Tag Archives: browser as a platform

Usability of Web Business Tools, Research on the Missing link

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Ben Kepes from CloudAve recently wrote Is There a sweet spot for features? about usability issues in web applications offering more and more features everyday.

As he states:

It’s easy as pie to create a good looking and intuitive user experience when your solution only includes a few functional areas, but as you roll out further functionality all of a sudden that simplicity and intuitive feel starts to lose out to nested menus, complexity and options.

In my opinion, you have to solve two main issues:

  1. How do you combine keeping it simple for users with simple needs with offering a complete solution to power users.
  2. How do you display and browse your data, especially when the amount of features becomes huge.

Before going further, I encourage you to watch our first video about the BeeBole interface and features illustrating a few of the points discussed here.

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True Aggregation, The Browser as a Platform

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It is my great pleasure to announce that this post has been published at the same time on the blog Diversity.

Ben Kepes, founding director of Diversity, has been very inspiring to us even before becoming a reader of our blog and I thank him for his trust.

Enjoy the reading !

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Every morning when I stop reading the last big news from about 30 blogs in Netvibes and switch to my countless SaaS Business Apps such as Gmail, Basecamp, Highrise, Remember The Milk, Google Docs, … I wonder why aggregation of information like news was present so fast in my day to day life and why Business Apps, when it comes to integration, are still in the stone age.

If I had to define the perfect Business Application, it would certainly be user-centric:

  1. I would have a single interface where I could find all my information and processes;
  2. The interface would be flexible. It would allow me to rearrange it the way I want: fitting my working habits and my organization of information;
  3. And finally, it would only include the features I need and for which I would eventually pay.

Even with such powers in my hands, I would still expect quite a lot from the software provider: security, maintenance, performance, scalability and innovation.

There are obvious barriers to reach that point.

First, I doubt we will ever have some kind of a single universal DB with information about persons, friends, contacts, habits, projects, … They will probably continue to multiply and spread as new web solutions will appear.

Secondly, I doubt a single provider will ever meet all my needs. Moreover, I believe innovation comes from diversity.

So, looking at how SaaS providers are responding to this demand, what can we find?

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