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Dan McCall

It's all about the editor!

Posted by Dan McCall on Feb 29, 2008 5:00:48 PM

Let me start off by saying that I think Clearspace is truly unique in the Enterprise Software market.  The tightly integrated components and the Recommendation/Recognition engines are outstanding.  The User Interface is beautiful and the search works great!

 

That being said, here is my story:

 

So, as I'm sure most you of you have done as well, I tried to explain the benefits of Clearspace to my wife the other day during one of those "How was work?" conversations...

 

I told her:

 

  • You can easily publish content without knowing HTML

  • You can find content and people with ease

  • You can subscribe to spaces and people that interest you

  • You can collaborate easier on content with an easy to use editor...

 

And she said "Show me how easy it is to edit" and I leapt at the chance to enlighten her so I  grabbed my laptop, opened up Clearspace and hit the edit button. (Note: this is not a critique of the known issues with the editor, but of the of the editor's capabilities)

 

Well, needless to say, she was not impressed because "easy" to her means "exactly like what she is used to".  "Easy" to her means "Microsoft Word".

 

Microsoft Word Editor

 

Now, it is important to note that my wife is very adept at technology and is by no means a laggard.  She just expects her editing features to be similar.  The Clearspace editor was not similar enough especially when it came to tables.

 

Clearspace Editor

 

Clearspace Editor (In Safari browser)

 

So I showed her the new Google Docs editor and the Zoho Editor and she felt much more at home.

 

Google Editor - http://docs.google.com

 

Zoho Editor - http://writer.zoho.com/

 

I even showed here the Buzzword editor, but she said it was too diffult although pretty.

 

Buzzword Editor - http://www.buzzword.com/

 

Now, I've come to grips with the fact that I am not your "average user" and now highly value the input of non-technical users.  They often bring stinging clarity to usability issues.  So when I asked her if she would use Clearspace if it was offered to her in a business setting she said she "wouldn't use Clearspace if it was offered to her because of the editor".  The barrier to entry for her was too great.  So I asked her if she felt the same way about the Google Docs and Zoho editors and she replied that those looked "fine" and that she would consider using them.

 

The moral of the story for me was that that Clearspace has a ton of great features and the benefits far outweigh the cons, but the editor needs to be totally revamped.  Take a cue from Google and make a toolbar that looks much more like MS Word. I know that you guys have eliminated a lot of the bugs in the editor in version 2, but I don't think that is gonna cut it for the non-technical users of the world.

 

I've been impressed so far with Jive's ability to accept constructive feedback and turn it into quick action and I'm hoping they can continue that trend here.

1,317 Views Tags: clearspace, editor, richtext, html, google, wml, docs, buzzword, adobe


Comments (9)
Feb 29, 2008 6:52 PM markf markf    says:

A very good “practical assessment” of a long standing problem with Clearspace’s featureless editor.

 

Unfortunately, for a number of organizations this issue can be a “show stopper”

 

It would be difficult to find any business user that does not have some familiarity with MS Word. Introducing a new way (with limited functionality) for a practice that is mostly standard in business has never been the way to go. I can understand in the early days of any development that open source editors such as the FCK Editor are used to provide much needed functionality but this only works for a limited time. I recall that there was discussion in mid 2007 of using ThinkFree but nothing more seemed to come of that.

 

From a more commercial perspective most large organizations use Enterprise Content Management software as means to manage records and documentation for many reasons including a heightened response to a more litigious world. These organizations are the front runners for using collaboration tools. Having an editor that replaces Word to a large degree will provide comfort and also help with licensing issues when Clearspace is integrated with line of business applications.

 

I am sure that Jive will continue to develop Clearspace in sync with its community and issues of this type will be seen as significant but hopefully resolvable in the short term.
Feb 29, 2008 9:47 PM Matt Tucker Matt Tucker    says:

This is some good feedback -- editor issues rise to the top as one of the biggest problems in Clearspace. We've made some great changes in 2.0 around fixing consistency with rendering. But we still have a ton of work to do. The future work will take two forms:

 

  1. Continue to improve the editor so that people have a great in-browser experience

  2. Provide deeper integration with MS Office so that users can use the set of applications they're already familiar with

 
Mar 1, 2008 2:56 PM Christopher Morace Christopher Morace    says:

Dan, what a terrific post!  Thanks so much for articulating the issues around the UI of our Rich Text Editor so clearly and with such great examples to illustrate the point.  The goal of our software has always been grounded in the fact that we want it to provide tremendous business value, but not at the expense of being easy for everyone to use.  We don't want people to have to work around our interface.  I've even heard some of our developers say that want our software to be fun to use--so I think your post is one that is going to get a lot of attention within Jive and will ultimately find its way into our product.

 

In addition to the points Matt raised above, there is clearly an opportunity for us to provide some familiar interface in our editor that will make new users' jump into collaboration software easy and fun.  Thanks again for taking time to post.
Mar 2, 2008 4:23 PM Greg Unrein Greg Unrein    says:

I just wanted to "third" Matt and Chris's huge thanks. Great post about a very important part of Clearspace!
Mar 3, 2008 4:26 PM Dan McCall Dan McCall    says in response to Greg Unrein:

Thanks for the comments!  Researching this topic a little further I came across this post on ReadWriteWeb.  It is a critique of Google Doc's Editor and has some great analysis of where online editors need to be before they are 9 times better than MS Office. (The 9 times rule simply states that a new solution needs to be 9 times better than the old one before users will flock to it)

 

 

"Open a Google doc. Paste an image. Oh, that's right, you can't Ctrl-C copy, Ctrl-V PASTE an image into a document. Ok, so INSERT an image. Now proportionally resize the image so it retains its aspect ratio. Oh, that's right, you can't. Now crop the image. Oh that's right, you can't.

 

Now insert a table. Now grab the edge of a column and resize the column. Oh wait, you can't. Now delete one of the columns. Oh wait, you can't.

 

Now type some text and select it. Choose one of the fonts on your computer instead of the six fonts Google licensed from Microsoft. Oh wait, you can't. Create a new paragraph style. Oh wait, you can't. Change the font color and background on some text. Now copy that formatting to another paragraph. Oh wait, you can't.

 

Now do a find and replace on some text. Hmmm, why is that feature marked as "experimental?" Oh, because you don't get to choose which instances get replaced, it just replaces all of them. And there's no way to undo afterwards.

 

People just love to use software where some incredibly basic feature like "search & replace" is marked with "WARNING! EXPERIMENTAL! Use eye protection! This could blow up in your face!"

 

 

P.S. Notice how Wiki Markup isn't listed here!

 
Mar 3, 2008 11:38 PM Magpie Magpie    says in response to Dan McCall:

This is excellent background work that goes beyond Clearspace and tackles the whole move from desktop application to online authoring. Clearspace is on the front line like other online editors in this revolution.<br />

<br />

Like most things, taking away functionality, however compelling other aspects may be, is a tough call for most sensible people. Early adopters will put up with a lot, but the majority will wait. The x9 rule is so right, it's the 'not worth the effort to move' factor.<br />

<br />

Personally, I'd encourage Jive to look at online XML editors like <a class="jive-link-external" href="http://xopus.com/">http://xopus.com/</a> since I'd love to have content in a far more structured format for re-use. Having said this, it wouldn't necessarily pass the 'word' tests since Word allows the freedom - too much freedom. So here's the real challenge - how do you move the majority onto something architecturally better to support collaboration and re-use when they are so use to unstructured and    uncoordinated ease of use features.<br />

<br />

So if Clearspace is part of the vanguard and it is reliant on tackling this challenge, I believe it should seek higher objectives to ensure it has enough x9.<br />

<br />

When we crack this we'll be able to move on a change the world diatary habits  - too much sugar, salt, and fat, because it tastes better and we make it so cheap and easy to get it.
Mar 5, 2008 8:56 PM Dan McCall Dan McCall    says in response to Magpie:

Hi Magpie,

 

i just took a look at http://xopus.com/ and unfortunately it doesn't work with Safari on Mac. which is a requirement for our company.

 

Here is a huge list of WYSIWYG editors: http://www.geniisoft.com/showcase.nsf/webeditors to look at as well.
Mar 16, 2008 11:00 PM SharonG SharonG    says:

dmccall, this was a great analysis of interface usability.

 

In Psychology what you have described is a type of precognitive habituation called the Mere Exposure effect (also known as the Exposure effect.) This is related to pattern recognition, observer-expectancy, and memory bias. Mere Exposure was first coined in an article by a social psychologist Robert Zajonc in a 1968 copy of the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.

 

Basically it states that that more exposed to a specific stimulus one is, the more one tends to 'like' that stimulus. That is: the more familiar, the more liked (even if subconsciously.) Advertisers have used this for years.

 

But in relation to user interfaces in software - you're right, the interface on the app probably makes it a bit hard for newbs to gain a sense of 'ok' and 'calm' when using it, if they a. don't have a previous sense of familiarity with it or b. are not software exploratory types.

 

This is so hard in many ways, because oftentimes to gain this familiarity one must 'mimic' other software interfaces which are already ingrained in the public mind; however said mimicked interfaces are definitely not necessarily ever the best when it comes to usability standards, cognitive psychological design interface best practices, etc. They just were the first that gained momentum and became a part of the public consciousness.

 

I'm not sure what one should do when designing a product; perhaps abide a little bit by the public sense of standard, and then hope your product becomes big enough which a large enough user base to change it to a new, better usable interface and bring the whole rest of the industry along with you. Or work with other companies/products to do a whole industry interface change rollout at the same time...

 

Certainly intriguing to think about! Thanks for bringing it up.
Jul 9, 2008 7:28 AM drgoochmobile drgoochmobile    says:

Here here.  I couldn't agree more!

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