RSSOctober 3rd, 2006
5 Things Learned Building a Web Application
Most people that have built a web application would probably tell you that great design and development are the last things you should worry about. They are absolutely correct. It has much more to do with the process and mentality through which you create your application. Each person involved must possess a great deal of passion, optimism and foresight to see a project of that magnitude through to the end.
If you have read this far and are still fired up, I would like to share 5 things our team learned so far in developing our new web application called Dayscape.
1. Find a Niche
While listening to a podcast from the Web 2.0 Show recently, I heard a great comment from their guest Richard White. Richard was on the team that developed Kiko, an online calendar that ultimately did not pan out and was sold on eBay, so I was very intrigued to hear what he had to say.
When asked why he felt the application failed, he said it was because they were trying to be all things to all people. In a market where few have the capability to reach the masses like Google can with their products, it only makes sense to find the right niche. One of the first things you do when building a web app should be to define your audience. Who would benefit from this product the most and why do they need it?
For example, our team knew about Google Calendar while in the planning stages of Dayscape, and it never shook our desire to build the application simply because we are going for a different niche of people. Our product’s primary use is within businesses, so we decided to focus on personalization, communication options and using a more elegant, professional user interface.
2. Celebrate Small Victories
If a brochure web site is a sprint, a web application is surely a marathon. Your team will get easily burned out if you don’t take the time to sit back and celebrate progress along the way. There will be moments of frustration and doubt, but make sure to use every excuse to encourage and praise the accomplishments of those you are working with along the way.
Every 2-3 weeks our team would go out to eat, have a great time and cast a vision for where things are headed next. Those times really provide an opportunity to not only look back on progress over time, but also to get motivated for the next phase of development. By turning a huge project into small, bite-sized projects it is easier to swallow and gives you a lot more opportunities to pat yourself on the back.
3. Set Deadlines
Most people start developing a web application as a side project in their free time, which is great. The downfall in that situation is that people are often too casual in their planning. “As soon as possible” just is not good enough, it is easy to become lazy and lose interest in the project at that point.
At all costs, establish deadlines and do everything in your power to meet them. It creates not only a sense of urgency, but accountability within your team. If you promise to finish a project by a certain date and know that someone is waiting on your work, somehow you do what it takes to get it done.
4. Keep in Touch with the Real World
Those that work within the web community can easily get stuck in a bubble along with everyone else that spends all day in front of a computer and get out of touch with casual users with relatively casual needs. Before spending a significant amount of time on your web app, conduct whatever research is necessary to find out whether there is a real demand for your product with normal consumers. The results could tell you to refine your idea or drop it all together, thus saving a great deal of time and effort.
The community of web developers is a relatively small one. If your product only appeals to developers, chances are that there is not much of a business model for it.
The bottom line is to make a product that fills a widespread NEED, not just a “oh, that would be cool”. People don’t pay for cool applications; they pay for a service that makes their lives easier.
One sobering statistic that can help you figure our whether your application can create enough income to succeed is that only about 2% of your customers will actually sign up for a “paying” account. So if you have 200 customers, plan on around 4 of them actually choosing to pay for the service being provided.
5. Have a Unique Selling Proposition
A similar term was used in a previous article about writing a winning proposal, and the same principle applies here. Do everything possible to separate yourself from competition by outlining unique benefits your application has over other services. Once you find a niche market for your product, setting yourself apart from competition should be easy.
One thing that really bothers me is that so many companies have blatantly ripped off Digg and their model for displaying content. Digg came up with a great idea and providers like Netscape just made a crappier version of the same thing. Unless you can make your product better and set it apart in some way, don’t waste your time. Honestly, no one likes a copycat.
Recommended Reading
I hope this article has shed some light on the fact that there are so many important elements to consider in building a web app other than the code. The eBook Getting Real (from 37signals) imparts a great deal of wisdom to support the principles just mentioned. Anyone thinking about creating a web application must read this book and reinforce its principles each day.
Getting Real helped our team zone in a minimal feature set to start off, keep things simple, and most importantly keep our users the number one priority.
An Update on Dayscape
We have been working very hard to meet our self-imposed deadlines on Dayscape, thus the lack of posts lately. Currently we are doing some private testing among our team here, but if you would like to be among the first to try it out, make sure to sign up on MyDayscape.com.
2 Comments
Framework; meine traumwolke « mon petit web - chindogu — December 27th, 2006
[...] ich glaube mir fehlt das dafuer benoetigte GEN um mich in die programmierung einzulesen meinet wegen auch einzuarbeiten. was bin ich versteckt froh, dass ich damit nicht meine broetchen verdienen muss, denn broetchen muss man nicht nur essen sondern auch verdienen . [...]
Script Artists | Bookmarks #4: Tiefsinniges und Erheiterndes — December 28th, 2006
[...] 5 Things Learned Building a Web Application [...]
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