The best applications are not only the ones with features that are created to make you think you actually need them, and couldn’t remember what you were doing without them, but also ones that are instantly usable. A lot of applications try to sway from any other web application in the bid to be more ‘fresh’. It’s not helpfull at all to a user.
Users are generally familiar with a set of standards on their GUI and when they’re not, its actually quite frustrating.
Generic Website Layouts This goes for websites too, generally there is a certain structure of websites and if user’s want to navigate they can find the navigation easy by experience.
It’s the same for web applications, if I sign up for a new one; I want to be able to navigate around it easily and know how to use it rather than familiarising myself with a new set of rules. Users are lazy, they don’t want to familiarise themself with such and why should they? They want quick, reliable, easy programs and you’re providing the service and you have to compete to make the best.
In this era of the internet it is so easy to roll out applications thanks to RubyOnRails and other optimised programming languages. It is no longer about features but also of AJAX and usability. There are many clones out there for many applications trying to compete on little things so really, you have to make the user fall in love with your application within first sight.
