One of the most important characteristics of a user-centered web application is the target audience - who the application speaks to and who it serves. It is then strange, or illogical, that some companies still look at web-applications as one-size-fits-all when it comes to the site’s presentation and language.

Like you wouldn’t dress as a clown on a board meeting, your web app shouldn’t talk business when it means fun either. This is, even if a logical thing if you think about it, a big problem for most web-applications out there. This is mostly explained by the fact that many of the companies putting out web apps have a business layer attached to them that doesn’t dictate but inspires the global “stance” of the application.

It’s easier when you start out well

Thinking about your audience is the first thing you do after you have the idea. Who is going to use the application? Is it a business-oriented app? Are we serving adults or teenagers? Do we need to look light and fun, or do we need to sober up and be serious?

These are some of the questions you should ask yourself (and that your design and experience team should ask you, too) as soon as the idea turns into work - this is mainly because the idea, the feeling of the application, is going to be imprinted on you as soon as you start to iterate on design and development, and if you ever come to the conclusion that you’re talking to the wrong people through words or the UI, it’s going to be a pain to change everything.

So, let’s take some notes

One of the first steps you should take when developing a web application is thinking about its audience. Both the copy in your pages and the UI need to be focussed on the kind of people visiting, or they’ll feel uncomfortable. Remember the key question: “is the website adequate to my visitors?”.

The bottom line is that people need to connect to your website. If the vocabulary is adequate and it looks right to them, they will feel at home (this assuming the application itself makes sense - but that’s another post). Connect to your audience; think about them before you think about everything else.

Unfortunately, I couldn’t be at CES to see this in person, but Podtech has the podcast. Larry Page’s keynote on the Consumer Electronics Show 06 is a call to opening standards and its implication on innovation. Specifically, he mentions the interoperability of consumer electronics, and how stiffled real development is because of the lack of a specific set of standards.

Some of the examples given were computer to HID connections (If converting everything to USB is $20, why do we have all sorts of connections on the back of our computers?), power adapters, etc.

Larry’s speech was above everything else, an eye opener. And if you think about it, it makes a lot of sense. If it wasn’t for standardization of data fluxes between web applications (much due to XML), we wouldn’t be where we are today on the web. It follows that we need the same thing to happen with consumer electronics to speed things up. Or we’ll still have one thousand adapters lying across the house, keeping us away from productivity.

If you haven’t heard the keynote, I highly recommend it. Click here to stream from the web or download.

One of our objectives for 2006 is to help push the boundaries of web-application design and development. That said, we’re starting a series of blogposts and articles (possibly followed at a later time by a publication) about building better web apps. We will not necessarily follow any order of topics, as they’ll come along naturally throughout the process.

Why web applications, why now?

2006 is, in my personal opinion, the year where web-based utilitary applications will reign, for several reasons: proliferation of services to build on top of, maturing of technologies to build RIAs, focus on small tasks instead of “one-size-fits-all”. These changes will also start affecting other markets, particularly in the case of handsets and mobile platforms - but the revolution is on the tip of your mouse, and streaming from your wall socket. It’s online, and web-based, however you choose to access the internet.

So it begins, a series of blog posts about builing web applications. Because who knows what the right people and the right ideas can build. We’ll give you the tips, you surprise us with the innovation. Deal?

2005 was an amazing year, both for me (now us, the whole team) here at WeBreakStuff, as well as the web in general. We’ve seen the grand adoption of the term Web 2.0. We’ve seen quality web-based applications and the re-discovery of long-lost internet technologies. We’ve seen a focus on user-experience and simplicity. We’ve seen companies being bought and companies growing. All things considered, I must say I’m extremely excited with the prospect of an even better 2006.

Hot moments of 2005:

Here’s a trip down a not-so-distant memory lane. The highlights of 2005, in no particular order:

• Ajax: New terminology for aging technologies gave the web a fresh feeling of experience innovation. While the quirks with widespread use of Ajax are still matter for concern and something all of us are going to have to adapt to, it is great to see some of the new things popping about.
• User-centric applications: 2005 marks the shift from a feature-centric to a user-centric approach to web development and online usability. We’ve seen some great new applications emerge, much to the praise of early adopters and productivity fans.
• Podcasts: User-generated content sees a new boom with the widespread adoption, creation and consumption of podcasts (both audio and video). This new era showed the old media houses what to expect from the mass of internet users who are a part of the read/write movement.

So much more has happened that not discriminating events from last year would turn this blogpost into an endless rant about innovation and web change. So, let’s stop looking at the past, and continue building the future.