ColourMod :: Dynamic (DHTML) Color Picker

It has been a little while since the release of OS X Tiger, and the rants are coming out now that all the initial raves have been exhausted. The latest among the complaints is Dashboard Widgets.

Some pretty respectable web design bloggers are questioning the benefits of Dashboard Widgets. The complaints are generally focused on the lack of productivity and originality in widgets.

I think the point has been missed. Were Dashboard Widgets supposed to be robust productive applications? No. The word widget connotes something small, maybe useless while meeting some kind of need for the user.

I was reading over a post by Jeff Croft about widget ideas that people wanted to be created. Generally people wanted something that was not necessarily productive (although some requests were), but more personalized to their needs.

It is true that Dashboard Widgets can be created and designed relatively quickly, and thus results in a lot of bad widgets. But, I don’t think the original, short-term intent of the widget was to be some robust, extremely productive application.

All that said, I would encourage the talented designers and coders to come up with some productive, ingenious widgets. Dashboard Widget design is not much more difficult than creating a robust web page and I would love to see some decent widgets from those who are talented in the web design arena.