More on Widgets…

I just went through the Widget list and added a bunch of Widgets to a test blog… Now that I've actually tried them out, I think I can say a bit more about my thoughts on the feature.

Truth is, Widgets aren't designed for users that are comfortable with advanced templates. If you're reading TypePad Hacks, there's a fair chance Widgets won't be your gig. They're really designed for users who want a drag and drop style of design, and there's nothing wrong with that. The idea of creating multiple ways to accomplish a task, with differing levels of design control and ease of use works for me. I'm also still a fan of the open API, though I think there need to be design standards implemented on the sites that offer Widgets for more consistancy in the sign-up process.

Am I a big fan? Not at present. Do I still think it's a good idea? Yeah, I do, but not for everyone. If there's a way to make them work on advanced templates, I think I would use at least some of them on future blog designs.

Here are the main things I noticed while playing with them.

As advertised, Widgets don't work in advanced templates:
I was sure Widgets could be added to advanced templates if you just knew the path name for the file and added it to the advanced template code manually. The easiest way to add TypeLists to advanced templates is to add them to a standard template, convert it to advanced, and then cut + paste the path name in the sidebar template from the test template to the target template. (That's really not easy enough, and yes it's on the Agenda. I'm pretty sure there's a fix in the works for it). I think I'll do a tutorial later on how to edit Advanced templates by converting back and forth. It's not that hard, it's just a bit of a pain and there are a few things to remember when you try it.

Anyway, earlier today I tried converting a template to find the path name for a Widget and found that it really didn't work. I was kind of surprised by that—I had assumed that the reason they were said not work on advanced templates was because of the difficulty of adding them. Because of the open API, I wasn't sure that just because one failed to display they all would. I'm convinced now. You definitely can't use Widgets after converting a template to advanced. I'm not sure if this is fixable, but I'll find out. I've submitted the bug report.

Some Widgets are easier to install than others:
I added about ten different Widgets, just to be sure I'd see the range of behavior. Some were really as simple as clicking the add now button at TypePad and then clicking the one at the home site for the Widget. Some were more complicated due to having to set up an account (zazzle, for instance, needed a lot of account info, and then, before I could display the Widget I had to create some actual products). Other sites made it kind of hard to figure out where to go on their site to install the widget (I love feedburner, but they didn't make it that easy to figure out). I would have liked it if sites I had existing accounts with logged me in and then took me directly to the Widget button, but that pretty much didn't happen anywhere except maybe FeedBlitz (I couldn't tell if it was that easy for everyone, or only existing account holders).

If Widgets are going to live up to the ease of use they are intended to provide, there really need to be some standards set for navigation and installation on sites that provide them. It should be as easy to find and configure the Widget as it is to install it.

Not much design control:
Most of the Widgets I tried offered little or no control over the appearance of the item on your blog: Fatlens offers 3 color schemes, for instance. Bunchball games pretty much are what they are. By comparison, when I decided to use the technorati box for links instead of a blogroll I found it was wider than my side bar. So I looked at the script and found that, yep, you can spec the height and width. If colors, size, etc are important to you, you're probably still going to want to managed your sidebar the old fashioned way.

Looking at old features in new ways:
One happy thing that came out of playing with Widgets was discovering that some of the services I already use have added new features or revamped their sites. Feedburner has adopted the new standard feed icon for instance, and has added instructions for modifying the auto-discovery tags to the front page of each feed's Publicize section. It took me forever to figure out the autodiscovery thing, mostly because I couldn't find the instructions easily. (oops, I just clicked that link above and it goes to the feedburner support forum article on autodiscovery. There's a much better set of instructions for TypePad users at the very bottom of this page).

Discovering new services:
I was researching services that convert feeds for mobile devices a while ago and discovered winksite. After playing with about a half dozen mobile feed converters, I'm pretty certain I like them best (I'm still looking though, so feel free to nominate others in the comments). As new Widgets come out, I expect I'll find other new services and sites that are useful. In a way, it's kind of like the web 2.0 directory I suggested be made part of the Knowledge Base. And, as I said earlier today, I do expect to see a lot of new offerings for TypePad users from other comapnies now that there's an open API. I think that's a good thing.

Tags: TypePad, Widget, blog, blogging, web 2.0

Comments

[Posted: Apr 1, 2006 10:19:57 AM]

I'm impressed by all the work you put into that, John. Duly noted at my site - and looking forward to hearing more about your conversation with Sippey.

[Posted: Apr 1, 2006 1:22:37 PM]

Just so you know, I don't use advanced templates on any of my sites -- I don't want to -- and I will be reading your blog regularly. I am interested in what is possible without 'advancing', for me and several non-techie friends. So I hope you'll keep us in mind.

[Posted: Apr 2, 2006 3:56:34 AM]

Bud, thanks! It looks like details on the conversation are going to be a bit slow in coming… a lot of what we talked about is in a "sensitive" stage right as yet. But I think as long as I respect that, I'll be able to break the news here as soon as it's ready.

SB, I'll do my best to provide good tips for people who don't use advanced templates also. The focus here is likely to tend more strongly towards advanced templates only because most of the hacks require them.

What I want to accomplish here, in addition to the Agenda items, is to collect info that can't be found in the standard TypePad help documentation. The info there for standard templates is really quite good, so there's less work for me to do along those lines.

Thanks for speaking up, though! Reader feedback helps me bring the content you want.