As can be expected with any major product update, we have gotten a handful of complaints and criticisms about version 2.0 of our EcoView Web Commercial product, released in May of this year. This is our web-based application that allows customers to manage and configure commercial sites (restaurants, convenience stores, small offices, etc.) that have been outfitted with our EcoView Commercial energy management system. I've heard adjectives like clunky, confusing and, possibly worst of all, ".. an engineer's dream.." - ouch. In my own defense I have to say that the handful of customers that I was listening to when designing this version absolutely love the thing now that it is available. I will be the first to admit, however, that this probably isn't simply a case of not being able to please everyone. I do see where some users find the interface intimating and less than intuitive. The thing is, a lot of work and innovation went into making it look and feel exactly as it does - allow me to explain.
EcoView Web Commercial version 1.0 was the first release of our multi-site, energy management web application. It was pretty simple and lacked a lot of features that customers were expecting. Now in hindsight I have to admit that I never actually heard any serious complaints about the basic usability. Even so, it was clearly a version 1.0 effort and as such served admirably for the first full 2 years of the EcoView Commercial product evolution. The negative comment I did hear from a few of our key customers, however, related to EcoView Web being too "website-ish" and not enough like the more traditional energy management applications that they were used to. These "traditional" EMS applications, I will point out, are Windows desktop applications that you use from a single PC installed on the site somewhere. Since our primary user interface is web based, getting that desktop look and feel was a pretty big challenge. I think we got most of the way there with version 2.0 (see below screenshot).
This decidedly Windows desktop look was modeled after some of the more popular EMS applications that I have worked with over the years. You have a tree view on the left to select sites from, a dashboard in the middle to interact with selected sites and a property grid on the right to make adjustments to devices (thermostats, lighting, etc.). There are lots of other screens and features, including a very nifty graphing interface, but overall the general theme follows the same basic look and feel. Functional yes, sexy no. And, apparently, style counts for something after all - just ask Apple.
So I am sure you weren't expecting me to just cop to not quite meeting the mark with this product release and leave it at that. Indeed I have no intention of it. I am using this blog entry, rather, to announce that we have already began work on EcoView Web 3.0 and will be taking a decidedly different tact on this development exercise than was taken on our journey to version 2.0. For starters, we are going to be selecting several key customers to preview primary user-interface concepts prior to setting them in stone. This will take the form of a technology preview web site that selected users can poke at and give us feedback about what they think works and what doesn't. The obvious intent is to help us incorporate user feedback during the actual design and development phase rather than after the official release. What a concept eh?
Not to spoil the surprise for those users that will get a sneak-peak in the near future, but one of the key design concepts that we are exploring for the main user interface is a map-based site selector. For me this just makes perfect sense - rather than pick your sites from a list of some sort when you want to make adjustments or view current status, you select them from a map (think Google Maps) with pushpins representing your sites. This alleviates many of the problems associated with grouping sites when you have them spread across the country and also allows the pushpins to provide summary information to allow for quick review and assessment. It also just looks really, really cool. Sorry, no screenshots just yet but I really think that pretty much everyone will find this approach very intuitive and functional.
If you are a current customer that would like to participate in the EcoView Web Commercial 3.0 technology preview, please let your salesperson know about it and I will contact you to make the necessary arrangements. I'd like to get a few lovers and a few haters of version 2.0 to make sure that all points of view are represented in this.
One thing that I have learned over the years is that product development is subject to the same basic laws of natural selection that biology is. There is never a finished form, only ongoing evolution and adaption to changing needs. And so we take another shot at perhaps not pleasing everyone, but definitely achieving broader appeal for our customers and users of EcoView Web Commercial.
Posts
