Ten tips to make your extension shine
You have spent a lot of time and effort making an extension that is awesome, but at first glance users will only see the summary, description, icons, and screenshots. Make sure these are of high quality, and keep an eye on these ten tips to make your extension shine among all others.
1. The summary should sell your extension in a couple of sentences.
The summary should answer the question: What does your extension do? Why should I (the user) care about it? This is your moment to grab his attention and tell him about that problem he has that you will fix with your extension.
2. Descriptions should not be too short.
When your users look at the description, they will be wondering:
3. The description field should not be a copy of the summary.
It looks bad if the summary and the description are identical because they are displayed together. The description should offer additional details.
4. The summary and description should have complete, grammatically correct sentences.
Please remember that users have no idea what this extension is about, so spend some time writing good, explanatory, detailed descriptions.
5. The support page should be related to your extension.
Users are looking for information about the extension. Taking them to your blog or your favorite webpage leaves them drowning in an ocean of irrelevant information. The support page is optional but, if you think it is needed, make a page aimed specifically at your extension, features to come, more detailed explanations, etc.
6. The quality of the small icons should be good.
The biggest problem we see with icons is their quality in 18x18 pixels. Please be aware that when your extension is installed, this icon will be placed in the browser UI, and will remain there all the time. Simply scaling the 64x64 icon down to 18x18 may not be good enough. For better results, try scaling your icon to 16x16 with different scaling algorithms, choose the one that gives best results, and add padding to make it 18x18.
7. The icons should be anti-aliased.
This is one of the details that makes your extension look professional: icons should be anti-aliased and have clean lines. Take the time to manually clean your icons.
8. Your icons should be of high quality.
We understand that it is hard to make good icons, especially of different sizes, but a good icon hints at the quality of your code. Read more about how to make good icons or use tools like the icon creator.
9. Screenshots should not be too large.
Screenshots should not be larger than 800x600. Larger screenshots make it difficult for your users to find the relevant information.
10. Screenshots should explain what your extension does.
Screenshots should explain where your extension button is located (if relevant) and how it affects the page / browser, so we recommend that you add at least two screenshots. Please remember that initially users do not know anything about your extension, so focus on what is important while not cutting away too much browser UI, as this gives context. Read more about how to make good screenshots.
1. The summary should sell your extension in a couple of sentences.
The summary should answer the question: What does your extension do? Why should I (the user) care about it? This is your moment to grab his attention and tell him about that problem he has that you will fix with your extension.
2. Descriptions should not be too short.
When your users look at the description, they will be wondering:
- How do I use this extension? Does it act on all pages, only on some pages, or does it just add information in the callout?
- What does this extension look like? Will I have to press a button to start using it or will it appear automatically on certain webpages? What should I look for?
3. The description field should not be a copy of the summary.
It looks bad if the summary and the description are identical because they are displayed together. The description should offer additional details.
4. The summary and description should have complete, grammatically correct sentences.
Please remember that users have no idea what this extension is about, so spend some time writing good, explanatory, detailed descriptions.
5. The support page should be related to your extension.
Users are looking for information about the extension. Taking them to your blog or your favorite webpage leaves them drowning in an ocean of irrelevant information. The support page is optional but, if you think it is needed, make a page aimed specifically at your extension, features to come, more detailed explanations, etc.
6. The quality of the small icons should be good.
The biggest problem we see with icons is their quality in 18x18 pixels. Please be aware that when your extension is installed, this icon will be placed in the browser UI, and will remain there all the time. Simply scaling the 64x64 icon down to 18x18 may not be good enough. For better results, try scaling your icon to 16x16 with different scaling algorithms, choose the one that gives best results, and add padding to make it 18x18.
7. The icons should be anti-aliased.
This is one of the details that makes your extension look professional: icons should be anti-aliased and have clean lines. Take the time to manually clean your icons.
8. Your icons should be of high quality.
We understand that it is hard to make good icons, especially of different sizes, but a good icon hints at the quality of your code. Read more about how to make good icons or use tools like the icon creator.
9. Screenshots should not be too large.
Screenshots should not be larger than 800x600. Larger screenshots make it difficult for your users to find the relevant information.
10. Screenshots should explain what your extension does.
Screenshots should explain where your extension button is located (if relevant) and how it affects the page / browser, so we recommend that you add at least two screenshots. Please remember that initially users do not know anything about your extension, so focus on what is important while not cutting away too much browser UI, as this gives context. Read more about how to make good screenshots.
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About this article
| Published in | Add-ons blog |
|---|---|
| Date | November 4, 2010 |
| Author | Yenny Otero |
| Tags | extensions, tips, opera browser, catalog |
| Original | Internet Archive |
TamilThursday, November 4, 2010 4:01:34 PM
flynetmobiThursday, November 4, 2010 11:41:23 PM
PengeSaturday, March 19, 2011 6:29:50 AM
// @exclude http://acid*.acidtests.org/*To avoid the write only users on the Desktop Team who complains about broken Acid3 test in the comments of posts of every new build.