| Ten steps to a killer app, a user point-of-view |
| Tuesday, 03 March 2009 22:48 |
Guido JansenGuido Jansen is the founder of the Dutch Magento community Dutchento, is a Magento and Joomla! consultant. Authors profile So what about it? I think there are some key features any web-application nowadays should have. Of course you (a developer) have a great idea for an application and now there is a big market out there that's waiting for your product, but then what? Here is my list of 10 most sought-after features. Users and businesses will look for these when they consider using your app. That doesn't mean every aspect below has to be met to be successful. But you'll need to honor most of them to produce a quality product and get a wide audience. The list
1) Let me try!If you're product is commercial, provide a demo or a trial product. I'm not going to buy if I can't try.2) Easy Install and UpgradeNot all users are techies so make some kind of installation program to get your application running.Provide an automatic or minimal-click upgrade. And not just because ease of use, it's also a security issue. If it's taking users a lot of effort to upgrade, they will delay. "If it ain't broke, don't fix it" right? Well, that will become a problem when updates fixes for serious security issues. And guess who gets blamed for that? 3) Documentation, support, feedback
You will need to write documentation. Obviously, writing documentation isn't something most developers like to do. But it is a necessary one or else your e-mail inbox, support tickets or forums will get a lot of attention since your users don't know how stuff works. Also provide a real easy way for users to give you feedback (through the application itself of your website).4) Be neat and use logic
Use programming concepts like MVC, KISS, YAGNI, DRY. When everything is written according to standards and uses general programming logic others can read it with ease. This will save a lot of time on writing documentation too.5) Easy customization
Make the software completely customizable in a way people don't need to change the core. This saves a lot of work when upgrading the product to new versions.6) Exchange dataMake it easy for users to change from your competitors to your software. So have a data import function.Don't hold your customers hostage. They won't choose you if all there data gets locked-in. So also have a data export function. 7) Extend, Connect and Sync
Your product will never have all the features potential users want. You don't even want to make such a product because the software will get way too bloated. Focus on the core and make it extendable so people can add their own features.Make a great API function so other developers can connect with you product and integrate it seamless in their complete IT infrastructure. 8) Be openUse open standards. If people need to learn your (not so standard) way of programming habbits, they won't like using it.Use open source. Just because you don't charge a license fee doesn't mean you can't make lots of money from the product. It will be much easier to create a community, get more feedback, and more users. Making use of open standards and licensing your application as open source will also help a lot with point 1 and 3 in this list 9) Get SocialMake your software connect with social networks. This might not be a core function of your product, but with the popularity of social networks you might want to consider supplying the option for it (as an extension maybe). Also: implement RSS.10) UsabilityCouldn't ignore that point as a cognitive psychologist now could I? So last but not least: optimize your product for use by human beings...
Some examples
Here are some examples of applications that follow most points and have become really popular in relatively short time:
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