Web App: Juvely

Hey everyone! Luca and I have just spoken about when we feel we should launch the beta. After deciding that we need to set a date to apply a little pressure on ourselves to get things done, we decided for the 18th of July, so thats 21 days away! There is still a quite a bit to do so we’re going to be working solidly for the next few weeks aiming to get it ready.

The thing we’re looking forward to most (apart from the launch) is to get feedback from the users. We’re really intrigued with where the app could go from its (soon to be) current state. We’re making it easy by adding in a little feedback button on each page which will present an unobtrusive feedback form. We will listen to the users, obviously we will not implement every little feature everyone wants but we’ll make damn sure theres a happy medium!

We have a small number of people on the signup list (about 40) which should be good! We’ll also be announcing the product elsewhere such as blogs and target industry forums etc. I’ll also be blogging the next few weeks quite closely, I’m hoping for a post every couple of days to let you know whats going on. Anyway tell all of your friends! Every beta user helps, there will also be deals for people who use the product in transition from beta to the release.

Much love.

Luca asked me to get working on a couple of interfaces today and it made me think, how much really is left to do? Then I thought, why not write a blog post about it, it’ll probably help me realise what’s left to do also.

We have completed the majority of the main elements in the app. The main theme, ticket sections, the client area designs, most of the knowledge base and so on. So here’s a general idea of the main stuff we’ve yet to finish (or start in some cases).

Design/Development

• Staff - This section will allow the owners of each account to manage support staff they may have working for them. There will be some form of permissions based system, allowing the owner to restrict which individual staff member can do what.
• Account management -All the important options for the owner, billing/contact information, any settings which relate to the helpdesk as a whole. Although following the Getting Real idea, there will be a limited amount of settings.
• Knowledgebase - Finalise 1 of the interfaces for the knowledgebase in the usercenter.
• Marketing website - Finish the design get it all coded up.

Once we have completed the majority of the development we enjoy looking over things then redefining, and skimming down anything we feel we don’t need or makes the app feel bloated.

Business side of things

• Bank account - We’re not totally sure whats going to happen here as of yet, its definatly something we are going to start thinking about soon.
• Trademark - Trademark the logo/name, this probably will not happen until after launching the app.
• Finalise pricing plans - We have a very good idea of what each plan going to cost, we just need to finalise this.
• Marketing strategy - We need to define a marketing strategy for the short-term then eventually for the long-term.

But in all honesty we have done very little on the business side of things, Luca has also told me theres not really alot of useful information on getting a small business up and running out there.
Or you can take a look at our basecamp to-do list just to see what we’re upto…

As you can see there is still a while to go we hope to have a beta up and running by August, if you’d like to give us a try, throw us your email on the landing page. We’d love to hear you thoughts on how you break down your to-do lists or whether you use an alternative in getting things done!

I’m home. After a delay, 2 buses over heating and around 9 hours of traveling I’m finally here. It’s quite late and I didn’t get alot of sleep last night, so I’m not going to rabble on too much. Tomorrow I hope to get stuck in with designing, also I’m going to do a post to show you the evolution of the Juvely interfaces from when I started them over a year ago, I’ll also try to explain why I made the changes.

Over the next week or so I hope to get most of the interfaces done, this will mean that Luca can get on with more programming as soon as he is back at the end of June.