Carl Sjogreen and “How we built Google Calendar”

6 insights for your next web app

1. Easy is the most important feature “Simple things should be simple, and complex things should be possible” Alex Kay, Disney Fellow and VP of R&D, Walt Disney Company

2. Know your real competition Know what your competition does well. The Google Calendar team sees their main competition as… the paper calendar. Yep, Google is actually taking aim at eliminating the need for paper calendars.

3. Visual Design Matters Visual Design = Usability + Visual Joy “Great design is that ineffable quality that certain incredibly successful products have that makes people fall in love with them despite their flaws.” Joel on Software

4. Build products for people who don’t want to use them Make it painless for people to start using your product without fully switching to a new way of doing things.

5. Time Your Launch Properly “Launch early and often, but not too early (the first time)”

6. Driving Usage Touchpoints that extend beyond your app * “Add stuff” from my site * “Publish stuff” to my site * “Tell a friend” invitati