able to do it, but I’d have to remind people that Facebook has been adding features slowly: when I first joined the popular social networking site about two years ago, it did very little but maintain a virtual address book.

The ideal web app doesn’t try and do everything. Instead it does one thing very well—better than anyone else, in fact—and allows other apps to interact with it or allows its data be exported and shared in various platforms. By making this kind of information exchange possible, we ensure that developers can work on making their apps amazing in their niche area instead of trying to be everything to everyone. Social network portability may be a dream right now, but Brad’s thoughts on the social graph definitely show how it could be a reality.

Whether or not the social graph does end up coming to life, it still makes sense for web app developers to concentrate their efforts on attaining excellence in one area rather than trying to do everything wrong. One site that does a fantastic job in its niche area is Dopplr. There is only one thing you can do on Dopplr: share your upcoming travels with other people. There is no messaging service built-in, no poking, no event management, and no blog service. You share your trips, other people share their trips, and you can connect with people you know as you travel. Simple.

Dopplr is one of the most intriguing applications on the web today, not only because it is so simple, but also because it is so useful in its simplicity. It doesn’t try to do everything, but everything that it does do is done perfectly.

Your app has to add value

I’ve repeated one term quite often in the paragraphs above: value. No matter how pretty your interface may be, or how robust your technology may seem, the only thing that matters for your web app is the amount of value it adds to someone’s life. Users are drawn to applications that offer an experience that makes their day better in some way (whether that be through entertainment, productivity, etc.), and they return to applications that offer experiences that make their lives better. Your flashy widget may seem cute, but if it doesn’t add value, it shouldn’t be in your web app.

I really love Steve Spalding’s example he states in his post on ‘how to invent’ about the VCR:

Many millennia ago when people still owned VCRs, no one ever set the timers on them. Why? It was a pain and the value that you got from doing it wasn’t worth the hassle.

I still own a VCR, and because it’s a relatively new VCR, there is no clock or timer on the unit. It looks like VCR-makers learned that if there is no value in a particular feature, there is no point in including that feature in their product. Some web app developers, sadly, haven’t understood this concept just yet.

Whether that value comes from communication, entertainment, efficiency, productivity, or problem-solving, it is that value which is the core of your web application, not the technology that you used to build it. Give me a reason to come in the first place, and give me a reason to keep coming back, and maybe your web app will succeed.