Product development presentation where ideas are taken from web and HTML5 for building better products. Many times basic principles are forgotten during design of web application resulting in products that are bound to get complex and eventually too hard to maintain. These are my personal observations about web applications and products collected over a period of time.

1. HTML5
DESIGN PRINCIPLES
Uncovering forgotten principles for better product development

2. BEFORE YOU START:
This presentation is about product development ideas and has nothing to do
with HTML except for the fact that HTML5 design principles are used to
comment a word or two about product ideology. The opinions are based on
personal experience and thus could be subjective in nature.

3. Almost everyone out there uses web

4. They use it in different ways imaginable

5. HTML is the ultimate power horse of web

6. Flexible nature of HTML makes
web usable for everyone. This
flexibility is possible because
there are few simple guidelines
that are deeply embodied into
HTML specification. These
guidelines have eventually
become the design principles of
HTML.

7. When building complex web 2.0 applications,
these simple design principles are often
overshadowed resulting in applications that
are not harmonious with the nature of web.

8. Evolution of RESTful architectural
style is an example of embracing
the web in its own nature. It
breaks the old paradigm of RPC
based architectures that used the
web in ways it was not intended
to use producing very complex
and hard to maintain applications.

9. W3C has released draft of HTML5
design principles that outlines
major guidelines behind HTML5. It
helps to understand why HTML5 is
designed the way it is now. If
incorporated into application
design, it allows to create
applications that are maintainable
& harmonious with the laws of web.

10. COMPATIBILITY
1. Support existing content
2. Degrade gracefully
3. Do not reinvent the wheel
4. Pave the cowpaths
5. Evolution not revolution

11. Compatibility has many
facets. In terms of product or
application development,
engineer, designer, architect,
product manager, etc. all have
different interpretations for
compatibility.

12. Compatibility means support
existing content. If you are
developing a product to replace
legacy system, from engineer’s
perspective, it means provide
support for old system’s data.
Provide ways to migrate data to
newer system.

13. Compatibility means degrade
gracefully. Consider mobile
application that needs camera.
What will happen if an app is
installed on mobile without
camera. Instead of blocking app
completely, allow graceful
degradation so that app can at least
functions with lesser features.

14. Do not reinvent the wheel. Define a
uniform vocabulary & guidelines for
the product. Use this vocabulary to
communicate within teams. Update
it if required but do not reinvent.
For engineer, it means creating
library of recurring design patterns
for reducing development efforts.

15. Evolution not revolution. If users
are accustomed to something, don’t
break that experience. User
experience designer should try to
follow convention over
configuration for better user
engagement and thus better
product usability and experience.

16. Pave the way for cowpaths. Probably
applicable to all. Don’t get bogged
down in idealization or theoretical
accuracy. If something is working well
& solving almost all problems, use it by
all means. When introducing new
features, make sure to offer easy ways
for the users to continue what they
were doing previously.

17. UTILITY
1. Solve the real world problems
2. Priority of constituencies
3. Secure by design
4. Separation of concern
5. DOM consistency

18. Solve the real world problems. Prefer
pragmatic solutions than abstract
architectures. From product
management perspective, build
product with features that address
real world needs. Anything other
than that should be second priority.

19. Priority of constituencies. In case of
conflict, consider users over authors
over implementers over specifiers
over theoretical purity. For example,
even if Kilogram is standard unit of
weight, use Pound if users are more
familiar with it.

20. Separation of concern. If two things
are different make them different.
From user experience perspective,
readability and edit-ability are two
different things and thus should be
made completely distinguishable. An
engineer should separate business
logic from presentation logic.

21. INTEROPERABILITY
1. Well-defined behavior
2. Avoid needless complexity
3. Handle errors

22. Well-defined behavior. From product
manager to user experience designer
to visual designer to UI developer to
backend developer, everyone should
be on same page when it comes to
product and its features. In this long
chain of communication, there is
always a chance of Chinese Whisper
spoiling the product.

23. Avoid needless complexity. Simple
solutions are preferred to complex
once, when possible. Ideal example
would be workflow processing like
user registration process on web
applications. Many web applications
ask too many unnecessary details
increasing complexity that often
alienate users.

24. Handle errors. Be liberal in what you
accept. Always provide prompt
feedback for unintended user
actions. Give suggestive remedy to
user when something goes wrong.
Don’t make it hell for the user.*
*Refer: http://www.slideshare.net/HarshalPatil4/effective-feedback-design

25. UNIVERSAL ACCESS
1. Media independence
2. Support world languages
3. Accessibility

26. Media independence. Just like every
human being, web is for every device
and so are the products based on web.
Thus, it should work across different
platforms, devices and media. The
product especially in public domain
should be designed in such a way to
support as many platforms as possible
with subject to user research.

27. Support world languages. Needless to
say, internationalization & localization
are must for any web product that has
user base which is geographically
diverse. Every culture is different in taste
and customs. What works in one may not
work in another. User experience &
product management teams should
carefully incorporate such aspects.

28. Accessibility. Often an ignored piece. But
there are people who need special help
when using a product but this does not
mean that they have any lesser right to
use web. They are equal and treat
accessibility as such. This requirement is
even more critical for institutions likes
government, banks, hospitals, etc.

29. Finally, these are just few of the ideas about product development.
Product thinking is vast topic in its own rights. It involves study of
computer science, psychology, design, etc.
And this is just a starting point.

30. THANK
YOU
Author:
Harshal Patil
https://twitter.com/mistyHarsh
http://definitelysimple.com
http://www.linkedin.com/in/hapatil