Posted by Mike Parker on April 17, 1998 at 16:39:04:
April 17, 1998
Brad Olsen, Infobases Product Manager
2405 W. Orton Circle
West Valley City, UT 84119
cc: Brad Pelo, President and CEO, Bookcraft Inc.
Re.: The dumbing-down of Collectors Library '98
Dear Mr. Olsen,
I have used Infobases' LDS Collectors Library for almost three years now. In fact, I specifically installed a CD-ROM on my PC just so I could use the product. It has been, without exaggeration, the _best investment_ I have ever made, providing a wealth of information to me as an early- morning seminary teacher, elders quorum president, and student of the gospel. I eagerly awaited the release of the 1998 upgrade, and ordered it off the Infobases web site as soon as it was available.
However, two hours after I began using the new version, I uninstalled it from my computer, put it back in the box and shipped it back for a refund. In this letter, I want to share with you what caused me to return it. Hopefully you can use this information to improve your next version.
First let me say that you certainly know your customer. I realize that most people are leery of computers and found the '95 and '97 Collectors Libraries difficult to use. It seems to me that your goal for the '98 version was to make it as simple as possible for the "technophobe" to use. For such people (the majority of your purchasers), you have succeeded.
In the meantime, unfortunately, you have emasculated the product. "Power users" such as myself are not concerned with a friendly, pleasant-looking interface--we need quick, comprehensive, detailed information. Collectors Library '98 doesn't provide it.
The following is a list of criticisms I compiled in just two hours. I'm sure I could come up with more, given more exposure to the product.
MAJOR ISSUES:
_The interface_. Simply, put, it's annoying. The application literally takes over the screen by removing the Windows Taskbar and standard menu bars. This makes access to other programs with the mouse impossible--you have to use the Windows key or [Ctrl+Esc] to bring up the Start menu.
If you're multitasking and [Alt+Tab] to another application, the Taskbar _remains hidden_. I switched over to WordPerfect and still had the Quick tools at the bottom of the screen. (This is a _major_ bug, and you should correct it immediately.)
Instead of the clean Windows 95-based interface, you offer four view options, _none_ of which let the user view two portions of the text at the same time. For example, Collector's '97 would present side-by-side the Bible and the Hebrew or Greek lexicon; now you have to use the backtrack button to flip back and forth. Tiled and cascading windows is a _required feature_ for comparing and contrasting two or more separate texts.
Without a "File, Open" feature, there's no way to open other libraries while program is running. I have downloaded several Folio files from the Internet, and created some myself. I can't view them in the new Collectors Library.
Without a "File, Save As" feature, there's no way to export large portions of text _along with the footnotes_. For years I have used this feature to save articles from the Library as WordPerfect files, open them in my word processor, and correct the formatting issues. This allows me to have electronic copies _with the footnotes_--you can't do this (easily) with cutting & pasting.
In Collectors '97, all books (with the exception of the Encyclopedia of Mormonism) had page references. The page references seem to have been _removed_ from almost all the books the in the new version. This makes it _impossible_ to cite an exact reference in anything I write! (This is unforgivable.)
A great feature of the previous versions was the record numbers. If I found a paragraph I wanted to remember or share with a friend, I could jot down its record number, then later press [Ctrl+G], enter the number, and jump right to exact spot I was reading. Now--gone.
The Navigation bar at the top of the screen only drops down eight levels. It also responds _very_ slowly, and requires the user to _double-click_ his or her selection. It would be much more user-friendly to let these lists drop as far as possible (to end of the list or bottom of the screen), or at least consider a scroll bar. Again, the Windows standard was and is preferable.
The application's help menu is nothing more than an electronic version of the printed manual! It's anemic, and has no search function--again a step backward from the Windows standard interface.
JUST PLAIN ANNOYING:
The picture frame in "Review" view is practically useless. It simply takes up valuable space on the screen that could be more profitably used by a bigger notepad, or some _useful_ information. I think you intend to use it for multimedia in the future, but _please_ consider giving the option to eliminate it.
Response time from the Spine menu is _slow, slow, slow_--not nearly as fast as a standard Windows menu bar.
Why are there absolutely _no_ context menus on any screen? A simple right-click, even just to copy text, is, _again_, a standard Windows feature.
There is still no _simple, direct_ way to get an alphabetical list of titles. And what happened to the contents section that was at the end of the Collectors '97 disk?
The watermarks behind text are _really_ annoying. They only slow down the program as it jumps or backtracks from one book to another.
Why are there no updates to FARMS Review of Books or BYU Studies? These are ongoing journals--the least you could have done was bring them up to the late 1997 editions.
Finally, the videotape you included _could_ have been used to demonstrate new features of your product. Instead it's a just a crummy plug for other Bookcraft products. What a wasted opportunity.
This summarizes what I found in just two hours. In short, your new product looks pretty, but you've "dumbed it down" in the name of simplicity. Instead of a powerful research tool, you now offer an just an ornament--an ornament that costs one hundred dollars and takes up forty-five megabytes of hard drive space.
To end on a positive note, here are my recommendations for future versions:
1. If you _have_ to keep that slow, annoying interface, at least consider giving users the option to use a Windows-based interface. Yes, it's more difficult for the new computer user, but it's faster, more reliable, more direct, and provides far more options for the rest of us.
2. Put page numbers in the works. Yes, every one of them. Do this before you release any new titles. Yes, I'm serious.
3. Build a more comprehensive help system, with _real_ assistance, including the ability to search for key words.
I hope you will implement at least some of these suggestions in future versions. Until then, I will continue to use my Collectors Library '97.
If you would like to discuss any of these issues further, please feel free to contact me by phone or mail.
Sincerely,
Michael B. Parker