How do I get my company brand onto my customer’s desktop?

It is now feasible more than ever to create desktop-like applications for the web, prime examples being online word processors such as Google Docs and Zoho Writer. But there is a simultaneous trend in the opposite direction; it is now more feasible than ever to create highly specialized, richly graphical, and fully branded online experiences within desktop applications. This gives businesses the opportunity to engage customers in a setting that is focused on and tailored to the specific needs and desires of their users. Examples include the hugely popular Twitter client TweekDeck and eBay Desktop that celebrated 1 million downloads in July 2008, only five months after its initial launch.

Quba had success in this area when multinational plumbing fixture supplier Ideal Standard commissioned a desktop version of their catalogue aimed at architects who are often working on construction sites without access to an internet connection. Using the (at the time brand new) Adobe Flex 2.0 application development platform we were able to create a rich user experience, with effective navigation features, that was well received by the target audience.

Technology has moved on, even since then, and a choice of platforms has emerged on which rich web-centric desktop applications can be developed. The forerunner is Adobe AIR, which is the underlying technology for both the TweedDeck and eBay Desktop examples mentioned above, however Adobe have strong competition in the form of Microsoft Silverlight.

The increasing competition in this emerging area makes it a good time for companies to consider whether they could engage customers more effectively through the use of a specialized desktop application. Companies that aspire to regular engagement, frequent transactions, or high levels of interaction with customers could well find a valuable asset in such an application.