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Best practices for developing Office Add-ins

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Effective add-ins offer unique and compelling functionality that extends Office applications in a visually appealing way. To create a great add-in, provide an engaging first-time experience for your users, design a first-class UI experience, and optimize your add-in's performance. Apply the best practices described in this article to create add-ins that help your users complete their tasks quickly and efficiently.

Note

If you plan to publish your add-in to AppSource and make it available within the Office experience, make sure that you conform to the Commercial marketplace certification policies. For example, to pass validation, your add-in must work across all platforms that support the methods that you define (for more information, see section 1120.3 and the Office Add-in application and availability page).

Provide clear value

  • Create add-ins that help users complete tasks quickly and efficiently. Focus on scenarios that make sense for Office applications. For example:
    • Make core authoring tasks faster and easier, with fewer interruptions.
    • Enable new scenarios within Office.
    • Embed complementary services within Office applications.
    • Improve the Office experience to enhance productivity.
  • Make sure that the value of your add-in is clear to users right away by creating an engaging first-run experience.
  • Learn how to create an effective AppSource listing to promote your add-in.
    • Make the benefits of your add-in clear in your title and description. Don't rely on your brand to communicate what your add-in does.
    • Your add-in must provide sufficient value to justify users' investment. Your add-in shouldn't be a simple utility or of limited scope.
    • If your add-in targets larger organizations and enterprises, several AppSource requirements differ from those of a general commercial marketplace add-in. For more information, see the submission FAQ.

Create an engaging first-run experience

  • Engage new users with a highly usable and intuitive first experience. Note that users are still deciding whether to use or abandon an add-in after they download it from the store.

  • Make the steps that the user needs to take to engage with your add-in clear. Use videos, placemats, paging panels, or other resources to entice users.

  • Reinforce the value proposition of your add-in on launch, rather than just asking users to sign in.

  • Provide teaching UI to guide users and make your UI personal.

    A "Do" versus "Don't" comparison on how to guide your users to use the UI. The "Do" example shows an add-in that includes a button users can click to get started. The "Don't" example shows an add-in with no introductory steps or buttons.

  • If your content add-in binds to data in the user's document, include sample data or a template to show users the data format to use.

    A "Do" versus "Don't" comparison on including an option to insert sample data in your add-in. The "Do" example shows an add-in that includes a button users can click to insert sample data. The "Don't" example shows an add-in without sample data or buttons.

  • Offer free trials. If your add-in requires a subscription, make some functionality available without a subscription.

  • Make the sign-up experience simple. Prefill information, such as email and display name, and skip email verifications.

  • Avoid pop-up windows. If you have to use them, guide the user to enable your pop-up window.

For patterns that you can apply as you develop your first-run experience, see UX design patterns for Office Add-ins.

Use add-in commands

  • Provide relevant UI entry points for your add-in by using add-in commands. For details, including design best practices, see add-in commands.

Apply UX design principles

  • Ensure that the look and feel and functionality of your add-in complements the Office experience. See Design the UI of Office Add-ins.

  • Favor content over chrome. Avoid superfluous UI elements that don't add value to the user experience.

  • Keep users in control. Ensure that users understand important decisions, and can easily reverse actions the add-in performs.

  • Use branding to inspire trust and orient users. Don't use branding to overwhelm or advertise to users.

  • Avoid scrolling. Optimize for 1366 x 768 resolution.

  • Don't include unlicensed images.

  • Use clear and simple language in your add-in.

  • Account for accessibility - make your add-in easy for all users to interact with, and accommodate assistive technologies such as screen readers.

  • Design for all platforms and input methods, including mouse/keyboard and touch. Ensure that your UI is responsive to different form factors.

Optimize for touch

  • Use the Context.touchEnabled property to detect whether the Office application that your add-in runs on is touch enabled.

    Note

    This property isn't supported in Outlook.

  • Ensure that all controls are appropriately sized for touch interaction. For example, buttons have adequate touch targets, and input boxes are large enough for users to enter input.

  • Don't rely on non-touch input methods like hover or right-click.

  • Ensure that your add-in works in both portrait and landscape modes. Be aware that on touch devices, part of your add-in might be hidden by the soft keyboard.

  • Test your add-in on a real device by using sideloading.

Note

If you're using Fluent UI React for your design elements, many of these elements are built into the design system.

Optimize and monitor add-in performance

  • Create the perception of fast UI responses. Your add-in should load in 500 ms or less.

  • Ensure that all user interactions respond in under one second.

  • Provide loading indicators for long-running operations.

  • Use a content delivery network (CDN) to host images, resources, and common libraries. Load as much as you can from one place.

  • Follow standard web practices to optimize your web page. In production, use only minified versions of libraries. Only load resources that you need, and optimize how resources are loaded.

  • If operations take time to execute, provide feedback to users. Note the thresholds listed in the following table. For additional information, see Resource limits and performance optimization for Office Add-ins.

    Interaction class Target Upper bound Human perception
    Instant <=50 ms 100 ms No noticeable delay.
    Fast 50-100 ms 200 ms Minimally noticeable delay. No feedback necessary.
    Typical 100-300 ms 500 ms Quick, but too slow to be described as fast. No feedback necessary.
    Responsive 300-500 ms 1 second Not fast, but still feels responsive. No feedback necessary.
    Continuous >500 ms 5 seconds Medium wait, no longer feels responsive. Might need feedback.
    Captive >500 ms 10 seconds Long, but not long enough to do something else. Might need feedback.
    Extended >500 ms >10 seconds Long enough to do something else while waiting. Might need feedback.
    Long running >5 seconds >1 minute Users will certainly do something else.

  • Monitor your service health, and use telemetry to monitor user success.

  • Minimize data exchanges between the add-in and the Office document. For more information, see Avoid using the context.sync method in loops.

Publish and market your add-in

  • Create a Partner Center account. This could take some time. If you plan to publish your add-in to AppSource, get this process going as soon as possible.

  • Create an effective AppSource listing.

    • Use succinct and descriptive add-in titles. Include no more than 128 characters.

    • Write short, compelling, and accurate descriptions of your add-in. Answer the question "What problem does this add-in solve?".

    • Convey the value proposition of your add-in in your title and description. Don't rely on your brand.

  • Create a website to help users find and use your add-in.

  • Publish your add-in to AppSource. Be sure to follow the AppSource prepublish checklist and submission guide.

    • Ensure that your add-in works error-free in all operating systems, browsers, and devices supported by the minimum set of APIs declared in your add-in manifest.

    • Provide detailed testing instructions and resources for certification reviewers to verify the functionality of your add-in.

  • Promote your add-in from your website.

Important

If your add-in targets larger organizations and enterprises, several AppSource requirements differ from those of a general commercial marketplace add-in. For more information, see the submission FAQ.

See Support older Microsoft webviews and Office versions.

See also