Widgety Process: Users are the destination now

Widgety process David Cushman June 2008 FasterFuture.Blogspot.com How to treat the user as the destination with widgets, web apps, gadgets and desktop applications

Does your demographic do widgets? Stop here, or be prepared for low install numbers! What do you want to achieve? NO YES FasterFuture.Blogspot.com

Social Private desktop Gadgets What kind of widgets are they using? Personal expression Utility Blogs Other Social Networks Audience of individuals Communities of peers FasterFuture.Blogspot.com

If your demographic is using widgets… Which networks are popular with your demographic? Are rivals already there? Buy them (sponsor them) Beat them Launch elsewhere FasterFuture.Blogspot.com

Want to beat them or launch your own? For social widgets you need to balance :

Value for publisher*

Self expression

Additional content

Potential to make £

Playful/fun

Community

Increasing PI

Value for browser

Self-expression

(through engagement)

2. Playful/fun

3. Call to action

4. Ego

5. Customization

Ease of

replication

1-click install

On-page delivery

Customization

Transaction timing

Simple interface

*Where publisher is them, not us! FasterFuture.Blogspot.com

Rapid iterations, rapid evolution to seek fit with purpose FasterFuture.Blogspot.com Do rapid a/b testing Adjust to promote success of objective Measure against Original objective Central knowledge management shares with all parties Feedback to central knowledge management

Tactical Do’s

DO

Experiment. Expect to fail.

Analyse the category before you develop your widget. What is already out there and popular?

Match your demographics AND the demographics of where your app is being launched

Take advantage of the social graph

Pick the right name – particularly if you have rivals

FasterFuture.Blogspot.com

Tactical Don’ts

DON’T

Spend a lot before you know what works. Learn your way into this at Sprout Builder or Clearspring, for example, first.

Think it’s all about your brand. Utility matters more. People share what others have found useful – because of the content, not whose content it is

Bet the farm on a single social network. Consider going where your competition isn’t

Blindly build from scratch. Consider sponsoring or buying what is already working, particularly if it’s a deep app.

Be self-serving or ad heavy. Facebook demographics hate that.

Let your widget go stale. It’ll get removed fast.

Forget to make your widget searchable.

Sources

This advice on the process of building great widgets is a synthesis of the work of many great speakers at WidgetWebExpo 08 NYC http://fasterfuture.blogspot.com/2008/06/fred-wilson-stowe-boyd-and-josh-bernoff.html