Widgetbox released version 1.1 tonight.
This release focuses on the usability of the catalog (browsing and trying out widgets) and is more friendly to people who want to link into Widgetbox.
The following features are new:
- New UI for browsing and trying out widgets. Browsing for widgets should be a more fun and faster experience. Bloggers now see a single page that shows them all information about a widget, lets them try it out, and shows them other widgets they might be interested in. The UI geek term for the philosophy behind the UI is “ambient findability”: we try to guess what information the user is likely to be interested in and pre-fetch it onto the page instead of making them click for it.
- Configure a widget from an external website. Many developers have a configuration form for their widget on their own website. Developers can now let bloggers configure the widget on their site and pass the configured widget to Widgetbox. More info.
- “Get This Widget” chiclets. Each widget now has a “Get This Widget” chiclet underneath it. This can be turned off on the widget’s panel’s editor.
- Chiclets for bloggers. The widget’s gallery page has a simple UI for a blogger to get a link or chiclet to the widget.
- IE7 support. A lot of work to make sure the site and widgets look and work well under Internet Explorer 7.0.
- The rating star formula has changed. We use a five-star rating system that displays in half-star increments. It used to be that a 4.9999 average rating was displayed as 4.5 stars. In practice that meant almost nobody ever got 5 stars. We now use math rounding, meaning that anything 4.75 and above displays as 5 stars.
- Many small things. Many small usability and performance tweaks, as well as preparing the database for our next release. (Stay tuned for more details.)
Enjoy!
Published by moses on November 17, 2006
in Uncategorized.
Sometime in the next two weeks we will be releasing version 1.1. It will add several ways to link to widgets from outside of Widgetbox.
- Links for bloggers. A simple UI for a blogger to get a link or chiclet to the widget. This is done from the widget’s gallery page.
- Preconfiguring a widget via its permalink. A widget’s permalink will accept configuration information. For example:
http://www.widgetbox.com/widget/my-widget?color=red
This URL will take a user to the widget’s homepage on Widgetbox, where they can either install the widget or do further configuration. This is useful, for example, if the developer has a configuration screen for their widget on their own site, that configuration screen can have a ‘Install Via Widgetbox’ link or chiclet.
Here’s our documentation on permalinks.
Here’s a preliminary screenshot of how the blogger generates links. The final UI may be different. See full size.
Here’s a preliminary screenshot of the preconfiguring link generator. The final UI may be different. See full size.
As always, feedback is much appreciated.
Sometime in the next two weeks we will be releasing version 1.1. One of the features is an improved UI for browsing and trying out widgets.
Below is a screenshot from our staging system. This finished version is likely to look substantially similar to this.
Key points:
- Consolidated details & tryout page. We currently have a widget details page (at widgetbox.com/widget/[widget-name]) and a tryout page (at widgetbox.com/tryout/[widget-name]). These have been consolidated into a single page.
- Related widgets. On this new consolidated page are also links to related widgets and other widgets from the same developer.
As always, we welcome feedback.
view full size
Published by moses on November 3, 2006
in Uncategorized.
Widgetbox is pleased to be the main sponsor of the Widgets Live! conference, on November 6 2006 in San Francisco.
Ed Anuff, our CEO, will be presenting during the session on widget aggregators.
We will be producing some Flash screencasts of various aspects of Widgetbox based on the presentation and based on your requests in the past. If you’d like to put in more suggestions, please drop an email to support.
Later in November we are planning to release v1.1. As we get closer we’ll be more precise on the date. Here’s some of what should be in it. Please let us know what you think — there’s still time to make changes!
- Externally configure your widgets. As a developer, you can link to the tryout page of your Widgetbox widget from your own site and pass in configuration. This lets your users configure your widget from a configuration screen on your site, and then link them directly to your widget on Widgetbox, retaining the configuration.
- Widget chiclets. A quick, handy way for bloggers (and developers) to get a chiclet that says “Get This Widget!”.
- UI revamp for bloggers. A UI revamp to make it easier for bloggers to navigate between information about a widget, trying it out, and seeing related widgets.
- Sizing improvements. Better ways for developers to manage the sizing of their widgets.
