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October 2006
10/24/06
Cozi, My first impression.
10/23/06
10/19/06
Tuesday, October 24, 2006
7:55:00 PM EDT
Feeling Chillin'
One a recent post to this very blog I was contacted by Robbie Cape, the CEO and Co-Founder of Cozi. He requested that I looked at, and review his new product.
To make a long story short, Cozi is the calendar hanging on the side of your refrigerator but it's online and you can access it from a PC, your mobile phone (web browser or text messages) or via telephone using voice prompts. It has some other features, like the ability to send messages en-mass to the whole family and to have a shared set of shopping lists.
It does what it says it does- but it's not enough to make it a segment creator.
1. What's with the full screen start up? You know, I do things OTHER than Cozi on my PC. If I want to see a web page and the calendar at the same time- it's not possible. Take a hint from Outlook.
2. Shopping list functionality looks like it was stapled on as an afterthought. It displays poorly on the "home" page, it's not intuitive on how to add things, and the multiple screens to get anything done take the important information away from my eyes. In fact, the whole lower right corner of the page doesn't fit the layout of the rest of the program.
3. It doesn't sync, at all, with anything. They recognize, on the FAQ, that this is a limitation. I will go further and say that without a sync to Outlook, it's useless. I am sure there are sync challenges with Cozi supporting multiple calendars and so forth but without a sync, it's not going to help me at all.
4. Privacy doesn't seem to be a concern. I see no way to say "I want this appointment to be private" and not let the whole family see it. No need for my 10 year old to see I have some kind of medical tests she doesn't know about.
5. Everything switches to another screen. The use of screen space here is poor. They waste space with a HUGE photo and then they waste more with some help information. The help information would be helpful if there were not identical links right below the help information. Instead of all the screen refreshes- use some of the real estate for details about the selected item.
6. Consistency! Mousing over one thing and you get an orange border with a tab. Sometimes just an orange border- sans tab. Sometimes the whole area turns into an orange fade. Sometimes it does nothing at all and you are not sure it's click-able. The UI doesn't use consistent feedback to the user to make it easy to understand and the ultra simplistic approach to the design results in lack of usability.
7. Where are the disclaimers for "You will have to pay a messaging fee" when you use the phone integration? I didn't see it once- but I know better than to believe Verizon wouldn't charge me.
8. "We offer Cozi Central for free because we make our money by delivering relevant content to Cozi families from a very select group of sponsors." I can find no details on how this relevant content will be delivered. On Cozi? Email's? SMS Messages that I will be charged for?
Cozi is a well worn idea that no one has been able to really implement successfully yet, at least without an exchange (or notes) server. Perhaps when it's complete it will be a useful application. For me, today, it's not.
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7:55:00 PM EDT
Feeling Chillin'
Cozi, My first impression.
To make a long story short, Cozi is the calendar hanging on the side of your refrigerator but it's online and you can access it from a PC, your mobile phone (web browser or text messages) or via telephone using voice prompts. It has some other features, like the ability to send messages en-mass to the whole family and to have a shared set of shopping lists.
It does what it says it does- but it's not enough to make it a segment creator.
1. What's with the full screen start up? You know, I do things OTHER than Cozi on my PC. If I want to see a web page and the calendar at the same time- it's not possible. Take a hint from Outlook.
2. Shopping list functionality looks like it was stapled on as an afterthought. It displays poorly on the "home" page, it's not intuitive on how to add things, and the multiple screens to get anything done take the important information away from my eyes. In fact, the whole lower right corner of the page doesn't fit the layout of the rest of the program.
3. It doesn't sync, at all, with anything. They recognize, on the FAQ, that this is a limitation. I will go further and say that without a sync to Outlook, it's useless. I am sure there are sync challenges with Cozi supporting multiple calendars and so forth but without a sync, it's not going to help me at all.
4. Privacy doesn't seem to be a concern. I see no way to say "I want this appointment to be private" and not let the whole family see it. No need for my 10 year old to see I have some kind of medical tests she doesn't know about.
5. Everything switches to another screen. The use of screen space here is poor. They waste space with a HUGE photo and then they waste more with some help information. The help information would be helpful if there were not identical links right below the help information. Instead of all the screen refreshes- use some of the real estate for details about the selected item.
6. Consistency! Mousing over one thing and you get an orange border with a tab. Sometimes just an orange border- sans tab. Sometimes the whole area turns into an orange fade. Sometimes it does nothing at all and you are not sure it's click-able. The UI doesn't use consistent feedback to the user to make it easy to understand and the ultra simplistic approach to the design results in lack of usability.
7. Where are the disclaimers for "You will have to pay a messaging fee" when you use the phone integration? I didn't see it once- but I know better than to believe Verizon wouldn't charge me.
8. "We offer Cozi Central for free because we make our money by delivering relevant content to Cozi families from a very select group of sponsors." I can find no details on how this relevant content will be delivered. On Cozi? Email's? SMS Messages that I will be charged for?
Cozi is a well worn idea that no one has been able to really implement successfully yet, at least without an exchange (or notes) server. Perhaps when it's complete it will be a useful application. For me, today, it's not.
Written by daddyshome Blog about this entry |
Add to del.icio.us | digg this
