Evernote Produces a How-To Video That Has No Correlation to Its Topic. It Is a How-Not-To Video. This Is Typical of Web-Based Firms.
Dc. 28, 2010
Tech companies focus on code, not instructional materials. If the coding is "neat," that's good enough. They simply refuse to beta-test. "Beta-testing is for sissies."
We users know this, and have known it for 15 years, but this never changes. The right hand (marketing) does not know what the left hand (programming) doeth.
Example: Evernote's video on how to install clipper. Clipper makes saving Web pages simple. It is a great feature. But nobody bothered to tell the marketing division that Evernote's Web page has been re-designed. It no longer correlates to the video.
The narrator speaks of the log-in page. There is no log-in page -- not anymore. It's now called the sign-in page. Search Google for login and Evernote. You get the corporate link. Click it. You are taken to the sign-in page:
The sign-in page looks noting like the log-in page in the video.
They key to clipper is to install the Evernote Clipper logo to the Favorites tool bar. Problem: there is no Clip-to-Evernote button on the new sign-in page. So, the video is useless.
It is worse than useless. It is negative. It screams, "We don't know what is going on around here. Nobody is in charge."
The company seems not to have have a full-time, low-level staffer whose job is to constantly check the instructional materials in order to verify that what the how-to steps say actually correspond with what is on the site.
Di the folks in programming contact the folks in marketing and warn them of changes? "We just re-designed a page. Make sure your introductory videos and manuals are replaced." Response: "It's not our responsibility. We are paid to program, not issue warnings."
Does management require anything like this? Of course not. Managers are too busy lining up new revenue sources. So, there is no one with the responsibility to make sure that there is a pathway from new user to experienced user. "New users are on their own!"
"If we update a page, someone must update the instructions." This is obvious . . . to new users. But what is obvious to any new user is not obvious to senior management, programmers, or marketing.
Is there a PDF manual to download? None that I can find.
Are there lots of "watch this!" sales videos on YouTube that let people see Evernote's comprehensive versatility, application by application? There are a few, but not many. The marketing department is ignoring this obvious opportunity. This is almost universal in the tech field. (A rare exception is a rival product, NoteScribe.)
Does the firm encourage users to produce "watch this!" screencast videos promoting the product? No.
Are there online how-to videos for a multitude of procedures? No.
Managers don't code. Programmers don't deal with users. Users are left in the cold, caught between managers who don't manage and programmers who don't give a rip about users, since they are not paid to give a rip about users.
To give you some indication of the utter incompetence of the programmers, and the utter blindness of management, consider this. Evernote has a page for downloading version 4.1. The link is here.
When you click the link to download the updated program, you are taken through a series of steps. The final step is to remove version 4.1. That's right: your only choice is to remove it. Here are the command options.
Incompetence? Of course. Lack of attention to details? Naturally. A complete lack of beta-testing? You've got it. Evernote in October raised $20 million in venture capital from the same firm that bankrolled YouTube, before it was bought by Google: Sequoia. It make me wonder if venture capital firms bother to beta test their potential acquisitions before putting up the money. "Harry, get that new kid we hired to go through Evernote's Web pages. See if everything works." It's too much trouble. Why bother? They bankroll high-tech firms. They know lots of Web pages won't work. That is a given. Sequoia apparently does not have a kid on staff to check its own Web pages, let alone Evernote's pages. On the page soliciting business, we read this: But when you go to the Contact page, there is no email listed. And so it goes. The orphans in high-tech, Web-based firms are the beta-testers: the people who make things intuitive for users. It costs managers a lot of money to overlook rather than oversee, but they just don't care enough to set up well-designed introduction-to programs fort new users and then police the system. This drives new users crazy, but nothing ever changes. This is the industry standard. The head of Evernote was interviewed recently. At the end of his interview, he said that he wants to change the world. He does not understand this: in order for a firm to to change the world, it has to hire a few beta testers, and then do what they recommend. This lack of concern by software companies' senior managers makes possible opportunities for independent producers of instructional videos and materials. They can sell their services to new users who need the hands-on guidance that high-tech firms refuse to provide to their clientele.
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