Fred Wilson, a NYC tech investor, delivered this analysis of successful web apps at the annual “Future of Web Apps” conference which was then published in this Carsonified blog post. This post really resonated with me as we are underway on a pretty ambitious web app here at eROI. Wilson’s top 10 golden rules of successful web apps were great reinforcement to make sure that nothing important is dropped off the list before launching your app. I thought I’d share my own thoughts on Wilson’s spot-on assessment.
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.
As I was listening to a roundtable of 25 software sales and marketing execs talk about Mobile on our fourth floor yesterday morning, I was struck by how quickly mobile seems to be gaining steam in our collective mindshare. It’s the hot topic in media, at conferences, and several of our clients – we have been part of some successful mobile website launches in recent weeks. This blog post is more about highlighting 3 client mobile websites (hence the blog post title above) and I highly encourage you to pull these up on your mobile device which should automatically detect the mobile version of Banfield.net, touch.wacom.com, moonit.com.
For B2B companies like eROI, our mobile web analytics show that mobile web users on our site almost entirely use it for knowing how to get to our office – ContactUs page, however for the 3 mobile sites below, users are drawn into 3 or 4 distinct areas that are easy to find product information (Wacom), or quickly search a database of the closest pet hospital (Banfield), or interact with a web application through mobile version of Facebook Connect (Moonit). Please check out these 3 creative examples below:
eROI Case Study: Online Strategy for a Successful Product Launch
Get the full study
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.
“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.”
I was forwarded a link to a site that engages the user through Facebook Connect. It had a total video game vibe and my curiosity got the best of me. There was a sense of doom from the beginning. A New York City cab flipped on it’s side, men with guns and – wait – my face? Flash forward to predictions of my kids deaths and pictures of them overtaken by worms, it was an experience that fascinated me and creeped me out at the same time.
I don’t know about you, but I love to moon the people in my life. No, I’m not talking 8 year old boy humor here I’m talking the new site we launched, Moonit.
It’s a place where you can evaluate and track your relationships, get advice on things happening in your life and catch up on celebrity gossip, all while Mooning your friends. Really “Mooning” is checking your compatibility but that doesn’t sound nearly as fun. We are so excited to see this dream become a reality. For me, an internal brainstorming session for Moonit was the very first meeting at eROI I ever attended. I feel an attachment to Moonit, I wonder if I put in the site’s launch date and my birth date if we would be compatible…
The site is fun, easy to use and is a perfect compliment to your social media life (you can even use facebook connect.) If nothing else, at least you can moon your boss.
Publicis just got a little bigger as it outbid the other agency conglomerates to take Razorfish off Microsoft’s hands for a mere $530 million. I haven’t had a chance to ask any longtime Razorfish employees how they feel about being traded as frequently as a baseball card, but I can’t imagine that it fosters a lot of loyalty to the company. Microsoft bought Razorfish’s parent company, aQuantive, for $6 billion or 10x revenue just 2 years ago, and is now shedding the business units it doesn’t want (Razorfish) for 1.4x revenue, which says a lot about software company valuations vs. agency valuations.
On reflection, I couldn’t be happier with the type of independent culture Portland agencies have. Portland’s largest agency, Wieden + Kennedy, is the world’s largest completely independent agency and was named Global Agency of the Year last year – any coincidence that they best creative work comes from an independent agency?
A couple of days ago, we launched our brand new homepage and we are all psyched with the way it turned out. As usual for creative agencies, we are our own toughest client, trying to please lots of detail-oriented, savvy decision-makers from every department and aspect of the company. However, we truly followed our own highly-collaborative process, and while it may have taken longer than we wanted to fit this project into all of our client work as well, we were extremely happy with the end result. The user-centered design includes an element of flash which was integrated seamlessly and our production team made everything work like a charm.
One of the most noticeable new features was the integration of tabs on the page. There are 10 tabs in all that help the user easily navigate what we offer along with content from each of our five blogs. At eROI, we drink our own Koolaid when it comes to online marketing. We have a clear call-out to sign up for our newsletter in the bottom section of our page, we invite people to become a fan of eROI on Facebook, follow us on Twitter, or see our profile on Linkedin and even our most recent tweets are displayed to the right of the page.
Please give us feedback in the form of a haiku – tell us if you love our new homepage or you hate it or something in between, but please please do NOT be boring. thx.
At eROI, we’re not always as disciplined as we should be about asking our customers what they think of us personally and the kind of work we do here. So, last week, we decided to ask a few customers (thru 1-to-1 email outreach) and here’s what we heard:
“eROI is what you look for in any business relationship: an expert partner who helps you realize your vision. The eROI team listened carefully to our needs, asked probing questions that helped us better understand the capabilities that would enable us to reach our goals, and communicated closely with us all the way to achieve success. The final product went above and beyond what we thought was possible. It was mindblowing.”
–Noah Glass, CEO, GoMobo
“Choosing eROI to help launch our magazine into the digital realm has been a great decision. The support from their web team has been incredible, making the scary transition from print to online- stress free. They provided structure, guidance and solutions to any minor hang up we experienced along the way.”
–Kaitlyn, CBS Watch Magazine (new site hasn’t been launched yet)
“Working with eROI to help with the development and launch of seven planet was key to company on many levels and will prove to be a critical positive impact on the brand. We began speaking with their team about 7 months prior to launching our virtual trading post (our ecommerce store/company site) with the intent to launch a site that was easy to navigate, that visually differentiated our brand and that helped our patrons effectively find out how the “mindful commerce” could work in their lives. In the end, they met all three of those criteria without question and in turn also were very patience with us in the process as we had scope revisions, content delays, support needs, etc. Finally, they proactively approached us after our launch with product review site upgrades, that would help improve the trading post and usability, without being asked to do so. Those upgrades are now implemented and we look forward to working with them consistently on making the seven planet site and our company newsletters as key to the brand and the vision of mindful commerce as our traditional green general stores.”
–John Friess, CEO, Seven Planet
The eROI presenters, Dylan Boyd, Alex Williams, and I, have traveled all over the country to give presentations on various topics from Building Community Online to The Value of a Welcome Email Program to New Trends in Measuring the Success of your Online Marketing & Social Media Efforts. This blog post is an overload of resource material for 3 great presentations – enjoy!
Heritage Hunt is the third website eROI has launched for Buchanan Partners, an East Coast based real estate development firm. The site was created for their new commercial spaces along with plans for a residential counterpart, hence “The Place to Live and Work” tag line. Early on, eROI was faced with the opportunity to develop a logo for Heritage Hunt because it was a brand new endeavor for the firm. Elliot, the graphic designer, presented a few different treatments and with the suggestions from the client came up with a logo that presented Heritage Hunt’s professional and warm image effortlessly. In the interest of making the real estate development the star of the website the inspiration for the design came from the architecture itself. On the homepage the arch over the logo mimics the arch of the pictured building. Also the inlays around the top of the building were stylized on the site to become the top navigation. This approach created a cohesive design that transitioned flawlessly from one page to the next. All these design elements set in a manageable WordPress format created the ideal site for Buchanan Partners.
In 2003, eROI designed and developed a website for Meritage Properties. Six years later, they were ready for a new overall strategy and design and again decided to turn to the eROI team to make it happen. The original design was simple and fit their needs at the time but with more focus on online marketing, Meritage Properties wanted to present themselves in a more mature fashion. The emphasis was on making the design clean and crisp. This was achieved by using neutral colors to make the property photos and logo pop off the page through greater contrast. Additionally, the site employs helpful yet understated navigation bars and a java script slideshow of properties rotating on the home page. Another success was integrating google maps into the site. This added functionality, built in wordpress, allows viewers to click a location and view the property that resides there. The overall effect is a stunning combination of photography, information and functionality. This site has been propelled back into the modern world of web design.
The End Of A Chapter – My Next Move - Just like a good book, there are never really any endings, only beginnings. I wanted to take a moment to let you know that I am leaving my position at eROI as of January 31st, 2011. I will be starting a new position at a company outside of the email marketing and interactive agency business [...]
Join eROI at DMA 2010 in San Francisco – October 11th-14th - Alex Williams, Strategy for eROI, will be presenting in San Francisco at DMA2010 on email, social, mobile and ecommerce. DMA2010 is the global event covering all marketing channels — from traditional...
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