Concept Reviews
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Hi John,
I must say I like the general lightweight look and feel of ErrorSnitch. The elements are quite nicely positioned. I don't see that level of usability awareness very often. Good job!
That being sad there are few issues I wanted to raise.
Homepage
Message has to be simplified but I will not write what Aurimas and others already mentioned. The point is you need to explain the general idea within 5-8 seconds which a typical time user needs to decide if this might be what he is after and merits further investigation. All the details can be explain later (below) because if user decide to stay he/she will read much more.
One-liner should explain the concept and promise value. Exceptional intelligence is so generic one can use it to describe even his girlfriends boobs :) (with a proper hand gesture).
Log-in inputs should be on homepage so frequent users don't need to make additional click and go to a subpage.
App
Exceptions and log entries should be presented within the context of an app as this is how users perception works. This will allow also to show in a glance which app is most problematic/hot. You will not need the additional app filter and app name could be removed from every entry in the listing.
I took the liberty of drawing the proper solution with some extra usability improvements.
Rest of my notes will be on your screens below.
Hope this helps. Shall you need any more help feel free to drop me a line.
Cheers!
Michael
(user experience designer & strategist)
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1Add 'Remove filters' link/button
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1Button design problem
Button cannot imitate a 3d ribbon, not mentioning that because it's red it looks like a default action. Make it a link.
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1Can you have multiple users?
if not this should be Account Settings not Users
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Lemon Tree
This is a neat idea, I think there are a couple of things that need tweaking...
I'll use notes...
Ok so overall the idea is cool but the design seems to be clashing between nice and clean and odd old school microsoft...
There are a few inconsistencies, and with two design styles there are a few clashes...
Also there seems be certain padding / spacing and alignment areas that need tweaking.
I hope this helps and good luck!
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1These pages
They don't really explain themselves, I would maybe have a pop up that explains each page, so as a first time user it makes it easier to understand.
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1Why is this icon not colored
like the rest - consistency is the key!
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1what is this?
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1Login & REGISTER
two completely different design styles use one and stick with it
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1Seriously?
You want to use WTF? C'mon try and get a bit more professional
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2*your
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3maybe a comma or full stop
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4Remove bevel
looks ugly
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5padding
add some
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6why wait?
is this necessary?
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7padding
it's needed here
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8arrows on button
look stupid remove them...
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9alignment
keep this aligned with the box below
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10wasted space
this whole area is a bit messy, and it would be better suited if it was on a grid... I think the font isn't that great either...
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John K. commented:Hi Aaran, thanks for the detailed review.
Here are some comments: 1.1. We didn't really care about the logo, so we came up with the simplest one. If we finally decide to make it a paid service, we'll definitely will think about identity and logo. 1.2. Agreed, but what other color can draw the most attention? 1.3. You're right - that's a mistake, thanks.
2.1. This line indicates items that were recorded since your last visit to the page, just like Visual Studio does it for the code that was changed since the file was opened. 2.2. What other way would you suggest? We can drop the title at all, I believe.
3.1. Yes, this makes sense.
4.1. We'll rework that 4.2. You logged off, and the test account has those popups turned off.
5.1. Yeah, that's a glitch.
6.1. The URL of the website. Is your main concern that it's not clickable?
7.1. We'll most likely drop the Register button, because I agree with Aurimas (below), it's too flashy.
8.1. The longer story is in my reply to Aurimas, but we didn't intend to make it professional-professional. 8.2. Thanks 8.3. - 8.10. We'll use your notes for these parts, but I've got a feeling you neglect everything that sticks out of usual look and feel even a little :(
I greatly appreciate the time and effort you spent on the service, and I already see some reasonable points, we'll make necessary adjustments.
John K.
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Hi there!
Pretty excited to see you guys here as Concept Feedback uses ErrorSnitch! Good work and kudos to you!
Homepage I think this is the weakest page from the site and mainly because of the clutter, lack of white space, and inappropriate use of fonts. :) Even if you are fancy with your TypeKit webfonts.
I like the humor, but some of these things might be a bit over the top if you ever decide to sell it as a service.
I think the content and explanation of the steps is good, it just needs to be reorganized a little. I also think that while there probably are people who don't know how to handle exceptions, there are those who do but in inefficient ways. We used to catch exceptions and send an email on each exception... which would result in hundreds of emails on a high volume site. We actually even had some groundwork done to create a service such as this internally, but then you guys popped up and that's that. :)
What I think you should also do on the homepage is explain WHY it's good to do what you guys offer to do. You should mention the grouping, frequency of error, and intelligent notifications.
I attached a simple layout which should unclutter things... ignore the obvious issues with spacing, typography and all that - but I just wanted to give you some direction that would make the message much clearer.
I really don't have any beef with the UI of the system as it's well thought out and informative.
Thanks for a great tool!
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1Contrast
Would def. look better with light gray background, white box, and dropshadow. Right now the gray with gray shadow isn't crisp. And why is register Red? :) Not that red can't be used EVAR, but i'd use a little more inviting color just the same.
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John K. commented:
Hi Aurimas!
We saw you in our user list and knew you wouldn’t be able to stand aside from reviewing our service anyway, so we saved $100 on a designer’s review :)
The service was an experiment, because we faced the same issue as you: an exception pops up and who the hell knows how to find the root of it in no time.
Eventually we might add paid plans to the service etc., but for now it’s sort of a hobby we decided to share with others. We added the homepage while drinking beer on Friday (the day after the initial launch), so don’t judge it harshly :)
Now my comments on your notes and the mockup (which we’re definitely gonna use as a wireframe for the homepage redesign, if it’s fine with you):
1.1. - 1.2. Agreed 1.3. Was supposed to be one of several blocks of options, but in the end was left alone; will shift it to the right. 1.4. We couldn’t come up with a better solution to make the button noticeable as much as possible, but we’ll calm it down.
2.1. Thanks, needs to be more modest.
3.1., 3.4., 3.5. Thanks, we’ll add to the to-do list
And some suggestions on how to improve CF.com from a regular visitor point of view: 1. Would be great to be able to leave comments on notes (or blocks of notes); right now we need to scroll up to see the note, then open in a new window a bigger image (which doesn’t load sometimes, only first hundred lines of pixels or so), then scroll down and write a comment, inserting proper number (and after submission the layout gets screwed up by the parser :( 2. Add images to the page where we select number of expert reviews to pay for, so it’s more intuitive. 3. Copying filenames to picture titles is cool, but don’t include extensions :) 4. Are you planning to introduce a mobile version of the site? All the popups and menus that are shown on hover don’t work from a mobile phone :(
The reason we posted the concept is that we’re now working hard on some major improvements like ignoring certain exceptions on the server (let’s say, a page or a file can’t be found), treating not only consecutive exceptions being thrown within 5 minutes as one, but group and show all same exceptions as one, to assign a person to a whole site to delegate exceptions, integration with BaseCamp etc.
We’ll pay much attention to the points you have specified here. Also, if you have any functionality-wise suggestions regarding our service – we’re always willing to hear from you (hopefully, you’re not offended by our “Thanks buddy” on the contact us page :)
Appreciate your business, John K.
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Aurimas Adomavicius commented:Thanks for the ideas, John! They all make sense. I actually have on my list of to-do's to update the way the reviews are rendered (and comments).
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I love Aurimas mockup, you should consider that.
The humor is cool but WTF is to much ...
I wouldn't go with Q and A, maybe you can rewrite that text and find a better way to say it.
about consistency Aaron explained it to you ... and even more.
Use red for errors and bad/negative things not for open sandbox (I thing this is not a negative button), red is good for attention but in this case you have a tool, a web app that is about errors and bugs, errors and bugs usually are in red color so you should stick to that.
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1this is a nice idea ...
but you could say something like: You could "wait 5 seconds" or just "Start Now" you have an account? Login
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John K. commented:
Hi Ionut,
We realized already it was a bad idea to make those buttons red :) We'll change to something more neutral, we'll keep the red color for some bleeding exceptions.
I'm sorry, but I didn't get what you wanted to suggest in the note - couldn't kindly repeat that?
Thank you and enjoy your night, John K.
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John K. commented:
Oh thanks Ionut,
Now it's clear - I was confused by the line of text not having a line break :)
John K.
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Design could be richer and more engaging
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The overal design looks plain. The icons on the left sidebar need to be small (they look cheap)
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identity good, unique icon. great
