making add-ons people will love
DESCRIPTION
13 tips and guidelines for making Firefox add-ons that users will love.TRANSCRIPT
LOVE
Justin ScottMozilla Add-ons Workshop
London 2010
Making Add-ons_People Will
You can’t please everyone, but...
• Great add-ons help the entire ecosystem• Here are some tips & guidelines for:
• minimizing frustration• maximizing delight• acquiring and retaining happy users
marketing
Listening
buildingPart I:
Part II:
Part III:
1 Clean First-Run
or·dealn.any extremely severe or trying test, experience, or trial.
an·noy·ancen.a cause of irritation or vexation; a nuisance.
1 Clean First-Run
• Annoying first-run practices:• require registration to do anything at all
• Modal dialogs and wizards
• Asking to change the user’s settings
• Annoying post-update practices:• Showing the add-on’s homepage
• Showing a changelog (unless a major change has been made)
1 Clean First-Run
• Don’t let first-run be the last-run by following these guidelines:• Modal dialogs/wizards should be part of
the first-run page or triggered by user action on the first-run page
• Limit of one first-run element. If you have a first-run page, you shouldn’t need a wizard, dialog, or sidebar open too.
• Don’t change user preferences
2 Don’t Clutter UI
“Extensions [should] integrate with the existing UI as if it were a feature
shipped with Firefox itself.”
“This is constantly reminding me that it’s an extension, and not really part
of my browser.”Survey respondent describing a disappointing add-on
Survey respondent on what practices all add-ons should adopt
2 Don’t Clutter UI
• Only add UI that is truly needed• Let the user choose what UI she wants
How many Delicious logos can you spot?
Seven.
Eight.
Nine.
3 Earn & Keep Trust
“I give add-on developers a huge amount of trust when I install their extension. It is painful when they abuse it.”
“I read reviews and avoid any that sound annoying (change homepage,
collect private info, nav, etc.)”
“Add-ons [should] do what they claim to and not much else”
3 Earn & Keep Trust
• There are add-ons that want to:• change the user’s default search provider
without asking
• replace ads on websites with their own ads
• send all of the user’s search queries to a third party when the add-on isn’t related to searching
• bundle other add-ons or software the user didn’t ask for
3 Earn & Keep Trust
• No Surprises means that changing default settings or otherwise surprising the user requires:• a clear, upfront description
• opt-in
• revert on uninstall
• inclusion from the start (not in a subsequent update)
3 Earn & Keep Trust
• Choose core functionality and stick with it
Original photo by Flickr user AJC1(CC licensed)
3 Earn & Keep Trust
• Have a clear Privacy Policy• Install the proper way
• No .exes or 3rd party bundling
4 Stay Current
• Update compatibility before a Firefox release
• Avoid conflicts with other add-ons• Be on the lookout for new platform
features to take advantage of• Restartless add-ons
• Larger icons
• Mobile
5 Smooth Performance
• Add-ons should have zero performance impact on Firefox start-up time
• We’re working on tools & ways to surface performance data to help developers and users understand the impact of each add-on
6 Be Delightful
“Finding things that I don't necessarily use but push the platform is awesome too - the Strata theme and accompanying extension,
for example. It makes Firefox actually interesting again.”
“I really learn to appreciate the little things you forgot you installed whenever I am browsing on a clean install or when using another browser. Like Adblock (obviously) or even very little things like double clicking a tab like crazy only to realize you need Double
Click To Reload Tabs installed for something to happen.”Survey respondent describing delightful add-ons
Survey respondent describing delightful add-ons
6 Be Delightful
• Find little ways to delight your users • There’s no recipe for this. It’s specific to
your add-on.
marketing
Listening
Part I:
Part II:
Part III:
building
1 Descriptive Name
• An add-on’s functionality should be obvious from its name
• Adblock Plus
• Password Exporter
• FireFTP
• Video DownloadHelper
• Download Statusbar
• Flashblock
• User Agent Switcher
• WOT
• FEBE
• Yoono
• Cooliris
• Infoaxe
• Glubble
• Glue
- Safe Browsing Tool
- Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, MySpace, YouTube, Flickr, AIM, MSN, GTalk...
- Recommendations for Books/Movies/Music
: Full Text Web History Search synchronized between Firefox, IE on multiple computers.
2 Pretty Icon
• Icons are always shown, yet half of extensions use default
• Icon is part of your add-on’s brand• ... and they’re becoming more important
Large icons are coming to Firefox 4 & AMO
2 Pretty Icon
• We want add-ons to have great, relevant icons
• So we’re expanding our defaults,
• creating a Design Help forum,• ...and having a contest.
Watch blog.mozilla.com/addons for details
Add-on Icon Makeover Contest
Coming Soon!
3 Helpful Screenshots
• Summaries are only 250 characters, but a picture’s worth 1000 words
• Make sure to add screenshots of your add-on and keep them updated
4 Avoid EULAs
• We recently changed install buttons for add-ons that have EULAs
Old New
4 Avoid EULAs
• EULAs prior to download kill conversions
View Details
Download
44%
View Details
Download
5%EULA
61%
marketing
Listening
Part I:
Part II:
Part III:
building
1 Provide Support
• Users get frustrated when they encounter problems and can’t find any support avenues
• Add-ons should provide at least one, possibly including:• Support E-mail
• Support Website
• Get Satisfaction
2 Monitor User Reviews
• Users reviews are good, bad, and ugly• They hint at problems users are facing• Developers can reply to reviews to
provide support or address a misconception• (though we discourage bug reports and
support requests in user reviews)
3 Utilize Tools
• AMO provides numerous tools to help developers understand their add-on’s usage and standing• Statistics Dashboard
• Recent Activity Feed
• Compatibility Reports
3 Utilize Tools
• Statistics Dashboard can help you monitor key metrics, make product decisions, and answer questions like:• Should I continue supporting this platform,
application, version, or locale?
• Should I add support for this platform, application, version, or locale?
• How quickly do users update to the latest version of my add-on?
Stats Dashboard revamp is coming
soon!
3 Utilize Tools
• Recent Activity feed tells you what’s new with your add-on
3 Utilize Tools
• Compatibility Reporter users help you test before the next big release
Summary
1. Clean First-Run2. Don’t Clutter UI3. Earn & Keep Trust4. Stay Current5. Smooth Performance6. Be Delightful
building
1. Descriptive Name2. Pretty Icon3. Helpful Screenshots4. Avoid EULAs
marketing
Listening1. Provide Support2. Monitor User Reviews3. Utilize Tools
“Overall, I love the community of developers who continue to create stellar add-ons for the
benefit of the Firefox community.”Survey respondent
Original illustration by Mozilla Creative Collective member foxyboy
(CC licensed)