I've added a really fascinating tool that I'd like to see used for suggestions for upcoming topics. The tool is called Skribit and it will allow readers to add their own suggestions for topic areas so that I can have an idea of what the readers are interested in.
From within the Skribit widget on this page you can make suggestions and vote for the ones you like.
I hope to get some nice suggestions from you all! I can't guarantee that they will be used in a timely manner though. I will also moderate and eliminate any that I consider to not be true topic areas. But if I find one that could be broken down, I will seperate them so as to make sure elemental topic areas are being voted on.
Source: WikipediaThe first topic area that will be discussed on Web Service Talk will be to-do lists. This area was basically chosen by me because I thought it would be an easy one to start with. There are some unique facets to this type of web tool but in general a lot of them are done in a fairly similar way.
I will start by doing some reviews of to do list webapps. Each review will discuss what I like and dislike about the webapp. Most importantly though, this means I will be outlining features that I find particularly useful and thus consider a very important feature of to do lists.
For some initial thoughts about to-do lists. I think that a lot of them are done in terribly wrong ways. The most important issue I have with them is ease-of-use. Ease-of-use is what holds to-do lists away from being used by a wider range of people. To be fair, I am pretty sure that to-do lists are not necessarily meant to be used by the general public and I think it's safe to say that a fair majority of them were made to follow the "Getting Things Done" principle, as well as for business professionals and IT people.
This is not to say that I except that as an excuse for bad design! The problems I have with these webapps is what has made me constantly search for the right one.
Many of these problems will be outlined in their specific situations as they are particular to each scenario but they all end up disinteresting me in continuous use.
I must claim a bias, I have a propensity to have difficulty maintaining use of to-do lists in general. This could very well contribute to my disinterest in to-do list webapps. But I think that this should be considered a challenge to the companies putting these webapps out!
Can someone create a to-do list webapp that can actually create interest in the webapp itself instead of considering it an efficient tool? By this I mean, can a to-do list webapp create a name for itself, or will it always be considered "does the best job of maintaining something that people normally don't like doing?" And to rephrase and touch on the issue one final time:
Can a to-do list webapp make productivity enjoyable?
Let's find out. To do list webapp posts will start in April!
Web Service Talk (WST) will be a blog to focus on a monthly discussion of specific webapps and web services. For instance, let's say that the first month will be about todo lists. I will begin by posting reviews of quality todo webapps. I will talk about what each webapp does well and what they need to work on.
There will be a post at the beginning of each month outlining what I think are important features and principles of each webapp category. This post will also allow readers to add what they think are important features or what they disagree with about my chosen principles/features. I will post updates throughout the given month as to what readers have agreed with me on and what they think is important (in regards to their favorite app for that category or in general).
This initial post will also detail what is marketable and what are some good marketing techniques for each web service category. Todo lists have a particular market that is better served with different marketing techniques that focus on that particular market. There is even more differentiation in terms of what the particular Todo list app is trying to accomplish. If there is a todo webapp for students then there will be different techniques and even different design principles.
All of these things will be discussed and documented so as to provide ample material from a more informative perspective than some of the bigger blogs that focus on whether or not the webapp will do well or whether they provide a 'cool feature.' I believe there is much more at work and there is much to be documented in this expanding world of web services. To stoop to the level of these megablogs though, this blog will attempt to find and document what exactly are the 'cool features' and what are ways to integrate them well into our world and our daily activity.
I hope you enjoy the ride and I hope that people will participate as I plan on integrating much of what the commenters say into what is discussed and even what will be the next month's treatment.
The first order of business is to decide on what the first web service topic should be! If anyone has any ideas, please drop a comment in and we can begin to decide what April's topic will be! :)
This blog will serve to facilitate a monthly discussion in regards to specific web services. Each month a new category will be stretched beyond its means. I will talk about what I think has been done right, what has been done wrong and what could be improved. I will provide some features that I think haven't been played out well enough as well as some that either aren't being done correctly or should be changed to provide a more intuitive interface. Join me and suggest topics and other material for this blog!
