January 26th, 2010
The difference between a website and a web application
The phrase “web app” is second in my vocabulary now only to to the word “cool” or “like”. I’m a little obcessed, but for me, having the web full of “web applications” is a culmination of why I became a web designer and developer.
And because I’m “in the web space”, I hear the phrase “web app” a lot, too.
But then a friend asked me, “Is a web app like a web site?”. And after a few minutes of trying to explain, I retired to my secret lair to spend a little time writing about how I see the difference.
To most people, a “web site” is an umbrella term that encompasses just about anything you see in a browser. Most people are familiar with it like that. But I think of it now as a site that’s static, informative without being interactive. If yre a nerd, you’ll say “Web 1.0″. Information like product information, resort brochures, a musician’s landing page. To think of it in terms of marketing, a web site like this is all about the site owner. Here’s my web site telling you about me.
A “web app” on the other hand, is all you, about the user (sorry, I know we’re not supposed to use that word anymore) and interaction. It doesn’t have to be social interaction, just the user interacting with the web app. It helps you accomplish a task, which could be managing my finances, interacting with friends or as simple as finding information.
I would consider most web sites that have more than a basic search to be web apps.
What do you think? How would you differentiate the two?
Tags: semantics, web appliations, web apps, web sites
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January 19th, 2010
Allowing multiple, simultaneous downloads
In building DubFiler, I had to learn all about downloads and browser behavior. Browsers usually only allow two downloads from a server at once. Which meant if I started downloading a file while another was downloading or “streaming” (being downloaded by the Flash audio player), the page would hang. Not a great user experience.
After some digging around the web, I found the solution. Browsers consider subdomains (anything.dubfiler.com) another domain, so you get two more simultaneous downloads. People use this for faster image downloads, but it works great when yre downloading other files, too.
So I just created subdomains pointing to the same domain – images.dubfiler.com just points to dubfiler.com. There was no noticable server hit, and browsers will download more files simultaneously. Hope this helps.
Tags: browser hangs, file downloading, simultaneous downloads, subdomains
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January 11th, 2010
Can Balsamiq’s Mockups work for an enterprise site?
For the last few months I had the opportunity to use Balsamiq’s Mockups on a really big client. I had to create wireframes for about 80 web pages. At the high point, I had open more than 40 wireframes. Here’s how it held up.
Mockups is an Adobe Air app, which can be buggy, but I find Mockups to be fairly stable in Windows XP. It got a little slow, but performed well.
I love that Mockups assumes you will be working with lots of files, with options like “Close all” and “Export all”. What a time saver!
My only complaint is there is no functionality for includes. Since this was a web site, every wireframe had one of two headers (“logged in” and “logged out”). I created groups for headers so it was one copy and paste, but that’s one per file. I would I love to have been able to update a two files and have all my wireframes change.
So over all, it was great. Performance was fine and it made my life easier. Don’t think you need an “established” product for doing lots of wireframes. Balsamiq continues to rock my world.
Tags: balsamiq, big project, enterprise, large site, mockups, wireframes
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January 4th, 2010
Four productivity apps I swear by
I love tiny web apps that are 100% utility. I try to build apps like this because I think it’s one of the biggest values of the web. Get out of my way and help me get the most out of the work day.
Here are four apps (web based and not web based) that I use often:
RescueTime.com – You run a little app that monitors your activities, and then generates reports. It’s definitely insightful!
Tweetminer.com – Post web content to your Twitter account.
GetItDoneapp.com – My favorite GTD app (while I work on my own)
mite.yo.lk – I tried every time tracking app I could find. This one does less than all the others, and that’s why I love it. I use it to track more than work now.
And here are a couple I can’t wait to try:
GetConcentrating.com – A super simple little app for OS X that forces you to concentrate on the computer.
TeuxDeux.com – SwissMiss designed a great looking daily todo list. I’ve signed up, it seems awesome. I just haven’t incorporated it into my life yet.
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