Making Add-ons People Will LOVE

Justin Scott
Mozilla Add-ons Workshop London 2010

You cant 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

Part I:

building
marketing Listening

Part II:

Part III:

Clean First-Run

ordeal
n.

any extremely severe or trying test, experience, or trial.

annoyance
n.

a cause of irritation or vexation; a nuisance.

Clean First-Run
Annoying rst-run practices:
require registration to do anything at all Modal dialogs and wizards Asking to change the users settings

Annoying post-update practices:

Showing the add-ons homepage Showing a changelog (unless a major change has been made)

Clean First-Run
Dont let rst-run be the last-run by following these guidelines:
Modal dialogs/wizards should be part of the rst-run page or triggered by user action on the rst-run page Limit of one rst-run element. If you have a rst-run page, you shouldnt need a wizard, dialog, or sidebar open too. Dont change user preferences

Dont Clutter UI

Extensions [should] integrate with the existing UI as if it were a feature shipped with Firefox itself.
Survey respondent on what practices all add-ons should adopt

This is constantly reminding me that its an extension, and not really part of my browser.
Survey respondent describing a disappointing add-on

Dont 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.

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

Earn & Keep Trust

There are add-ons that want to:
change the users default search provider without asking replace ads on websites with their own ads send all of the users search queries to a third party when the add-on isnt related to searching bundle other add-ons or software the user didnt ask for

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)

Earn & Keep Trust

Choose core functionality and stick with it

Original photo by Flickr user AJC1 (CC licensed)

Earn & Keep Trust

Have a clear Privacy Policy Install the proper way
No .exes or 3rd party bundling

Stay Current
Update compatibility before a Firefox release Avoid conicts with other add-ons Be on the lookout for new platform features to take advantage of
Restartless add-ons Larger icons Mobile

Smooth Performance
Add-ons should have zero performance impact on Firefox start-up time Were working on tools & ways to surface performance data to help developers and users understand the impact of each add-on

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.
Survey respondent describing delightful add-ons

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

Be Delightful
Find little ways to delight your users Theres no recipe for this. Its specic to your add-on.

Part I:

building
marketing Listening

Part II:

Part III:

Descriptive Name
An add-ons functionality should be obvious from its name

Adblock Plus Password Exporter FireFTP Video DownloadHelper Download Statusbar Flashblock User Agent Switcher

WOT - Safe Browsing Tool FEBE Yoono

- Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, MySpace, YouTube, Flickr, AIM, MSN, GTalk...

Cooliris Infoaxe : Full Text Web History Search synchronized

between Firefox, IE on multiple computers.

Glubble Glue - Recommendations for Books/Movies/Music

Pretty Icon
Icons are always shown, yet half of extensions use default Icon is part of your add-ons brand ... and theyre becoming more important

Large icons are coming to Firefox 4 & AMO

Pretty Icon
We want add-ons to have great, relevant icons So were expanding our defaults,

creating a Design Help forum, ...and having a contest.

Add-on Icon Makeover Contest

Coming Soon!
Watch blog.mozilla.com/addons for details

Helpful Screenshots
Summaries are only 250 characters, but a pictures worth 1000 words Make sure to add screenshots of your add-on and keep them updated

Avoid EULAs
We recently changed install buttons for add-ons that have EULAs

Old

New

Avoid EULAs
EULAs prior to download kill conversions
View Details View Details

5% 44%
EULA

61%
Download Download

Part I:

building
marketing Listening

Part II:

Part III:

Provide Support
Users get frustrated when they encounter problems and cant nd any support avenues Add-ons should provide at least one, possibly including:
Support E-mail Support Website Get Satisfaction

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)

Utilize Tools
AMO provides numerous tools to help developers understand their add-ons usage and standing
Statistics Dashboard Recent Activity Feed Compatibility Reports

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!

Utilize Tools
Recent Activity feed tells you whats new with your add-on

Utilize Tools
Compatibility Reporter users help you test before the next big release

Summary

building
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. Clean First-Run Dont Clutter UI Earn & Keep Trust Stay Current Smooth Performance Be Delightful 1. 2. 3. 4.

marketing
Descriptive Name Pretty Icon Helpful Screenshots Avoid EULAs

Listening
1. Provide Support 2. Monitor User Reviews 3. Utilize Tools

Overall, I love the community of developers who continue to create stellar add-ons for the benet of the Firefox community.
Survey respondent

Original illustration by Mozilla Creative Collective member foxyboy (CC licensed)

Thanks!
igtar@mozilla.com twitter.com/igtar