Best Practices for Achieving User Satisfaction from Web Parts

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Best Practicesfor Achieving User Satisfaction
from Web Parts

• Ishai Sagi
• Unique World

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Who is the user?

• End User the user who views the web part in the
  site.
• Site Manager the user who decides where the web
  part will be displayed and set its properties
• Server Administrator the user who installs the
  web part on the server and configures the global
  setting (if any)

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This Presentation

• Will focus on the administrator and the site
  manager.
• Will not include code samples, but will point you
  to where samples can be found.
• Will skip multi-language best practices (although
  they are!)
• Will use the web parts and solutions by
• www.KWizcom.com
• www.Omnisys.co.il
• These are companies I worked for in the past and
  are selling their web parts and solutions on the
  internet
• www.Leadit.be Company that provides a package of
  free web parts

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Web parts used

• Omnisys
• Document Library Viewer Page Viewer
• Power Aggregator
• Power Navigation Bar
• Image Library Viewer
• KWizCom
• SharePoint Search Highlighter
• My Recent Documents
• Sharepoint Take Offline
• Leadit Sharepoint Breadcrumbs
• Unique World Breadcrumbs

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What makes me unhappy?

• I have no idea how to install this file I
  downloaded
• Web part doesnt work
• Web part crashes the site
• Web part worksbut not the way I thought it would
• I dont understand how to use the web part
• The web part works, but it clashes with my site
  design and layout

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Common Mistakes

• Developers and designers tend to focus on
  End-User experience and forget the other two
  kinds of users.
• Developers tend to think more on functionality
  (making it work) than on flexibility (allowing
  the site manager and administrators to change
  look and feel)
• More effort goes into making the web part look
  good than goes into making it flexible, robust
  and easy to install.

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AdministratorSatisfaction
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Do Make installation easy

• Create an installation package (msi) that will
  allow administrators to install, remove and
  upgrade the web part easily.
• Deploy the documentation as a part of the
  installation

KWizcom deploys the documentation as part of the
installation
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Do Make Configuration Easy

• If web part has server level configuration,
  create an application to configure it, and load
  it after the setup.
• If web part has default property values that
  administrators may want to set (like exchange
  server name or company internet site), write an
  application to change the default values and
  launch it after installation.

KWizcom deploys a configuration utility for
server level options
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Dont Do Force a IIS shutdown when installing

• When installing, give the user the ability to
  choose if to preform an IISRESET or not. This
  should not be done automatically!
• Instead of doing an IISRESET, recycle the
  application pools its faster!

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Demo

• Installation Good Bad

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Do write good documentation

• Include detailed explanations and examples on
  every property.
• Include screen shots of usage
• Use RTF format readable everywhere!

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Dont Dos

• Dont use formats that you are not sure the users
  will be able to use. Most servers dont have
  MS-word or Acrobat reader.

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Demo

• Documentation good bad

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Site Managers Satisfaction
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Properties

• Use properties to provide as much flexibility as
  possible.
• When adding a new feature that one customer
  wants, always add a property that will allow
  disabling the feature.

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Demo

• Properties, Good Bad

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Do Use CSS files

• CSS class for every element in the web part.
• Support multiple web parts on same page with
  different CSS.

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Dont Do write hard coded style

• You never know what the user will want to use the
  web part for.
• You never know what style changes were made on
  the server

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Demo

• Styles, Good Bad

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Summary

• Create easy install
• Create easy configuration utilities
• Write good documentation
• Give behavioural flexibility with properties
• Give style flexibility with CSS
• Support multiple CSS on same page.

• Dont do IISReset without asking the user
• Dont write documentation that cant be read on
  the server
• Dont forget to explain every property
• Dont hard code style

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Links to Web Parts used to demo

• www.KWizCom.com (as presented in demos)
• www.Omnisys.co.il (as presented in demos)
• http//tinyurl.com/zq7u7 (Microsoft BI Portal)

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Additional helpful links

• www.spstips.blogspot.com (my blog)
• www.msd2d.com (a lot of SPS articles)

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Questions?

• Last chance!

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The End