Since Geocities made it easy to publish and build websites online editors have come a long way. The capability of tuning your own site contributed both to the rise and fall of Myspace. After Myspace it seemed for a while that allowing your users to customize any design was not done, but slowly we see the market recover and a willingness to experiment with new kinds of style editors is growing. In this article I will try to describe some trends that are going on which can help you to pick the right editor for your next project.

1. Customizable social sites Lessons learned and questions unanswered

2. What is this presentation about? A look at the current best practices What I’m currently working on Things to take into consideration (aka lessons learned) Discussion

3. Current best practices Microblogs Blogs + social networks

4. Flavors.me – simple styling

5. All about styling

6. Tumblr.com – beautiful themes

7. typepad.com – photo colour generator

8. typepad.com – simple action = great result

9. Lessons from microblogs Editor can be placed where-ever wanted Give users the ‘feeling’ they are in control of the design Blow them away with great pre-made styles

10. Myspace.com – editor on top

11. posterous.com – smallest of them all

12. Blogger.com – using templates

13. Blogger.com – customize template

14. tumblr.com – css, do it all yourself

15. Lessons from blogs + social networks Editors preferable small and on top Work with templates, make sure the defaults look great Gradually allow users more control Pick a template customize template edit css

16. Current work at Webjam Focus on different user roles Encourage users to customize themes But keep them away from ongoing editing sessions Make it a visual appealing ‘fun’ experience

17. webjam.com – editor framework

18. webjam.com – simple choices

19. webjam.com – make it visual

20. Complexity curve The more flexibility you offer the more complex the interface of the editor becomes (the harder your usability test are going to be).

21. How to deal with complexity Try to keep make your themes and customization options so good looking that users won’t request editing the site themselves.

22. 6 guidelines for RIAs Make It Direct Keep It Lightweight Stay on the Page Provide an Invitation Use Transitions React Immediately source: http://www.insideria.com/2009/09/50-most-usable-rias.html

23. Questions + discussion sjors@webjam-ltd.com http://svirsk.org @sjors More to read:http://uxmag.com/design/rich-internet-application-screen-design