7 Reasons Why Web Apps Fail

Hi, you made some very good points,especially on tagging. When people tag it is for their own use or their own promotion. In both case for their very own benefit.

Also you are right saying don’t focus on technologies used. Tech is for geek, but real people want apps that satisfy their needs.

Hi Josh,
I think your rules are good, but I have 2 small issues with the list.

1. The most important issue is that your list is about 1 swath of what’s wrong with Web-apps–the strategic or business side. Something DEFINTELY worth looking at, but makes your list seem short.

2. On issue #2, I think you are looking at web-apps as “consumer web apps”. There are a host of other web applications where this issue doesn’t exactly play that way. SalesForce.com is an enterprise web app (or more correctly now an enterprise web ecosystem) as an example and I don’t think the rule really applies as well there. Or for a lot of web applications which are basically web versions of enterprise client-server applications (Documentum, SAP, Siebl, Oracle/PeopleSoft, etc.). The level of customization necessary in this world requires that you do more than one thing well.

David, agreed 100%. There are many reasons, undoubtedly, why web apps fail. These are only 7.

Also I thought about Salesforce, but as you say it’s kind of in its own league, being an ecosystem. Not sure what the exact distinction would be, but they’re definitely not on par with the ones I mentioned.

Hallelujah!! Its not about the technology dummy!

Is there a bubble? Not really but there will be a shake down of ideas in the over crowded me-too social rounded corner tagging market.

Understand WHO you’re building for and WHY they need it. Never be afraid to ask the most basic questions. A case of the Emperor’s Clothes.

Thanks for the really cool tools Web 2.0. Welcome back Usability, lets see how we can address their needs with our richer UIs.

I’d have to say that I don’t agree with #1 at all. Web apps that are built around a social experience are cultivating a community that doesn’t necessarily need to converse. And without conversations, the user is given a different sense of community. The user feels that _they_ are being served this information at _their_ leisure. And so it turns into a personal experience easily disconnected from the truth that they are also contributing in small ways.

Just my thoughts

Can you correlate being cultivated with accomplishing goals?

If the aim is to provide a social experience then web apps become things like Second Life. If the aim of a ‘web app’ is to address a need then you have to understand the need. I think Josh’s point is that creating these secondary attributes (social association, democratic filtering etc) does not mean you are addressing the real requirements of the chosen market.

Yes! I found the social aspect of blinkpro.com (bookmarking web app) annoying. I wanted to store and access my links, not worry about a site that wanted to leverage my data entry. Plus, Blink seemed slow. Wonder if all that socializing slows things down. I built linkonweb.com - a link storing web app to meet MY (the user’s) needs. I think I avoided your 7 Reasons.

“LinkOnWeb… just fast, simple and secure web based link storage.”

Yes!!

But you include tagging in your social feature avoid list. Tagging can be used for social but primarily its an indexing function and a very useful one at that.

If you think of tagging as a method to dynamically build menus, in your case the menu is a refined url list, then I would say its a must have, no?

Such a cool article, awesome opinions. Simple and logical yet barely recognized by public. Especially like the preview feature here, very cool. Similar to the author, turly eye opener.

We still see a lot of “copy” services - I dont think the market could tolerate another Instant Messenger.

However …

There are still so many opportunities to innovate and to develop services that people need based on the power of both the web and social contributions.

Suggest this is where ethnographic research may uncover a whole range of ’situations’ or ’scenarios’ where technology can play a major role or perhaps just be the glue to fix something.

Josh-

It is nice to see someone bringing this up.

I could not agree more with #1. Personalization and customization will be more important to users in the future. I am speaking in the realm of small web apps that focus on niche solutions.

Also, #4 brings up a trend that has been happening lately. Developers are more concerned with the sites being developed in the “smartest” manner that the sites become very self-aware. I agree that a brand and concept must have considerable weight. This is where loyal users come from.

I think all of the Web 2.0 articles are actually limiting solutions instead of looking at the bigger picture - the user experience.

Mr. Porter job, I like to suggest one more for your collection. We need a perfect model for collaboration between application developers and web designers. The gap is big.

No serious applications can ever emerge with out a solid set of reusable GUI Widgets, which must offer higher-level abstractions that let developers focus on business logic at hand. Imagine writing desktop GUI, without Windows GUI-API. Are you going to implement all the primitives yourself and include in the same functions that implement business logic?

This web page teaches how one can build reusable Ajax GUI Widgets:
http://cbsdf.com/technologies/DHTML-Widgets/Widget-samples.htm

I am a Java developer. I ask Web designers to give us great GUI Widgets and we will build great GUI applications!

Hi Josh,
I found your list beneficial not just as it applies to web apps, but product and service marketing in general. The Nike example was especially astute. Often businesses will focus on “features” or technical aspects of a product or service to sell it, when what consumers want to know is “what’s in it for me? How does it make my life better?”

Sound advice in your article that can be used in many arenas.

Great list. Of course there are exceptions to the list, but you sumed up pretty well major reasons of failure among web 2.0 startups & co.

BTW… I REALLY agree with #2. It’s one of the big mistakes I’ve seen at past companies I’ve worked for (I’m sure you can figure out which ones).

Do ONE thing and do it well. Tailrank is just a memetracker. I’d LOVE to make it simpler if I could and I’m constantly trying to figure out what to remove to make it simpler.

This has benefits for both the user (less to figure out and understand) and the developer (less code to maintain).

This allows you to plant a flag and OWN the territory. You’re the #1 foobar and no one can beat you at your game.

When people think of foobars they then automatically think of your service.

Kevin

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Lack of privacy exntensibility and realibility

May be i am wrong

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There are still so many opportunities to innovate and to develop services that people need based on the power of both the web and social contributions.

Suggest this is where ethnographic research may uncover a whole range of ’situations’ or ’scenarios’ where technology can play a major role or perhaps just be the glue to fix something.

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[…] Check out the full article here: http://bokardo.com/archives/7-reasons-why-web-apps-fail/ add to del.icio.us […]

This is fantastic. Great Stuff. It is interesting however about the charge for or not charge for this service issue. It is true that the general public does understand that something is “worth something” but all too often the “coders” are so caught up in “the internet is free” that they loose site os the end goal. You shouldn’t over charge for an application, but you should not starve while everyone else reaps the benefit of your hard work. Greetings from Poland

Unless I misunderstood, I would have to disagree with point #1. While people are inherintly selfish, this doesn’t mean they have no desire to belong to a community. On the contrary, if that were the case, sites like Ma.gnolia, Facebook, MySpace, Threadless (in a somewhat separate way), and many others would not exist because they revolve around community. If you make any of those singular or remove their community aspects, they die. Ma.gnolia, in fact, has members over del.icio.us in part because of its social aspects.

I agree social for socials sake is not going to work and just because you add a tag doesn’t mean it is social or will work.

The differentiation comes into play with the users learning or experience curve. That is, breaking them into two separate pieces- the initial curve that is about the user and their purpose, and the expansive curve that has its feet dangling in the initial curve, luring the user out of that and into the true beauty of the app. Does this mean the user has to be social? Certainly not. I know many who utilize Del.icio.us without being social in it.

I have often said that lack of focus is what will kill a web application and company for that matter. Great reference. It’s also good to point out that programmers should focus on the customer experience and not the programming technology that is hip and cool.

I just bookmarked your site cause you got some good stuff and you are someone to keep an eye on - good luck!

From an entrepreneur’s perspective, this is “the list” and should be read by anyone contemplating a consumer web startup.

Congrats Joshua, not only for being right on the money, but for saying it so well.

Regards,

Vivek

Social sites must die. Forums - rules!!!

Your “7 Reasons Why Web Apps Fail” was a wake up call form me.. I have been working on developing web apps for years.. I am too much in it that is why I am not able to see it in another perspective..

Thanks

Your “7 Reasons Why Web Apps Fail” was a wake up call form me.. I have been working on developing web apps for years.. I am too much in it that is why I am not able to see it in another perspective.. thanks.1!!!!

Again Josh, another insightful article. I find that I am guilty of a few (thankfully not all) of these things at one time or another and find it helpful to know what the solutions may be.

[…] And a good link for the day, Bokardo has got seven fantastic reasons as to why Web-based apps fail, in fact he has echoed a lot of my thoughts. […]

Josh,

I love your focus on users and improving / empower user’s lives. So many new websites miss this point and jump straight to buzz words and social value (web2.0, ajax, tagging etc). I love how each of your 7 points are clearly defined, each containing so much value. Thank you so much for the thoughtful post. Bookmarking this and sending it to friends. It’s a great source when designing that next web product. I’ll be back.

Warm Regards,
Tina
ThinkSimpleNow.com ~ Clarity & Happiness

Josh I love this post as well! I would like to add a couple things to:

Problem #2: They try to solve too many problems
Although we have seen that successful companies have focused on one activity, I believe they dedicated themselves to one of two concentrations:

1) Target audience - Many Companies began by first targeting to a particular niche audience. MySpace (musicians), Facebook (College students), and Ebay (collectors) started out dominating a certain group. Their audience focus allowed them to rapidly increase their user base in their initial stages. Dedicating to a audience is still a viable way to establish market share in the web application space.

2) User Experience - Not only did these companies focus on one activity, they overcame an area of the web that has existed for years. How? By vastly improving the user experience: Flickr (drag & drop organization and tagging), Google Maps (dynamic loading of map graphics), Amazon (shoppers who bought this book also bought..), Gmail (ease of searching and archiving). I believe that Remember the Milk is doing this right now with the common to do list. The single focus is dedicated to improving the user experience of what’s been around for years.