The 10 Golden Principles of Successful Web Apps from Carsonified on Vimeo.

To simplify the article into a straight list, here it is:
1. Speed
2. Instant Utility
3. Software is Media
4. Less is More
5. Make it Programmable
6. Make it Personal
7. RESTful
8. Discoverability
9. Clean
10. Playful

Here are the things I really like from what Fred Wilson had to say: Sometimes, words or expressions are so key to getting your point across.  I’ve really been struggling with the over-use and broad nature of the term “intuitive” as in our interface is intuitive. Most companies tout this, but very few actually pull it off (Mint.com and iPhone interface are notable exceptions).  Wilson’s expression “instant utility” means that you log in and you immediately get what to do end to end – the service is instantly useful to you. It’s critical to usability.  His other 2 Golden Rules that fall in this category are “Less is More” and “Clean”. Our newest web app to launch in 6-8 weeks is following the design principles of progressive disclosure whereby the user is guided towards completing the ONE main action for that page or interface.  By utilizing progressive disclosure, it reduces the confusion and clutter from a page or task – reducing the amount of time it takes for users to do their job while improving accuracy.

Additionally, I’m a big fan of Wilson’s Rule “Make it Programmable”. Web apps of old often kept silos of information in their app and the API was not really meant to push or pull a ton of info to other web apps.  We are really putting a lot of energy into building web apps on an entire API platform so that the very premise of the web app is to have a community of other web apps built around it and for it.

Again, if you haven’t seen Fred Wilson’s full blog post, please check it out >>

The relatively low cost of internet marketing versus traditional avenues may have initially brought followers in a failing economy but the steady increase in budget was directly related to the ROI gained from these non-traditional channels.

Get the whole study »

1. Social media integration – share with your network becomes a key component in every email (and email marketers can segment lists to optimize for Gmail (Google Buzz) or Facebook’s Titan)

2. Mobile – SMS and Email converging has great benefits for things like mobile couponing for retailers

3. Video Lite – animated gifs to appear as a video – see eROI’s Dylan Boyd blog post on “VIV Blows it out with Animated GIFs”

4. Email Browsing – example of Sears using Gmail’s Enhanced Email: browsing module is decided and displayed at the time of open, not the time of send, which allows the information to be as current as possible. An email sent last month pulled today’s best-sellers from Sears.com.

5. Transactions -Email certification of a known trusted sender is especially important for e-commerce clients.

6. Email Management / Sentiment – ExactTarget’s Morgan Stewart wrote in a separate EmailInsider article about a “thumbs-up” button in the inbox to re-inforce positive sentiment in email instead of sledge-hammering the negative world of reporting spam as the only option.

If you dig a little deeper, there is a whole lot more innovation coming to the Future Inbox.  Social tools are available to scrape profile info (Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and dozens of other social media sites) and append that to your email lists to allow better personalization and segmenting.  OpenID frameworks will allow information to be passed more freely between email and any online community through a single username/password that will inherently recognize you from your inbox.  The future is near and email is innovating as fast or faster than most other industries.  Get ready.

With a leap in American users of over 14% from 2008-2009 it is undeniable that mobile is the way of the future.

In the study we examined our process for creating and launching three completely different mobile sites with very different goals.

“With mobile gaining more and more attention, now is the time to develop your mobile strategy to stay ahead of the pack, and your competition.”

Decide if you’re ready to go mobile »

This study takes you through the development of an online community of designers from testing to launch.

Below are the three main goals of an online community, we take you through how we met each of these goals with the Wacom Community.

1. Starting a relationship with your customers that can’t be duplicated by the competition, encouraging loyalty and providing value.

2. Maximizing customer interaction time with your brand, as well as building mindshare and influence.

3. Gathering an advanced level of CRM data informed by user interactions, preferences, interests, etc.

Read the whole case study »

As usual, I learned a ton from the other speakers:
Kimberly Barta, VP of Marketing, Dr. Martens Shoes
Dayn Wilberding, Dir of Technology, Grady Britton
Kent Lewis, President, Anvil Media

Enjoy this eROI presentation!

I also included a few of my tweets below as well:
@kentjlewis nice. “remember your marketing budget is unlimited” 11:41 AM Jan 28th from Tweetie

Top paid placement is based on Quality Score, not just on highest price. 11:32 AM Jan 28th from Tweetie

Google updates to add report a problem link, “near me now” link – using augmented reality 11:27 AM Jan 28th from Tweetie

Google maps. Create a dedicated page on maps. Sentiment analysis help sort reviews. 11:25 AM Jan 28th from Tweetie

Google onebox: local business. Manage coupons, reviews 11:23 AM Jan 28th from Tweetie

Customer reviews have a big impact on local search 11:19 AM Jan 28th from Tweetie

@kentjlewis speaking about local search #forge. Entertaining as always. 11:16 AM Jan 28th from Tweetie

@dayn great personal local example of discount tire giving him a rebate after the fact through Twitter conversation 9:51 AM Jan 28th from Tweetie

Intel has a good set of social media rules. Check em out 9:38 AM Jan 28th from Tweetie

2010 will be the year of consumers switching over from evite to facebook events 9:31 AM Jan 28th from Tweetie

Not hiring a blogger. Hiring a head of consumer conversations. 8:40 AM Jan 28th from Tweetie

Doc martens Kimberly says invest in engaging content #forge. It still is all about the idea, but the requirements are much higher 8:38 AM Jan 28th from Tweetie

Key is focusing on a few marketing channels of disproportionate influence. For doc martens, it’s product seeding to influencers 8:33 AM Jan 28th from Tweetie

Sleek and chic – how can you not love the new Intuos4 tablet from Wacom.  Very psyched how this integrated campaign turned out.  For all the marketers reading this blog post, there are some really good insights to this case study.

Wacom Technology Corporation worked with eROI to launch their brand new product, the Intuos4.  As you will find out, it is more than just a sleek site.  This case study outlines the integrated online strategy used by Wacom, including results of the multi-pronged campaign; email, microsite, and offline channels working together to seamlessly promote the unique aspects of the new Intuos4 tablet.

Check out the finished site »

“We’re absolutely happy with the number of visitors. We believe we’ve received a 70% awareness of our target audience. I mean, that’s really good. Not many companies are going to achieve that kind of awareness for a new product launch.”

~ Marketing Director, Wacom

Download the Case Study

As fun as it was, the site could do a better job of lead capture by telling you what you get for signing up – making it more compelling.  It promised to enter me into a drawing for an X-Box 360 but the details were sparse and the questions they asked seemed somewhat irrelevant.

The most obvious dilemma I saw with The Prototype Experience is the issue of privacy.  In a matter of minutes I saw everything from my work information and political views to a family photo pop up on the screen.  Even though that information was willfully put on the internet by me it made me think more about how entirely accessible our lives have become.  As a marketer the more information I can capture the better, as a web user I just need to be aware that there is very little privacy anymore and just accept it.  All in all, this site is really engaging and, well, uber-cool.

One more photo from Gaylord resort in wash dc. Schwanky. http://yfrog.com/16vonyj 5:57 PM Sep 23rd from Tweetie

#inc5000 conf starting now. Largest attendance ever at 1,700 of us. Aggregate rev of $214 billion http://yfrog.com/0nxn1jj 6:14 AM Sep 24th from Tweetie

Tony hsieh of zappos.com about to keynote on topic of the science of happiness. Transformative to hear it at #sxsw. Now at #inc5000  6:20 AM Sep 24th from Tweetie

@zapposceo telling story of pizza co to online advertising to investing in startups, bored with investing, took on CEO role at zappos  6:25 AM Sep 24th from Tweetie

All about customer service. Marketing dollars mainly go to cust svce so customers spread love via word of mouth  6:28 AM Sep 24th from Tweetie

@zappos did over $1 billion last year. All about delivering wow. Lots of surprise overnight ups upgrades. Package shows up 8 hrs later  6:31 AM Sep 24th from Tweetie

50% of performance review is about fit with company culture and values @zappos  6:33 AM Sep 24th from Tweetie

Zappos is about delivering happiness in a box to employees and customers. Core values shouldbe something you base hiring and firing  6:39 AM Sep 24th from Tweetie

Luck is about being open to new opportunities  6:40 AM Sep 24th from Tweetie

Book recomendation- Tribal Leadership  6:43 AM Sep 24th from Tweetie

The big question: what is your goal in life? Ultimately to be happy and fulfilled  6:50 AM Sep 24th from Tweetie

Perceived control, progress, connectedness, vision and meaning  6:56 AM Sep 24th from Tweetie

Zappos.com Tony Hsieh @zappos says you can email him for the pres but you can DL it from inc500conference.com next week (via @IncEvents)  6:58 AM Sep 24th from Tweetie

Randall grahm describes how everyone told him not to do wine cafe in his vineyard but he did it. Great intimate connections with customers  7:21 AM Sep 24th from Tweetie

Robert Johnson who sold BET for $3 billion a few years ago. Speaking about what it takes to make it as an entrepreneur  7:23 AM Sep 24th from Tweetie

#inc500 Robert Johnson talks about a cool concept in philanthropy called clubcharity.com  8:48 AM Sep 24th from Tweetie

#inc500 panel innovation: fostering it, managing it, profiting from it. David freedman moderator  8:51 AM Sep 24th from Tweetie

Founders of Emotiv, Atari, chuckie cheeses, and Heartland Robotics #inc500. Excited for this innovation panel  8:54 AM Sep 24th from Tweetie

So many innovative projects fail because people fall into trap of taking negative feedback from nearly everyone because couldn’t visualize  9:05 AM Sep 24th from Tweetie

Panel pic Nolan says politics is the killer of innovation. So easy to say no. Need to breed rebels http://yfrog.com/0git2hj  9:27 AM Sep 24th from Tweetie

Without a champion, ideas are worthless. Need to share ideas openly because it’s all about implementation  9:39 AM Sep 24th from Tweetie

Ian and cal with Wexley School for Girls on stage now. Old agency model is dead.  11:50 AM Sep 24th from Tweetie

Don’t worry first about Twitter or facebook or radio buy. Worry about spending 90% energy on the idea  11:54 AM Sep 24th from Tweetie

#inc500 Ian and cal showing short film winner take steve. Classic. Not sure if random humor lost on this crowd. Regardless, great stuff  11:59 AM Sep 24th from Tweetie

Scott Griffith of Zipcar tells a story of transformation #inc500 http://yfrog.com/0snpbj 12:02 PM Sep 24th from Tweetie

Zipcar transformation all about turning a political movement into a big company. Car sharing really gaining steam #inc500  12:05 PM Sep 24th from Tweetie

Bob williamson describes a really rough first 24 years of life, then went on to start 9 companies, sold Horizon software for $75M  1:37 PM Sep 24th from Tweetie

#inc500 williamson got started at the bottom in the paint industry. Alcholic and drug addict. Credits his success to faith and work ethic  1:40 PM Sep 24th from Tweetie

Life is like a ping pong ball. It goes up and down. Williamson. #inc500  1:42 PM Sep 24th from Tweetie

Jill Strahan of Tastefully Simple advice: just start, know where you’re going, don’t stop. #inc500  1:53 PM Sep 24th from Tweetie

Share your dream with your customers. For Jill, it was being as large as pampered chef. Dream it. Believe it. Work it.  1:56 PM Sep 24th from Tweetie

Fear is the gatekeeper to strength. It’s like building muscle. Rip it down, then grows stronger after day of rest. Repeat.  1:59 PM Sep 24th from Tweetie

The soul will not show us what we cannot handle. Jill Strahan. #inc500  2:00 PM Sep 24th from Tweetie

Hang out with the sunshine people  2:02 PM Sep 24th from Tweetie

Listening to Herman chinery-Hesse, the bill gates of Ghana. Many ghanians didn’t believe it was possible to start software co there  2:09 PM Sep 24th from Tweetie

Herman started with small business clients. Some told him to go to hell. He proved the biz model and grew fast with multinational orgs  2:11 PM Sep 24th from Tweetie

@mark_lawler thx holmes. Definitely getting inspired and learning a lot @inc500  2:13 PM Sep 24th from Tweetie in reply to mark_lawler

#inc500 Jim Collins dynamically takes the stage. How to thrive in these crazy times http://yfrog.com/0hvjlj  5:52 AM Sep 25th from Tweetie

Jim Collins is so engaging that I can’t tweet fast enough. I will blog it later  6:01 AM Sep 25th from Tweetie

Jim Collins – best presenter I’ve ever seen. Wow. Hugely relevant and powerful conversation with this passionate audience #inc500   7:23 AM Sep 25th from Tweetie

What is the secret to success? What is your definition? Barry Griswell, the adversity paradox, Principal Group CEO. #inc500  7:31 AM Sep 25th from Tweetie

Adversity is like a crucible. Going thru it often builds character. The adversity paradox – self accountability, be positive, and then some  7:34 AM Sep 25th from Tweetie

Who you are matters most. No substitute for hard work. Purpose takes the work out of work.  7:40 AM Sep 25th from Tweetie

The power of knowledge and lifetime learning is transforming. A mirror is the most important tool. Introspection  7:44 AM Sep 25th from Tweetie

David Neeleman, founder of jet blue airways and CEO of Azul now takes the stage #inc500  8:17 AM Sep 25th from Tweetie

Jet blue was founded to be a customer service company. Key is flawless execution. David emailed all customers to apologize for 6 min wait  8:25 AM Sep 25th from Tweetie

Your people need to love, absolutely adore where they work. Takes enormous amount of focus on culture to create employee evangelists

Customers feel that tangible element of employees loving that company

Make it right with the customer even if it’s more expensive to fix the mistake to keep the loyalty there

The 6 hour delay on icy NY tarmac. Jet blue got all the bad press because people expected more of jet blue. $34 million in free flights

Does your company matter? If it was plucked from the earth, who would care?

I am a Z. #inc500. Scary

Keith Ferrazzi is damn good on stage. Everyone in the room is in sales.