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HotGloo Versus OmniGraffle for Wireframing

I tooled around with online wireframing/diagramming apps about 18 months ago, and kind of put the whole subject to bed. If you’re used to OmniGraffle, Balsamiq, or Visio, using an online app is a bit rough. I had played around with LucidChart the most, and made the simple conclusion: a Flash powered online app will not compare to an installed application (at least in the near future). If you read my blog, you know I’m all about web apps, but I felt like this is a use case where they still just aren’t an option.

But recently, I was urged to give HotGloo a shot by my partner at SwellPath, @johnpkoenig – somewhat reluctantly, I agreed. I wanted to give the whole web app thing another shot, and I like the collaboration opportunities that a web app provides, and a tool like OmniGraffle doesn’t provide. I had to put together wireframes for a project we’re working on; about 5 templates total. John had already been using it for the project, so it made sense for me to give it a go.

It really is incredibly impressive. It is one of the most impressive Flash/Flex applications I have ever used from a functionality standpoint. HotGloo just came out of Beta, and it is obvious they mean business – from a pricing and functionality standpoint. After spending a day working intimately with it, I would definitely recommend giving it a shot, and it definitely warranted a review.

I’m going to break this review down into key elements of using this type of application:

1. Time to Learn
   How long did it take me to get up to speed and feel comfortable using the app? Pretty quick. Some initial grunts and complaints, but I got it all down within less than an hour. This includes figuring out how to handle administrative tasks (adding users, setting roles, etc.) and how to actually wireframe.
2. Speed
   If you use Salesforce.com, you know how you have to sometimes “stop” and wait for a popup to complete a desired action; that happens a bit with HotGloo. It is one of those web apps where you learn when to wait – mostly I’m referring to when you upload an image. But once you learn when to have patience, you get a bit more efficient. I was able to complete the bulk of my work in one day. I would say it took me about 20-25% more time to do it in HotGloo, and that includes the time spent “learning” the app.
3. Collaboration Aspects
   Ok, this is where web apps like this can crush it. HotGloo does, simply by letting you add users to a project, who can login and review or edit your templates, and in a more complicated way by allowing users to chat while viewing templates. You don’t pay for users (see more below) so you can add any number of folks to a project. It would be cool to see some other hooks built in (Basecamp tie-in, maybe Gtalk or other chat hooks, etc.). But it looks like there are some new collaboration features coming in May, so it’ll be interesting to see what those are.
4. Overall Impression & Pricing Considerations
   Come on, it is a web app that lets you wireframe as-good-or-better than you could with an installed app a few years ago, that is awesome! That being said, it is still kind of constrained by Flash, browsers and bandwidth, and as a result, it isn’t quite as fast as using installed apps. But there is loads of promise for HotGloo, and I will probably continue to use it for certain projects. You can view the HotGloo roadmap here and see what features and enhancements are coming. Pricing is fair, you pay for projects (2 for $14/month to start, $5/month for each additional, $2/month for an archived project), and their are constraints on bandwidth, but they are large enough that I don’t see those being hit. I like that you don’t pay for users; you can add as many people as needed.

I personally would be interested in how an Adobe Air install would work in conjunction with a setup like HotGloo. But Air apps are resource hogs, and I don’t see this on HotGloo’s roadmap, so it isn’t something we’re likely to see. Anyway, give HotGloo a shot and see what you think, you might just find that OmniGraffle and other installs are now a thing of the past for you.

Tags: diagramming, flow charts, wireframing

Google Chrome for Mac Review

I’ve been using Chrome for Mac for a couple months now, starting with the developer release. Now that the browser is officially in beta, it is more easily accessible by the masses. Just as important, extensions (i.e. plugins) are flourishing for PCs, and will be available for Macs soon. So, I figured I’d give my $0.02 on Chrome.

Reasons to Use Chrome

I’ve never been a big Safari user; I won’t go into why, because I can’t articulate it completely. Likewise, I haven’t spent time getting comfortable with Opera; though I feel I may be missing out there. Essentially my dependence on plugins for analytics and SEO related tasks essentially forces me to use Firefox for most of my “at-work” browsing.  All these plugins have slowed Firefox though, and with it’s core resource needs, it now takes up a large chunk of my MacBook’s RAM. At the same time, Firefox seems more sluggish now, making me less efficient. So when the Chrome developer version became available for Mac, I decided to give it a whirl, knowing that some of the key plugins I use in Firefox would likely become available as extensions for Chrome soon. But I started out just using it for some key sites that I stay logged into all day: Salesforce, Google Analytics, and EasyProjects.net (our current time tracking and project management solution at SwellPath).

First Impressions of Chrome

I had given Chrome a test drive when it came out for PCs in 2008, but I hadn’t spent “intimate” time with the browser. Immediately when I started using Chrome, I felt that it was leaner and faster than Firefox; and it is. Unfortunately, some of the “fat” from Firefox is missed, namely those plugins and the convenience they provide. But otherwise, Chrome fits the bill, especially for these web apps that I just keep open all day.

The Future of Firefox

The future of Firefox, in my universe, isn’t in jeopardy. I’m not going to abandon the application I’ve spent a ridiculously large percentage of my adult life using, but, I am going to continue to use Chrome for many of my daily tasks. Right now, I see Firefox as being my tool for development, analysis, and SEO related needs. Using Firebug, HTTPFox and the SEM related plugins I use seems more natural in Firefox. But I do see Chrome taking over for Gmail (as soon as the Wisestamp extension is available), daily browsing (as soon as Foxmarks, Delicious, and Diigo extensions are available), and general searching. It has been acknowledged that Google is focused on (obsessed even) with speed, and Chrome is a major part of that, and I like that, because speed is necessary in our industry these days. So give Chrome a try if you haven’t already, I think you’ll like what you find.

Tags: Chrome, extensions, Mac

Seesmic Desktop Adds Support for Facebook Pages

Those of you that spend a lot of time on Twitter likely use some type of desktop client. This space is crowded with a variety of different apps that all have some similar features. But many have differentiating features that make them a better fit for certain things. I was a Twhirl user and never really liked Tweetdeck much. I use Tweetdeck on my iPhone, but the desktop client just didn’t appeal to me as much as Twhirl. When Twhirl was essentially “phased into” Seesmic Desktop, I began using Seesmic.

I have always felt that Seesmic was a better user experience. It easily allows me to switch between Tweeting in my personal account (@wheresitworking) or the SwellPath Twitter account (@swellpath), or making updates to my Facebook profle. The one thing that wasn’t possible was updating Facebook pages, like the SwellPath page.  Well, those days are finally over, as Seesmic now allows you to update those pages from the app. This makes it a lot more convenient to make updates to Facebook pages. Often, I’m tweeting something for SwellPath, and think that it’s relevant for the Facebook fans, but neglect updating the status because I don’t want to switch to the browser, load up Facebook, navigate to the page, and update it. Now, I just check a box, and the update syndicates.

In addition to this great new feature, Seesmic has many other features that make it (in my opinion) the easiest way to manage your Twitter and Facebook conversations remotely. The one missing piece, which Tweetdeck has, is the iPhone app. But it’s coming next month, according to @loic (Seesmic founder) and the Seesmic crew. It won’t be a moment too soon, as it will be great to have access to the same great features and settings while away from the desktop. So give Seesmic a try, and hear about the new Facebook page features straight from Loic himself here.

One last thing about Seesmic. Seesmic.tv is the former Seesmic.com. It is a video microblogging site. Inevitably all this functionality will be rolled into the Seesmic Desktop Client at some point. This will position Seesmic nicely for the future of microblogging, when we’re all recording short videos and posting them, rather than fumbling with typing. Don’t think that’s going to happen? We’ll see.

Tags: Facebook Pages, Seesmic, Twitter Desktop Apps

Jungle Disk versus ZumoDrive for iTunes and More

Late last year I had a realization: all my stuff (i.e. data) should be on the cloud. An extension of this realization: so I can rebuild or duplicate a “machine” easily without external drives and other hardware. If you’re unfamiliar with all the products below, they basically function like this: you install an app that monitors usage of the storage space, and then you can use your storage space just as if it was a directory (Dropbox) or a drive (ZumoDrive and Jungle Disk) on your machine.

So, I now use Dropbox for all my files (except music and video) and I actually imported all my old emails into Gmail. That basically means: if you steal my laptop, no big deal, I can rebuild the thing in about 8 hours and not miss a beat. But one thing I couldn’t quite dial in was music and video, because the files take up so much storage. I got around to dealing with this final hurdle in the last month, and here are my findings.

My first thought was whether Dropbox could handle this amount of data. I think Dropbox (current limit of 100GB) will be well into the 1/4 TB (250 GB) level soon, but that wasn’t my problem. Dropbox syncs with files on your machine, so you have to have comparable storage on your HD. My MacBook has 150GB – not enough to store my video and music and all the other stuff I need on my machine.

Enter Jungle Disk. I thought Jungle Disk would be the answer to my problems – it stores all your files on Amazon’s servers, and allows you access through Finder/Explorer. But I ran into several problems with Jungle Disk, mostly related to how it worked when I limited its ability to cache files locally on my machine. Jungle Disk is super convenient for backing up your machine, and I’ll end up using it for backups and other needs in the future, but it wasn’t terribly user-friendly for general file usage. This was an issue because ultimately I intend to share many of these files with “less savvy” users. Ultimately though, the pricing structure of Jungle Disk didn’t seem conducive to my needs. I didn’t want to pay for data being uploaded and downloaded, I just wanted a flat monthly rate for a set amount of storage – like Dropbox.

Enter ZumoDrive. ZumoDrive is very similar to Jungle Disk in terms of functionality, but it is a bit more user friendly. I also feel that ZumoDrive handles large upload processes cleaner.

ZumoDrive runs much better when you provide it with a cache that is equivalent to the amount of storage you’re using. In other words, if you store 25 GB of music on ZumoDrive, you give up 25 GB on your local hard drive for the cache. That obviously didn’t work for me, or else I’d have stuck with Dropbox. Once you limit your cache, you see slowness accessing files, but I can deal with that.

One of the best things about ZumoDrive for my purposes was the iPhone app. It essentially allows you to access all of your music from anywhere, and play it on your iPhone (or iPod Touch). It’s hard to say how much this influenced my decision to use ZumoDrive, but it was major.

I ended up with the 100 GB account on ZumoDrive. With Dropbox, this brings my monthly storage fees up to about $30 a month. A steep price to pay on a yearly basis, but a small price to pay for piece of mind, not having to deal with backups of critical files anymore, and shared music and photos for my family. I’d be curious to hear how others have dealt with similar needs, and their experiences with respective products.

Tags: cloud storage, Dropbox, iPhone applications, iTunes, Jungle Disk, Zumo Drive

Mash Twitter Search with Google to See the Real Value

Having trouble seeing the value in Twitter search? Seems like many people are. Many people being those who don’t use Twitter, yet. Twitter comes up in conversations with everyone lately, and often the subject turns to how Twitter will monetize. I keep up on this topic (seemingly through osmosis), so I generally will throw out the rumored monetization strategies that have been blogged about. That’s when many people will ask me to explain the value in Twitter search. I tell them to mash it up with Google using the awesome Greasemonkey script from MT Hacks, and see for themselves.

When this script was released, I installed it immediately and kind of forgot about it. All that day, I’d run a Google search, and be surprised when I saw the Twitter results pop up.

Then it happened: I started viewing those results and clicking through to Tweets, shortened URLs, and peoples’ Twitter profiles – instead of clicking on the Google results.

The “ah-ha” moment had happened for me: there really is value in real-time search. Or so I thought.

I will admit that the results have become a bit, “different” for many types of searches in the last few months. There is plenty of spam, or whatever you want to call it, for certain keywords. And there is plenty of garbage for some high-profile terms, but I still use it several times during the day.

Check it out, and if you still don’t see the value in the real-time data that Twitter has “aggregated” for us to search, please let me know why?

Tags: Google, Grease Monkey scripts, real-time search, Twitter search