Hi @Smokris ;)
Thanks for the answer, and no worry for the email, I know you guys are very busy, and yeah great we can discuss it publicly here :) I’m really glad you read my email and understand I really want to add my 2 pennies to help you grow Vuo and spread it wide, because I love it.
Concerning your points :
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1 - CONCERNING THE VUO FUNDING AND THE WAY PEOPLE COME AND PAY FOR VUO
a - I’m sad to hear you’ve not reached the financial background needed yet. I think this will come over time. I do think your pricings are correct, I just think more people need to know Vuo. I think the 3 steps people can take to discover Vuo are great too, (trial, basic and pro). I’m already thinking to switch to Vuo Pro, just didn’t do it yet cause I’m a student. I think as Vuo grows, you’ll be able to keep some more nodes pro to increase the amount of people passing pro.
b - I also think nowadays, people really look how things LOOK. That’s why I also like the fact that the new Feature Request page has some more flat elements. I think the Vuo Site’s design could get some moderner design improvements (I don’t want to blame the one behind the design of this site, I just wanted to compare it to some other websites).
The Vuo website’s width and it’s container is really visible & many buttons and bars have skeumorphic, surface details and 3D effects. This is really the opposite of what the actual design thing is about. I therefore don’t know how much this first impression could make some people take no interest in Vuo.
Let’s look at some of the most known or newest softwares & their websites (visual programming, prototyping, visual effects softwares …):
- Max : https://cycling74.com
- NoFlow : http://noflojs.org
- Noodle : http://www.getnoodl.com
- Proto : https://proto.io/en/tour/
- Origami : https://facebook.github.io/origami/
- X-Particles : http://3.x-particles.com
- Sketch : http://www.bohemiancoding.com/sketch/features/
- Pixate : http://www.pixate.com
- Adobe AE : http://www.adobe.com/fr/products/aftereffects.html
These all look flat and modern.
I just made a quick mockup of what the actual Vuo site could look like if it was just flatten down (see the Site Mockup below).
Even if the main container has a fixed width (900 px for example) for text and buttons, the subcontainers their background colors can fill the whole browser width, giving the visitor the impression of a wider moderner not shrinked website.
But hey, I think you guys should make your website look like you want because Vuo is your product. And now that I know Vuo, I care more about Vuo’s improvements than about how the site will look like, but I remember back then on my first visit, I was like Hum ? Strange site. But anyway, I might be completely wrong, just wanted to share my opinion for a moderner first glance that could help more people reach it.
c - In the same blood as point B, I like the idea to keep some nodes pro, it’s a must have for the Vuo Team, but I’m not sure about the fact to keep the dark mode pro. Because it looks much better then the normal version, and again, beauty counts when it comes to reach people ?!? …
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2 - CONCERNING THE MONEY PLEDGED CREDITS :
When I see how much money people put it such things as KICKSTARTER campaigns, I do believe people ARE ready to put money when it comes to make their WISHES come true. That’s why I think good and smart implemented money based credits work !
a - You say very few people pledged credits, but the community is still quite small. And that was back then … But as the community grows …
b - You also mention people gave negative feedback about the fact that they had the feeling they where double charged.
And that’s why I think the best thing would neither be pledged OR free, but BOTH free and pledged. And this would need to be splitted.
People will understand, that every time they upgrade, they get an amount of free credits to vote for and that BESIDE there is a POSSIBILITY to pledge credit to speedup some more SPECIFIC or personal wishes.
And if the amount of implemented feature requests are well distributed between free and pledged, I don’t understand why people should feel abused.
Perhaps the different votes could be smoother on the website then on my first mockup back on the start of this topic (See a new attached Votes Mockup below).
Both the votes would appear on the same feature request line.
And we could browse them with a « Sort nodes by » drop down menu.
Perhaps you’re right. Perhaps I’m right. Perhaps people are ready to pledge, perhaps not. But I think if it’s well implemented, if it’s clear it’s a possibility and not an order, if it’s obvious where we can buy credits on the site, if it’s clear both the pledged and free votes count the same way with a determined amount of each of them to be implemented in each releases, I think people will understand it’s a great OPPORTUNITY to push some requests higher, and I think in the future as the community grows, more people will be ready to pledge.
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3 - CONCERNING THE FLOATING VOTES & POLLS :
Yes ! I think this amount votes not being used could have several reasons.
a - Some people tried or bought Vuo, but are not using it much, it’s on the shelf, waiting for them to use it again. Therefore, they don’t come to the site again to vote ?
b - I don’t remember if the fact that we receive free votes credits is explained on Vuo’s Welcome window on first launch, or if it’s included on the Vuo billing receipt, but perhaps some people don’t even know it ?
c - And for me the BIGGEST REASON, as I said earlier, is the fact we have the feeling votes DON’T count, that in the end, the VUO TEAM CHOOSES its new features based on some mysterious criteria, that ONLY ONE top voted feature implementation is not enough because this means the features they would vote for are so deep in the list that it WOULD TAKE YEARS before an update included their wishes.
I do for example have about 60 votes to go. One reason I did not use them is because I first wanted you to answer my email to get your feedback on the request system, but mainly because of all the points mentioned above. Why should I ? And this is why I’m writing these long answer and thinking night and day on how this could be made better :)
Concerning the Polls, yeah, to receive a poll per email that is only available for a week or something, I don’t think it’s the best idea. That’s why I LOVE the fact that the website now mentions « Vote to help us plan Vuo 1.3 ».
I mean, you should still send people an email to tell them when new a new Vuo version is available ! It’s an organisation, but you guys also need some commercial stuff in order for this community to even survive.
But if Polls worked quite great, perhaps you could still send out some of them sometimes to the people who wants to receive them and turn the results into votes for the feature requests. Again, not OR but BOTH.
I also understand what you mean by not resetting the votes at every release. I did not previously mean to reset the votes made on the feature requests, but the votes left in our user counter. But the way it actually works is great too ! The fact that we can sum the unused credits left is actually great. So that was a mistake from me !
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4 - CONCERNING THE DIFFERENT TIME IT TAKES TO IMPLEMENT FEATURE REQUESTS :
Ok, this is an important point I did not really consider. But I believe there must be a more reliable solution than the actual ONLY 1 top voted feature request if we want the community to vote.
What would happen if the number 1 top voted request was « Windows Exporting apps » ? Could it be released in Vuo 1.2 in august ? I think not !?!
And ok, some of the feature requests are bigger than others, but not all top requests are the biggest of them all am I wrong ?
Quite a complicated point, I must admit !
Perhaps, in some feature, the feature request list could also be splitted into major and minor feature release based on your analyze on how much work they need ? And to add 1 major feature + 4 minor features ?!?
Or should the Vuo Team stricly consider the 5 top voted requests and start to work on them no matter what time they need to be released ? I mean the big ones would skip some release but would already be moved to the « chosen to be implemented list » ? Not sure about this !
But Hey ! couldn’t this NEXT IDEA SOUND GREAT : Couldn’t the feature request system then be something CLEAN and SIMPLE like this ? :
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Every new release, the Vuo Team will add 5 community top voted request features + 5 new features from that same list they personally voted for because they think these are must-haves for the feature of Vuo (+ 5 pledged community features if you consider having both free and pledged votes).
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To plan the roadmap at each release, we will analyze the top 5 voted requests and try to match those results and its order to the closest possible way.
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Because, as we plan to update Vuo frequently (every 2-3 months) and because not all the feature requests require the same amount of time to be worked on (some features may take a year to be implemented), we cannot guarantee that the top 5 voted requests are reliable to be added within this small amount of time.
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This is why we will try at least to add the number 1 request, and add 4 other ones by going the result list down and fill it with every of them we think are possible to be seen in the next update.
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Consider therefore that the fact that a request would be high in the list would not guarantee its immediate implementation in the next release. But you can also consider that we take note of the top voted requests and start working on them in the background to be able to add them as soon as possible.
So the Vuo 1.2 release perhaps would have looked like something like this
a - 5 new features voted by the Vuo Team (Time & Date Node, Object Tracking, Fisheye Camera, Wave node Phase …)
b - 5 top voted community features
1 - HID Input
2 - Launch App Node
3 - Projection Mapping Node
4 - Pinch Zoom Editor
5 - Option to show linear Cables
Isn’t that something people would want to see implemented before my Drag File to App feature (even if I don’t need pinch zoom or projection at all, I try to think for the community instead of for my own) ?
I really hope to have your feedback on this idea !
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Anyway, if I can do something more then I’m doing right now beside sharing my ideas, make some composition and spread the word, just tell me, I’d be glad to help.
I don’t (yet) code but I can work on some graphic ideas, some site layouts, some buttons, Icons or wathever.
I also would like to help with some questions you could have and give an external point of view, or give some feedback on bugs or improvements (I will also make a request to be a Vuo Integrator)
Damn, it took me 2 hours to write and think about this idea ;)
