I was
thinking a lot about how I could keep all the initial users updated on what we
are doing here and how to answer as many questions as possible. And I decided
that using my own blog on Profy for this is a good idea to answer questions
because I guess that many users have similar questions and thus will be
interested in the same issues. So I am starting the series “Talking to Profy
users” with answers to the first feedback I received from Justin Flowers, Interactive Marketing
Specialist at Resercom.
So here is
what he had to say about the newly released in alpha Profy blogging platform
(lots of useful things if you want to know my opinion) and what I can reply to
him and everyone interested:
Here’s my
feedback on Profy.Reader –
The reader is the first thing I looked at. It looks like it has a lot of
potential. The first thing I noticed is that the expanded view, at the bottom
of the reader, is hard to spot. The second thing I noted was that there are no
keyboard shortcuts, and because I’m used to Google Reader’s “J,”
“K” and spacebar shortcuts your reader felt a bit cumbersome.Overall,
the reader looks nice and the expanded view works really well, even the
location of the expanded/list view link can be gotten past once it’s spotted,
but it’s crucial for someone like me, with well over one hundred feeds, to be
able to use keyboard shortcuts.
I can agree
100% that for a power user being able to use keyboard shortcuts is something we
are really used to and we definitely have this on the roadmap. It has proven to
be more difficult to implement than we expected so we decided to launch alpha
without the shortcuts but we will add this ASAP.
Right now
we decided to offer some more advanced features to sorting items in your feeds
– for example, reading the posts from a certain period of time only.
As for the
location of the expanded view link, putting the link in the header seemed to
make the reader look rather crowded so we have decided to put it where it is
and see if users will manage to change their habits. After all, we have a
tabbed interface already and adding an extra tab (Google Reader style)
definitely is not right.
Blogging –
The blogging platform is fairly easy to work through. The tabs are all very
understandable and easy to navigate. The write tab makes sense, and I like the
ability to switch between the WYSIWYG editor and the plain HTML editor. I
really like the ability to easily import YouTube videos with the push of a
button and the image button is also pretty straight forward. The only problem I
foresee with the way it is now, is that there doesn’t seem to be anywhere to
locally store images.
Yes, we
have tried to make the tabs as understandable as possible. I guess the best
idea is that the ‘Write’ tab permits you to navigate to other tabs (to answer
comments, search for the posts you want to link to and configure settings)
without having to save the post – when you return to the ‘Write’ tab you will
find the post exactly how you left it and can resume editing.
We have
also tried to make use of your own multimedia content as easy as possible. We
understand that the ability to upload your own images is important to some
users but at this early stage we can not afford to offer storage space to all
the users. We will eventually add upload and storage of multimedia content but
chances are it will be a paid-for option.
The
dashboard is very useful and an easy way to spot anything that has changed
(feeds, comments, etc).
Yes, this
is the main idea behind Profy – you can do everything within only one browser
tab never having to move to another application. And on the dashboard you will
be able to see all the changes and go directly to the sections that require
your attention (reply to the new comments or messages in the inbox, for
example).
Overall,
this isn’t the type of platform that I would generally use, but I say that
mostly because I think the blogging platform is too elementary for my needs. I
love the idea of combining the reader and the blog – it seems to make perfect
sense.
I think I
should mention here that we have only coded about 20% of the roadmap so the
platform will become more sophisticated. Right now we understand that it
appeals mostly to the beginners but eventually we promise that even the power
users will be happy with the functionality. This is why we are so happy about
your feedback – we need to know what parts of the roadmap we should focus on.
Here’s what
would make me use this service:
A stronger
blogging platform with more options and the ability to create my own templates
and edit them etc.Storage
(images, etc)Keyboard
shortcuts, for the reader primarily, but also they would probably be useful
everywhere.Integration with other services. I know this is a stretch and probably
not something that you’re in a position to work on – but, if I combined my blog
and reader and a somewhat limited social network I would want to be able to
combine everything else there as well. (Facebook notifications, my email, etc)
Yes, we
realize that we have a long way to go to suit everyone’s needs here but this is
what we are going to do. And while some of the features only depend on us,
integration is the key to success as we see it. This is why as soon as the
platform is ready, we will focus on integrating lots of services here for your
Profy dashboard to actually become your one and only dashboard for the web.
I think you
have a solid product idea with Profy, and I look forward to seeing where it
goes in the future.
Thank you
for the kind words and for the valuable feedback, I promise we will not disappoint
you with our future development.
