Tuesday, July 13, 2010

What YOU Are Interested In

I was very excited to see two of my blog posts featured in the 900th issue of Silverlight Cream which ranked the top articles of 2010 thus far. These were Top 10 Silverlight Myths and Facts to Bust Them (#4) and Simple Dialog Service in Silverlight (#17).

I appreciate your interest and out of curiosity decided to examine my own blog to see what trends look like for the past year. What posts are you looking at the most? And where do you spend most of your time? Here's what I found:

Last 6 Months

  1. Model-View-ViewModel (MVVM) Explained
  2. MVVM with MEF in Silverlight Video Tutorial
  3. Dynamic Module Loading with Silverlight Navigation using PRISM

Last 3 Months

  1. Model-View-ViewModel (MVVM) Explained
  2. MVVM with MEF in Silverlight Video Tutorial
  3. PRISM, MEF, and MVVM Part 1 of 3: Unity Glue

Last Month

  1. Model-View-ViewModel (MVVM) Explained
  2. Introducing Sterling, the OODB for Silverlight and Windows Phone 7
  3. Tips and Tricks for INotifyPropertyChanged

I'm assuming you actually read the posts because you spent an average of 4 - 5 minutes on each of the top ones.

What does this tell me? It shows there is a major interest in dynamic modules, in MEF, in local storage for Silverlight, and of course the Model-View-ViewModel pattern. This is good, because these are topics I consistently write about and speak about at public events. However, one other thing I've found is just as important.

We need more quick starts, easy step-by-step tutorials, and guidance for these patterns!

With the few talks I've done that provided feedback from the audience, the lower ratings are always tied to either "too much content" or "too advanced." I appreciate that feedback and it tells me you want more simple, 1-2-3 style posts and snippets of information. I also know my future talks should focus on the fundamentals and not dive into advanced topics unless I know for a fact the audience is going to have experience coming into it.

I appreciate all of your feedback, both direct and indirect. Can you help out even more with this post? I'd love to hear what blog posts, articles, video tutorials, and talks you would like to see but feel haven't been addressed. Use the comments below to share with me what you'd like to see more of, and how you'd like to see it. It will only help me improve the content that I share here and at users groups.

Thanks!

Jeremy Likness