Archive for the ‘Design’ Category

More to Site Remark

By Jake on May 20th, 2009

We’ve just released some new updates and features for SiteRemark. We have considered many interface enhancements and are working to continue to improve the overall user experience. We have made various minor tweaks along with the following major additions.

FAQs
We’ve added a section for companies to add ‘Frequently Asked Questions’. This identifies your company as being proactive in customer service and prevents the duplication of questions in the forum. In the future, we will be adding a widget to allow companies to embed these in their websites.

Tab Control
We wanted to give you more control over what content is available to users. Maybe you only have one employee, or maybe you’re a non-profit organization that doesn’t have any products or services that need review. You now have access to show and hide the various tabs. This makes SiteRemark a flexible communication tool for all types of companies and organizations.

Committed to making the product better
We are becoming more and more convinced that Site Remark will help companies be more transparent and honest with customers, as well as help in building relationships and community around a company or product. We are committed to the continued improvement of this service. Please join the conversation and let us know how we can make it serve your needs better. Will we always do it? probably not, but it will help us continue to consider new ideas and ways in which we can improve Site Remark for companies and their customers.

For more information on recent updates, see this previous post. If you are interested in being in the beta test group, email john at facollective.com.

Provide feedback, suggest ideas, or join the conversaton HERE

Site Remark Becoming More Remarkable

By Jake on May 7th, 2009

Over the past month, we’ve been feverishly working on many updates to Site Remark. Some features we’ve improved upon and some we completely overhauled. Since our first iteration, we have actually been using Site Remark to communicate back and forth as we’re working remotely. It emphasizes even more in our minds the huge benefit of using Site Remark for product development. Here is an overview of the things we’re excited to reveal today:

Marketing Site Renovation

After living with the original marketing site for a month or two, I really wanted it to say more by saying less. I wanted to improve readability and create a better flow for the visitor. I focused on copy-writing while simplifying imagery and color scheme. I wanted someone to be able to read it in 3 seconds and get it. I also wanted them to be able to spend some time on the home page (if they so desired) and get more out of it. I wanted to highlight features and show the interface in a big and beautiful way. The support copy consists of statistics about customer retention, which is really important and ultimately why someone would use Site Remark. I also wanted to highlight the fact that it is so easy to integrate and use that you can basically be up and runnin’ in 3-5 minutes.

Interface Updates

As I was working on the interface for one of our future products I realized the the original Site Remark layout was a little clunky. Yeah, it was clean and organized, but there was a bit too much space wasted in a number of places. The new interface features much of the same cleanliness and readability, while utlizing a slimmed down approach to some elements. Much of the overall style of the interface has been updated, but here are some specific pieces:

The Feedback Form & Tool Bar
This piece originally was good because it drew your attention and caused users to know where they could leave feedback, but, it was a tad on the enormous side. The new version features the Toolbar at the top of the page (still plainly visible) that only reveals the form when a button is clicked. The new version is more sleek, more usable, and not as distracting. We have also updated the javascript modal (pop-up) window that integrates into company sites to feature the new form styling and functionality. Overall, it provides for a better user experience on the client site and within the actual Site Remark community site.

The Header
The original header was fine and simple, but seemed to be lacking something. It was also a bit tricky when you were customizing it. We have updated that to feature full color customization including background color, logo, tag line and text color. Also, within the header there is the user login information, which prior to this update was floating below the header. We’ve used transparent .pngs in the background which adds a little more visual depth as you customize the colors.

Feature & Functionality Updates

Along with many interface updates have been feature/functionality updates. Here are a few of the highlights:

Most Popular
Featured in the sidebar on the main pages is the 5 most popular questions on any given day based on the activity in the community. This helps companies know what their customers are really wanting/needing and helps them respond easier and more quickly.

We know you can count
We thought it would be nice to see how many topics, people, and products present in each Site Remark community. So next to each item in the top navigation bar, you can see the number of topics, people or products and easily know if new items have been added since you’ve last visited.

Commenting
Users can new preview comments before leaving them, they can also edit or delete their comments at any time.

Global Search
You can now search for other companies that are on SiteRemark. This improves the experience for customers because they can interact with various companies worldwide using a single login. This will soon be expanded to include products and services as well. We do want to continue to avoid confusion so we’ve put this search field in the footer of the site. We also wanted to give others an opportunity to start their own customer support communities and be remarkable.

Along with these updates come many minor tweaks and improvements. We are very happy to see it where it is now, and have much planned for the future. Stay tuned for updates.

If you have any suggestions for improvement, don’t hesitate to submit your feedback HERE.