This document provides a summary of Luke Wroblewski's presentation at the VALA National Conference in February 2008 about designing for today's web. Wroblewski discussed how the web has transitioned from pages and sites to rich interactions and content experiences. He emphasized defining your core focus and building outward from there. He also covered packaging design principles for web applications, including meaningful branding and impactful unpacking experiences.

1. DESIGNING FOR
TODAY’S WEB
LUKE WROBLEWSKI
VALA NATIONAL CONFERENCE, FEB. 2008
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Luke Wroblewski
Yahoo! Inc.
• Senior Principal, Product Ideation & Design
LukeW Interface Designs
• Principal & Founder
• Product design & strategy services
Author
• Site-Seeing: A Visual Approach to Web Usability
(Wiley & Sons)
• Upcoming: Best Practices for Form Design (Rosenfeld
Media)
• Functioning Form: Web applications, product
strategy, & interface design articles
Previously
• eBay Inc., Lead Designer
• University of Illinois, Instructor
• NCSA, Senior Designer
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2. How We Use the Web
“Look around feverishly for anything that is interesting or vaguely resembles
what you are looking for, and is clickable.” -Steve Krug
-Steve Krug, Don’t Make Me Think: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability
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Squidoo Eye-tracking study (by etre) 4
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3. Design Considerations
Luke Wroblewski, Site-Seeing: A Visual Approach to Web Usability
• Presentation: How your application appears to your audience
• Interaction: How your application behaves in response to user actions
• Organization: The structure of your application
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The End Goal
• Quickly Communicate
• What is this? Usefulness
• How do I use it? Usability
• Why should I care? Desirability
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4. 7
SO WHAT IS DIFFERENT
ABOUT TODAY’S WEB?
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5. RECENT SHIFTS
LOCOMOTION SERVICES
PAGES RICH INTERACTIONS
SITES CONTENT EXPERIENCES
WEBMASTERS EVERYONE
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RECENT SHIFTS
LOCOMOTION SERVICES
PAGES RICH INTERACTIONS
SITES CONTENT EXPERIENCES
WEBMASTERS EVERYONE
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6. WAYS WE INTERACT WITH THE WORLD:
• Locomotion
• Conversation
• Manipulation
-TERRY WINOGRAD, STANFORD
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Web Transitions
1. Locomotion to digital representations
of physical entities
• Directories & portals, Yahoo!
• Company sites & brochure-ware
2. Digital manipulation of physical goods
• E-commerce everywhere
• Amazon, eBay
3. Digital services
• Enable conversation & manipulation
• Display surfaces
• Content creation
• Aggregation
• Entertainment
-Types of digital services: TOM CHI, YAHOO! 12
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7. Web Applications
• Hosting costs less than cup of coffee per
month
• Free open source platforms
• Development toolkits increasingly available
• Instant global audience: 1.2B people use the
Internet (Sept 2007)
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DEFINE YOURSELF
KNOW YOUR CORE FOCUS ON THE CORE
BUILD OUTWARD
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8. eBay
“eBay’s original vision was to create the
world’s first global economic democracy”
-Pierre Omidyar
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eBay
• 30th largest economy
in the world (38
markets)
• 700k Full time sellers in
US
• $1,800 worth of goods
sold every second
• 520K Stores hosted
worldwide
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9. WHAT’S AT THE CORE OF EBAY?
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eBay: the Core
Level playing field
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10. When we made the move to the one-click Digg, activity
went through the roof. It was just insane! Just the ease of
the one-click and you're done made all the difference in
the world."-Kevin Rose
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HTTP://FLICKR.COM/PHOTOS/BRYCE/58299511/
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11. MEANINGFUL
PACKAGING DESIGN SHOUTING
FOR WEB BACK OF PACK
APPLICATIONS
UNPACKING
EXPERIENCE
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DIFFERENTIATE
MEANINGFUL
SHOUTING ATTRACT
EMBODY THE BRAND
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12. Wiki software providers
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13. 25
SUPPORT THE STORY
BACK OF PACK OUTLINE BENEFITS &
FEATURES
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14. 27
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15. 29
UNPACKING
EXPERIENCE
PHOTOS FROM FLICKR USERS KATIELIPS, PEALCO, AND *NATHAN 30
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16. 31
Gradual Engagement
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17. 33
COMPARE THAT EXPERIENCE
TO…
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18. 35
LOCOMOTION SERVICES
• Know your core
• Define Yourself
• Focus on the Core
• Build Outward
• Packaging design for Web applications
• Meaningful shouting
• Back of pack messaging
• Impactful unpacking experiences
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19. RECENT SHIFTS
LOCOMOTION SERVICES
PAGES RICH INTERACTIONS
SITES CONTENT EXPERIENCES
WEBMASTERS EVERYONE
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Ajax Interface Design
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20. 39
BILL SCOTT, DESIGNING FOR AJAX
Drag and Drop. Drag and Drop Modules. In Page Editing. In Page
Custom Editing. Direct State Editing. Grid Cell Editing. Inline Custom
Editing. Inline Tag Editing. Popup Custom Editing. Slide-out Custom
Editing. Inline Text Editing. Persistent Portals. Inline Reordering.
Indication. Busy Indication. Cursor Busy. In Context Busy. In Context
Progress. Inline Status. Auto Complete. Balloon Error Tip. Deferred
Content Loading. Dynamic Goal. Narrowing Choices. Refining Search.
Live Search. Dynamic Filter. Invitation. Cursor Invitation. Drop
Invitation. Tool Tip Invitation. Hover Invitation. Detail Zoom. Opacity
Focus. Configurable Module - Faceplate. Configurable Module - Flip It.
Configurable Module - Inline Configure. Configurable Module - Slide
Out Drawer. Slide Out. Flip. Opacity Fade. Endless Scrolling.
Expandable Paging Boundary. Fresh Content. Hover Detail. In Place
Drill Down. Inline Assistant. Inline Validation. Validate Then Suggest.
On Demand Refresh. Periodic Refresh. Resizable Modules. Scrolling
Modules. Auto Save. In Context Tools. Remembered Collection.
Remembered Preferences. Auto Form Fill. Rating an Object.
Transition. Brighten Transition. Cross Fade Transition. Dim Transition.
Expand Transition. Fade In Transition. Fade Out Transition. Flip
Transition. Move Transition. Self-Healing Transition. Collapse
Transition. Slide Transition. Rich Internet Object. Available. Selected.
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BILL SCOTT, DESIGNING FOR AJAX
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21. INVITATION
TRANSITION
FEEDBACK
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• Repeatable design solutions
to common problems
• Work “positively” for
specific problems in specific
DESIGN PATTERNS contexts
• Capture best practices that
solve real user needs
• Between principles &
guidelines
• A design vocabulary
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22. SHARING BEST PRACTICES
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23. PAGES RICH INTERACTIONS
• Design considerations
• Invitation: communicate potential
• Transition: illustrate manipulation
• Feedback: success, progress, errors
• Leverage design patterns
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RECENT SHIFTS
LOCOMOTION SERVICES
PAGES RICH INTERACTIONS
SITES CONTENT EXPERIENCES
WEBMASTERS EVERYONE
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24. • Content Creation Tools
• 120,00 new blogs created each day -4/07
• Content Aggregators
• digg hits one million registered users -3/07
• Display Surfaces
• MySpace number one site in page views -12/06
• Entertainment
• 100+ million daily streams on YouTube -6/06
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Accessing Content
• Content Aggregators: Digg, Delicious, etc.
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25. Accessing Content
• Display Surfaces: Facebook, MySpace, etc.
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Accessing Content
• Content Creation Sites: Blogs, Wikis
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26. Accessing Content
• Search
• Communication: Email, Instant Messenger, etc.
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27. Context
Related
Content
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24% CONTENT
76% SITE OVERHEAD
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28. 55
Not Just Access…
• For most Web sites, a few pages get the
most attention
• Why hamper their experience because of
the rest?
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29. Multiple Contexts
• Browser toolbar
• Widgets
• Badges
• Email
• RSS
• Mobile
• APIs (rest, soap)
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HTTP://FLICKR.COM/PHOTOS/BRYCE/58299511/
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30. 59
60
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31. 61
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32. SITES CONTENT EXPERIENCES
• Design considerations
• Primary focus on primary content
• Secondary focus on related and relevant content &
actions
• If expectations are met
• People look around the page
• Relevant calls to action are welcome
• When content is distributed or remixed
• Core design principles still matter
• Context is king
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RECENT SHIFTS
LOCOMOTION SERVICES
PAGES RICH INTERACTIONS
SITES CONTENT EXPERIENCES
WEBMASTERS EVERYONE
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33. Community
• In 1999…
• Discussion boards, email
newsletters
• In 2006…
• Tags, ratings, reviews,
comments, trackbacks,
RSS, sharing (email, IM),
distribution, blogs, wikis
• Always…
• People united by shared
interests or goals
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What makes up a community?
• Great products create
community
• Great actions (useful features
& functions)
• Great interest (compelling
content)
• Social Behaviors
• Reputation & Identity
• One to One, One to many,
many to many communication
• Sequences, Rituals, Groups
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34. Who’s In a Community?
• Yahoo! Groups Example
• Creators
• 1% of the user population might
start a group (or a thread within
a group)
• Synthesizers
• 10% of the user population might
participate actively, and actually
author content whether starting
a thread or responding to a
thread-in-progress
• Consumers
• 100% of the user population
benefits from the activities of the
above groups
* Bradley Horowitz, Yahoo! Research
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Why Enable Community?
Value from human to human interactions
* Images from Flickr
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35. Contributing
Ratings reviews favorites wikis calendars
flag
comments tags discussion boards inline chat
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Sharing
Email to friend save to list send via IM add to my
site download trackbacks add to blog playlists
subscribe invite
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36. Implications: Good
• Filter
• Provide Information about
information
• Organic Popularity
• Original content creation
• Flickr
• Increased Engagement
• Yahoo! Answers
• Invested Customers
• eBay
• Collaborative Innovation
• eBay & PayPal
* Images from Flickr
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Implications: Bad
• Too many “social” features can
distract
• Blur the focus of the product
• Quality
• Splogs, spratings, spags, comment
spam, trackback spam
• Lightweight interactions =
lightweight content
• Power Laws
• Power participants can become a
dominant force in the direction of a
product
• Power can be abused
• The vocal minority: potential
innovation hurdle
• Factions vs. Tribes
• Privacy & Exposure
• Safety
* Images from Flickr
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37. Enable Identity
• Welcome
• Pay attention to people
• Flickr, MySpace
• Anonymity can be a death
sentence
• Lack of accountability &
reputation
• Personal Branding
• Nickname
• About/URL
• Images
• Accomplishments
• Stuff I’ve Done
• Rewards
• Social Incentive
• “You’ve got mail!”
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Provide for Creators, Synthesizers, & Consumers
Creators Synthesizers Consumers
• CSC personality types do not easily migrate between groups
• Scaling engagement is hard and often inappropriate
• Leverage differences to maintain balance
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38. USER EMPOWERMENT,
CONTENT NOT USER FRIENDLY
CREATION
VALUE CREATION
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39. “Most user-created content is crappy. As we
create better tools, we’ll increase the value of
the output of those tools.” -Will Wright
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40. Constraints Balance Systems
• Quality Control
• Lightweight interactions =
lightweight content
• “Burying the submit button [in
community Web sites]
encourages fewer, but better
posts.” -Derek Powazek, Design
for Community, 2001
• Barriers to Entry
• "The best check on bad behavior
is identity.” -Mark Zuckerburg,
Facebook Founder
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WEBMASTERS EVERYONE
• Design considerations
• Enable identity
• Provide for Creators, Synthesizers, Consumers
• Tools for expression: easier to do the right
thing, remain flexible & robust
• Think through barriers to entry
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41. IN SUMMARY….
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Designing For Today’s Web
• Principles behind good design remain relevant
• Locomotion to Services
• Packaging Design for Web Applications
• Know Your Core
• Page to Rich Interactions
• Invitation, Transition, Feedback
• Design Patterns
• Sites to Content Experiences
• Landing page design
• Context of distribution
• Webmasters to Everyone
• Enable identity
• Better content creation tools
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42. For more information…
Functioning Form
www.lukew.com/ff/
Drop me a note
luke@lukew.com
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