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August 11, 2008 in News by Nick SivridisJello Poll results
First of all, I would like to thank everyone who took the Jello survey/poll giving me precious information which I need to use for making the next Jello Dashboard version much better.
The poll was up for almost a month and collected responses from 68 users. The number of responses was relatively small, but it was enough for outlining your opinion:
Speed
Most of the users (38.8%) think that Jello is not so fast but no so slow either and graded it with 3 of a scale from 1 (slow) to 5 (fast). The next group of users (29.8%) graded it with 4 into the same scale. So we have most users having good results on speed.
Workflow integration
Most of the users (56.7%) think that Jello Dashboard integrates good with their workflow and graded it with 4 of a scale from 1 (poor integration) to 5 (full integration). The next group of users (28.3%) graded it with 3.
Bugs
Most of the users (48,5%) don’t face up with bugs very often and graded it with 2 of a scale from 1 (never) to 5 (really often). The next group of users (22.7%) graded it with 1 (facing no bugs). That’s really good news, if you consider the number of bugs reported in previous versions.
Other data
Most of the users (49.2%) think that some GUI elements need to be re-designed and (84.6%) think that Jello Dashboard is an essential tool for Outlook and do not wish to have a similar standalone application.
As for the documentation, most of the users think that it’s incomplete (59.6%) and many wish that there should be more tutorials or screencasts about using Jello Dashboard.
Now, as for Outlook versions half of the users are using Outlook 2007 and the other half Outlook XP/2003. There were only 2 votes for older systems.
The Next Version (5)
From those results and all the bug reports, questions and suggestions I receive from users, I’ve decided to take the next version a little slower than usual and make some big changes.
The application got really complicated, trying to satisfy almost every request and Jello ended up having features that maybe nobody uses anymore (or used by a single user) decreasing speed and cluttering the whole GUI.
This is why I got lots and lots of questions about Jello Dashboard’s use. Novice GTD users are finding themselves overwhelmed by the tons of settings and are looking for a way to use it.
This is not a good thing.
So, besides speed increase and a new GUI design, I’ve decided to inject a real GTD workflow into Jello so, its use will be standardized.
Users will have to Collect, organize, review and do in a specific way, following the documented steps from GTD but there will also be the familiar way of on-the-fly reviewing and navigating. Add a new extJS GUI to this and you got some tips for the next version!
But don’t hold your breath waiting! A significant amount of code will have to be changed or added, and lots of things to be tested before a first developer release. Screenshots and info will be posted (I promise) as soon as a small portion of the application will be ready.
Until then I would love to hear your suggestions (some realistic ones would be great) and please do not request new features for the current version.
5 Comments to “Jello Poll results”
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August 12, 2008 at 1:28 am
Thanks for soliciting user feedback. There are so many companies as well as individual developers that never listen to users, and while there’s no problem with that (it’s their software, they can do what they want!), I really appreciate the approach you have taken. I use Jello for my own GTD work and have recommended it to a few people, including on the GTD forum. It’s a great outlook add in, keep up the good work =)
August 13, 2008 at 5:24 am
It is great to learn that the GTD workflow would be included later! Nice job… I just wonder if it would be possible to include Note items as a kind of reference/review since I like keeping some short notes as Outlook note items.
August 18, 2008 at 6:05 am
Kudos on the use of the GTD workflow apps. I use Jello for my corporate work and another system for home usage which incorporates some of the workflow and the whole collect, organize, etc. is a good thing!
August 18, 2008 at 5:50 pm
@Sid Savara
Thanks for your kind words!
I always try to have as much feedback as I can from the users. I think that user feedback is fundamental for open and free software development!
@Andrew Gross
Yeah, it’s a really good thing. I hope I will implement it right. (as always…suggestions are welcome)
September 8, 2008 at 10:59 am
2nd-ing the integration of Outlook Notes into Jello, I make tons of these on my PDA, would be -very- nice to be able to sort them out.
Thanks a million,
Daniel