Wil Tan from WirelessVisions talks about Widget Design

Wil Tan from WirelessVisions talks about Widgets, originally uploaded by dawachan1.

Widget design for mobile devices things to consider:

* Screen Size is typically 320x240. Do we miniturize exsiting sites to fit mobile devices or do we mobilize site content?

* Need to consider user input mechanisms and how they ways users can interact with sites. Typically: touch, tackball, thumbwheel or keypad. The only common input mechanism between devices is the numeric keypad. Cannot create a widget that depends on a certain input mechanism besides the keypad.

* Mobile access is currently complex and inconsistent across content providers. Certain providers redirect based on device detection and deliver mobile optimized sites.

* Widget footprint - W.'s need to be fast and slim. Need to consider what resources will be consumed. Strip images to lower bandwidth consumption. To cache of not to cache and the size of the footprint on the phone.

* Media support. There is no standardized platform for flash or video or current media support provided by individual phone carriers.

* Widget viral marketing. Widget based embedded video players. Spread virally. YouTube did this - drives traffic back to their site by developing embeddable video player for myspace and facebook.
Mybloglog have reader roll widget - see who has been to a blog and read their comments. Powerful driver of traffic.

* Widgets or Advertising Mediums
Offer incentives to access content. Clearspring.

* Personalized Top List Widgets. Smartlink Widget. Rock You's social networking widgets showing ads appear in applications. Pop ups within widget application on facebook.

* Widget trends. Groupware awareness widgets. These widgets augment a users's view of the workspace - the location of other collaborators and their actions.
ChipIn Widgets personal fundraising campaign on behalf of any non profit organization or causes.
Nokia S60 widget platform - allow javascript widgets on phones.