Julian101.comThoughts, Lessons, Business Tips from ProWorkflow.com’s Serial Entrepreneur - Project Management Software

As a designer and ex industry creative, I was really interested to see this post over on Ben Kepes’s blog. Here’s the post…
http://diversity.net.nz/how-important-is-design-for-saas-offerings/2008/05/23/

Here’s my comment on the issue…

Design is everything! and its nothing! If you have function without form, people are slow to adopt and will tell people your design sucks.

If you have form without function, people tell people the tool is awesome (even if it doesn’t meet their needs). So you’ll get higher signup rate with higher churn.

But then forget all that because all industries treat design differently anyway.  ;-)

Good design can help viral spread in (for example) vertical creative and IT sectors as people like to ‘be seen to use the cool tools’, however interestingly enough… in the general SME market that XERO and IPayroll are approaching, design means diddly squat - it’s functionality and usability that matters (design is just the icing on the cake).

Note: I do like the XERO design (slick) and dislike the IPayroll design (too 1998) personally.

Yes you need a tidy design, but the SMB market will be captured by meeting their needs at an affordable price without pee’ing them off through usability issues. It could be a wet fish with a screen for the SMB market - but if it ‘does the job’ it’ll sell.

Simple as that!

I’ll put it differently…

If approaching vertical markets like creative or IT, it’s the ’slickest solution’ that gets the rave reviews. people are fickle in verticals and chase the ‘new hot thing’ so if you don’t ‘meet their needs’ you won’t be in the game for long. We’ve been working hard at ProWorkflow (Project Management Software) for some time to strike the balance between nice design and solid function.

But in the general, wide SMB market, it’s the solution that ‘does the job’ that’ll sell. These people can’t be fooled. If it doesn’t work, they’ll drop it. Forget pretty buttons, 72pt type, mirrors and glows. the SMB market just want you to ‘fix the problem’ whereas many vertical niches want to ‘look cool first, then fix the problem second’

Disclaimer. I’ve been selling to thousands of SMB’s and verticals for 5-6 years and the secret to closing a sales is whether you use design, usability, functionality or pain as the ’sales closer’.

Knowing which approach to use and when comes with broad experience and experimentation.

Maybe someone should start a business doing ‘Design As A Service’ specifically for SaaS business wanting to use Web2 approaches on new platforms?

We’ll call it DAAS for SAAS on PAAS!

Oh! and FYI… this is an example of exactly what not to do design wise…
Check out: http://www.zogix.com/

God Awful! When Web2.0 design goes bad! Cutesy bubbles, shadows, pink and HUGE type (cos we’re all blind). This is an example of design not being applicable to their market. And there’s no relationship between their site design and the product design.

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About the author:
Julian Stone, CEO – Project Management Software visionary for: ProActiveSoftware.com, ProWorkflow.com & Julian101.com
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For all those who haven’t yet got their heads around the concept of Web2.0 or the social media online culture springing up, here’s a chart to break it all down. This should put the Web2.0 buzzwords in perspective for all!

Technorati Tags: Web2.0,Web 2.0,Chart,Social Networking,Internet Culture,Communities,Social Markers,Tagging,Ranking,Weblog,Search Engines,Rss,Aggregator,Video Sharing,Podcasting,Video Blogs,Vlogs,Wikis,Online Applications,SaaS,Citizen Journalism,User Generated Content,Creative Commons,Social Computing,Directories,Folksonomy,Longtail

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Republishing Note:
Anyone is welcome to republish this article as free online content, provided that the paragraph below is included in the full form as shown.
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About the editor:
Julian Stone, CEO – Project, Management Software specialist for: ProActiveSoftware.com, ProWorkflow.com & Julian101.com

Well - it’s nearly the end of Movember - http://www.movember.com/.
I’ve had a crack this year to see if I can create a worthy moustache.  Here’s my effort at restyling my face:

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Movember (the month formally known as November) is a moustache growing charity event held during November each year. At the start of Movember guys register with a clean shaven face. The Movember participants known as Mo Bros then have the remainder of the month to grow and groom their moustache and along the way raise as much money and awareness about male health issues, in particular prostate cancer as possible. Movember culminates at the end of the month at the gala partés. These glamorous and groomed events will see Tom Selleck and Borat look-a-likes battle it out for their chance to take home the prestigious Man of Movember title.

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- I quite like the facial fuzz - grows on ya (literally)!

Julian Stone, CEO - www.proworkflow.com

One of the most commonly used terms on the world wide web (WWW) today is the phrase “Web 2.0″ and in a recent article by ProActive Software Ltd, the flagship company for project management software ProWorkflow, has brought a lot of attention to the term and the misrepresentation it construes. The article outlined the history of the internet’s growth and the evolution which has brought so many to market their online products using ‘Web 2.0′ as a key point.

Using Wikipedia, the online encyclopaedia, as a reference the article highlighted the term ‘Web 2.0′ as merely a shift in usability for users of the internet’s functions.

“Although the term suggests a new version of the World Wide Web (WWW), it does not refer to an update to Web technical specifications, but to changes in the ways software developers and end-users use and interact with the web as a platform.”

According to Tim O’Reilly, “Web 2.0 is the business revolution in the computer industry caused by the move to the internet as platform, and an attempt to understand the rules for success on that new platform.”

Some technology experts, notably Tim Berners-Lee, have questioned whether one can use the term in a meaningful way, since many of the Technology components of “Web 2.0″ have existed since the early days of the Web.”-

Wikipedia
While the WWW has advanced significantly since inception and it seems every year the advancements outstrip the sum total of all the previous years put together, the point noted was there really is no new version of the WWW.

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Whilst doing some Web 2.0 marketing research, I came across the following slideshow. I wanted to share it as I agree with virtually all of the points raised and they back up another article we’ll be releasing this week… This was presented at the InnoTech eMarketing Summit at the Austin Convention Center.

Over the coming weeks I’ll be sharing some tips and advice (and resources) about the changing face of marketing and how to wisely spend your company’s time (not money). Check out the slideshow.

| View | Upload your own

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About the author:
Julian Stone, CEO – Project, Task & Time Management specialist for: ProActiveSoftware.com, ProWorkflow.com & Julian101.com

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I couldn’t resist sharing this link:

Web2.0 Company Simulator Game
http://www.onemorelevel.com/games.php?game=566

This is a cool online game where you try to simulate the growth of a successful Web2.0 company to the point you hopefully get bought out by Google… Brilliant! It’s always worrying and fun (and educational) to watch how quickly you can burn through IPO/Venture money.

I reckon these guys should build another game called “SimWeb2.0 Company - Bootstrap Edition.” to simulate starting a profitable software company from no money and no investment. That takes a completely different skill set. One I can respect.

Both are good ways, but in either case you need to fully understand the game you’re in - or you’ll be burnt. ;-) What’s interesting though is that you can have money, or not have money and arrive at the save destination in business. Plenty of people have done it both ways…

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With people generating many new phrases and terms in modern technology, it has become hard to keep up with what they all mean. One of the most commonly used terms on the world wide web (www) today is the phrase “Web2.0″.

It seems like every web solutions company trying to make a living is selling their stuff off the phrase. So to the average Joe who is not a geek, what is “Web2.0″?

Well according to Wikipedia, the free on-line encyclopedia…

The phrase Web2.0 refers to a perceived second generation of web-based communities and hosted services - such as social-networking sites, wikis and folksonomies - which aim to facilitate collaboration and sharing between users. The term became popular following the first O’Reilly Media Web 2.0 conference in 2004, and has since become widely adopted as shorthand for user generated content shared with other users.

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Ian Andrusyk from Fastservers.net wrote an interesting article about some of the buzzwords surrounding the Internet industry nowadays. These are words like Software As A Service, SaaS, Web 2.0, VOIP. He calls it “An era of buzzwords” which is true. However the interesting point he makes is that whilst these buzzwords are the ‘hot thing’ nowadays, the technology and business practices underlying them have been around for many years. I agree with his thoughts.

Here’s the article:
http://www.fastservers.net/blog/from-the-ceo/saas_web_20_oh_and_supercalafr/

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Here’s a list of all the Web2.0 solutions we could find. However to see even more visit http://www.go2web20.net/

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About the author:
Julian Stone, CEO - Project, Task & Time Management specialist for: ProActiveSoftware.com, ProWorkflow.com & Julian101.com