Calamander – All Your Calendars. Together.

28 thoughts on “Calamander – All Your Calendars. Together.”

1. Overall, what are your first impressions of Calamander?

   My first impression is that I like your color scheme used on your homepage (pink on blue), however your bullet points do not stand out to my eyes.  Actionable suggestion:  You might want to make these in bold or a darker color.  I also notice that the “Connect Calendars” section seem to be more magenta, and the “Sync Calendars” appears to be more hot pink.  Did you purposely make these two categories two visibly different colors.  I would have made them the same color. 

   Which feature is most appealing to you?

   I really like the way you can connect or integrate Facebook, Google and any other calendars that you might be using.  It seems like a quick and easy way to make all of your calendars have all of your dates and events in it.

   What areas need most improvement?

   Increasing your brand visibility and if you could make an easy to remember way to connect Calamander to Calendars.  Actionable suggestion:  Create a short tune or jingle that is singable (that could be sang by puppets in a video) so people can remember your brand and know it is for online calendar integration.
    

   What were most unclear or confusing?

   N/A – I didn’t find anything confusing, however I would be interested in knowing how you came up with the name for your brand.  If I just heard Calamander, I would have no idea to connect the name with online calendar integration.

   Do you have any other suggestions or ideas?

   Yes, as I said above I had no connection between Calamander and calendars.  Actionable suggestion:  Would you consider doing either something to your logo to have some connection to a calendar, or perhaps using a motto or mission statement following your logo to connect the dots between your brand name and what you do.

   How likely are you to recommend Calamander Beta to a friend or colleague?

   If I knew that a friend or colleague had a need to use this type of service, I would recommend it.  However, I haven’t come across many friends that use online calendars that regularly.

   How often do you use a calendar?

   Occasionally I use a print one to look up a date, or Outlook calendar to schedule an appointment, but I don’t book on online calendars on facebook or google.  I use outlook on a daily basis.

   Which feature is most appealing to you?

   The most appealing thing is the ability to make all of your online calendars have the same events.  This would be very helpful.

   Did you sign-up? Or did you browse our site? If you didn’t sign up, could you share why not?

   I did browse your site and saw your Calamander Overview video with Professor Wiggins.  I thought this was very entertaining and humorous.  I think this is a big plus in adding content to Youtube and promoting your brand.
   For some professionals, such as myself, I work in a field where information cannot be shared, especially my work calendar with public calendars.  In this type of gov’t work, this service can’t be used to integrate my work (outlook) and personal (google/facebook) calendars. 
   Also, If a personal puts all of their dates into their blackberry or PDA, then that would eliminate the need to put them into any other calendar book online.

   Overall, how valuable are the services we are developing?

   I think the services would be very helpful to people who use all of these calendar services. 

2. Overall, what are your first impressions of Calamander? To be quite honest, when I first arrived on the landing page of your website, my first impression was, “Now why would I need something like this?”   I have to say that the color scheme for the landing page is a little dull as well.   The pink color used around the “Sync Calendar” section is  hard on my eyes.
   Which feature is most appealing to you? After looking around the site, I have to say I like the fact that I can pull all my calendar events into this one website.  I can put all the events from other social networks into one place.
   What were most unclear or confusing? I didn’t find anything unclear or confusing.  It all seemed to be pretty self explanatory to me.
   What areas need most improvement? When I clicked on “Connect Calendars”, it was kind of slow in loading.   Again, on the landing page of the website, I would like to see the fun color scheme used in “How it Works”.   As a person with many eye issues, the pink used around “Sync Calendar” is very hard on my eyes.  I feel it almost forces the blue color to become dull.
   Do you have any other suggestions or ideas? I would like to see a FAQ section added to the first page to further clarify any questions one would have.
   How likely are you to recommend Calamander Beta to a friend or colleague? I would definitely recommend this website to business colleagues, friends, and family!
   How often do you use a calendar? I use a calendar (mainly Yahoo) for a business I have worked with.  Everyone has access to the calendar to schedule their appointments, availability and the like.
   Which feature is most appealing to you? The fact that I can sync the calendar and send it to my iPhone.
   Did you sign-up? Or did you browse our site? If you didn’t sign up, could you share why not? I did browse the site in order to try all the tabs and such.  I did not sign up yet, because I would like to run it by my business associates first.
   Overall, how valuable are the services we are developing? Well, I think this service is something that is only going to grow in popularity with all the latest technology available out there.  It is something that many will find useful in order to pull all their activities into one area on the web.

3. Overall, what are your first impressions of Calamander?

   When I first visted this site I looked around by scrolling up and down the site and my first impression of the site was that it looks like it is a very productive site. It is a very neat and organized page that looks like it is made to be extremley simple to use. By making it easy more people will use it and then recommend it to their close friends or family members.
    
   Which feature is most appealing to you?

   My favorite feature on this site is that not only can you make a calender, but you can also connect your calender with anyone of your friends or family member and combine them with eachother. This makes it very easy because it is very difficult trying to call  a friend or family member to figure out what their schedule is so the two of you can get together a few times a week. Fortunately this site makes it easy to do this and it will allow you to figure out the free time you both share without the unnesesary phone call or writting it down on paper.
    
   What areas need most improvement?

   I actually did not find anything that I thought needed improvement. The site is organized and neat. By being organized it makes it easier for a customer to navigate their way around the website. If they find it easy doing this they are more likely to recommend this site to everyone they know to use it as well. Even the color scheme of the site is done very well; the colors go well with eathother and it is not to much they are easy on the eyes.

   What were most unclear or confusing?

   Along with not finding major improvements I did not find this site being unclear or confusing. I found this site to be extremely easy to navigate around and the steps to connect the calenders with eachother. As long as everyone follows the simple steps then no of them will have a problem when it comes to using this site.
    
   Do you have any other suggestions or ideas?

   It might be helpful to show some examples of the calenders that have been made to let peole know what they will be like since not everybody will watch the video on how it is made.
   How likely are you to recommend Calamander Beta to a friend or colleague?

   I actually am likely to recommend it to some of my family member if not use it myself. I am always trying to figure out the schedules between me and other people to figure out when we can do things. This site would be extremely helpful.
    
   How often do you use a calendar?

   I use a calender everyday for various things. I use them for school work and scheduling my day; between school practice and working out i can’t afford not to have a calender or else my whole day would be messed up. Like most calenders i also need to write down important dates.
    
   Which feature is most appealing to you?

   While looking through the site I noticed that you can sync the calenders with your ipone or android phone. this makes it even better than most people think.
   Did you sign-up? Or did you browse our site? If you didn’t sign up, could you share why not?

   I did not sign up right now because i do not have my schedule set in stone; I have to figure out my scheldule before even thinking about connecting with someone else who also has not completed their schedule. However when my schedule is complete I will most likely sign up to start connecting calenders with the people i need to.
    
   Overall, how valuable are the services we are developing?

   I find them very valluble for people how are extremely busy and do not have time to make their own calender but still need to find free time to spend with friends or family.

4. Overall, what are your first impressions of Calamander?
   The layout is very user friendly. That being said the color scheme, for the most part is well done. The only part that I would suggest changing is the greenish color of the tabs at the top. This should be something that catches the users eyes. That being said, overall the website was done very well. I do, however, think that maybe the text after the bullet points should be done a little darker. I had to adjust the lighting to be able to see it clearly. I do think that this is a great service. I am a very busy individual, and sometimes I get my calenders mixed up and I will overlap scheduling things. Being able to utilize a tool such as this would help me to prevent such things from happening in the future.
   Which feature is most appealing to you?
   The feature that is most appealing is being able to put all of my calender events into one place. Like I stated in the previous question, this would help to not having overlapping of events scheduled at once. It is like the one stop shop for all my scheduling needs.
   What areas need most improvement?
   The color scheme on the tabs and the bulletpoints on the home page. The tabs should maybe me a different color or changed brighter. It should be more eye catching so someone who just happens on the site will notice that they have all these different options. The bulletpoints and text after should maybe just be darker.
   What were most unclear or confusing?
   I did not find anything unclear or confusing. I found the site to be very user friendly and pretty simple to use.
   Do you have any other suggestions or ideas?
   I would make the bottom links more visible. This can be done by making them darker or moving them. I was searching for the contact us section and it really took some searching to find it. I think it should be much more visible at first glance.
   How likely are you to recommend Calamander Beta to a friend or colleague?
   Honestly, I do think that I will recommend Calamander Beta to my colleagues and friends. This service could really be useful, and I am very much a word of mouth person. I always let others in on the services and products that work well for me.
   How often do you use a calendar?
   It depends on the time of year and what day of the week it is. In most cases I use a calendar daily.
   Which feature is most appealing to you?
   I have so many things going on at once. A calender allows me to set up a schedule that I can refer to so that I can see when a good time is for me to be able to schedule alternate event. The thing that hurts me the most is that I use seperate calenders for stuff like family events and my childs activities.
   Did you sign-up? Or did you browse our site? If you didn’t sign up, could you share why not?
   At first my intentions were to just browse the site. After going through all the tabs I learnt that this service could really be useful for me so I went back and signed up.
   Overall, how valuable are the services we are developing?
   Very valuable for just about any household. In todays society even a stay at home mom could use a program such as this to place her children’s events and activites in as well as other things that her family plans on attending.

5. Overall, what are your first impressions of Calamander?

   I like your simple navigation and fair amount of white space.  Your homepage is very pleasing to the eye.  I find the layout to be a bit strange; however, with a main image that is portrait rather than landscape (I know there are a multitude of monitor resolutions and sizes, but on my MacBook Pro, I could only see about half the page).  Your headline is direct, and clearly positions your product.

   Which feature is most appealing to you?

   I am very impressed that your service also imports Facebook calendars.  I use Outlook at work, Google at home, and Facebook, which only complicates things.  I’ve found ways to integrate Outlook and Google, but not yet Facebook – great touch.

   What areas need most improvement?

   When clicking on a subpage, I find it somewhat jarring that the page opens in what seems to be a lightbox.  This is somewhat confusing, and also makes it harder to work within your navigation and peruse the site.

   What were most unclear or confusing?

   As I mentioned, navigating within the site is not organic and user-friendly.  I found it confusing, and frustrating at first.  I also thought it was strange that I could connect to my calendars without signing up for anything.  I would recommend requiring signup prior to allowing users to sync all their calendars.  In addition to collecting valuable user data, this also prevents people from accidentally closing out of your site “forgetting” to sign up!

   Do you have any other suggestions or ideas?

   I think an iPhone or Android app would be a great way for users to access Calamander on-the-go.

   How likely are you to recommend Calamander Beta to a friend or colleague?

   I’m confident I will mention it to my busy co-workers and family members, who are always looking for ways to simplify things.

   How often do you use a calendar?

   Daily, for both professional and personal use.

   Which feature is most appealing to you?

   I really find the ability to combine my personal and professional calendars, along with a third tier: Facebook, in one place.  That’s an added dimension I’ve yet to find with other sync services.

   Did you sign-up? Or did you browse our site? If you didn’t sign up, could you share why not?

   I didn’t sign up.  As I mentioned above, I find it somewhat strange that I could use your product without being required to signup.  I’d make signup much more prominent

   Overall, how valuable are the services we are developing?

   Incredibly valuable.  I think you’re on the right track, and once it’s finished, you’ll have a great product.

6. Overall, what are your first impressions of Calamander?
   I was instantly interested in what your product might offer as I have trouble keeping calendars together.  I thought that a product that would allow me to use the same calendar regardless of where I am at, would be a great thing. 
   Which feature is most appealing to you?
   I was most interested in the ability to have a computerized calendar that I could access anywhere.
   What areas need most improvement?
   I had several problems while trying to use the site. 
   I had a lot of trouble getting google calendars to connect. 
   I tried to set up a sync relationship with google after connecting and I received this error message “Unable to create calendar
      – base RemoteService::Error::HTTPRequestFailed: POST failed with response code of 500 and body: Could not create a calendar”
   What were most unclear or confusing?
   There is so much going on in the site that it felt a little overwhelming.  I think there needs to be a simple step process to begin setting up a calendar and then showing all the extras that can be done.  I could tell that I could easily get frustrated and decide it is not worth it to keep messing with it. 
   Do you have any other suggestions or ideas?
   Need to work out the bugs.  The video kept buffering on me and that is not a problem that I typically have with youtube videos. 
   I am mixed on your calemander video.  The use of puppets initially felt very unprofessional to me, but it did keep my attention.  I do believe that the use of puppets might push away a small number of clients, but the points are well made in it. 
   The get started now button would pull more clients if it were larger and more noticable.  Initially it blended in with the other visual aides on the graphics and I did not notice it until I had messed around on the site for a bit.  If it were noticable fom the very beginning I think more people would immediately go there and lessen the chance of frustration with the many facets of the site.
   How likely are you to recommend Calamander Beta to a friend or colleague?
   I belive you have a great product and as a teacher I will recommend this to my colleagues.  We have very busy calendars and I believe this could be a useful tool.
   How often do you use a calendar?
   daily
   Which feature is most appealing to you?
   The ease of use and accessability from any place I am at.  I hate having multiple calendars and trying to remember what is on each one or trying to keep up with a small one.
   Did you sign-up? Or did you browse our site? If you didn’t sign up, could you share why not?
   Yes, I did both.  I linked to my google account, but had problems with creating a calendar and syncing with google.
   Overall, how valuable are the services we are developing?
   I think your services would be very helpful to people in many areas of life.  It would ease the use of family and business scheduling and help keep people on track. 

7. Overall, what are your first impressions of Calamander?
   My very first impression was I liked the name and the logo…very creative and easy to remember, hence, word association at its best. It’s a great tool and innovative idea. The site is a bit simple, however, I do like the clean look and feel of it to reflect the concept of a well organized calendar.
   Which feature is most appealing to you?
   My favorite feature is probably Calamander’s niche: the connection to other networks. I like being able to integrate all events, dates, appointments, reminders coming from different sources and putting them all together in plain view.
   What areas need most improvement?
   The aesthetic look of the site is too simple. I realize it’s on its beta form, however, I suggest adding a modern twist to this innovative tool. There isn’t much to calendars so adding special effects or transition effect to the slides on the home page that would attract interest to the product and putting a positive image on the minds of potential users.
   I love the demo video don’t change it just add an actual example of the steps used to connect networks to integrate calendars. Some people need LOTS of visuals.
   Is there a cost to this application? Is there an email address for help and questions?
   What were most unclear or confusing?
   It was unclear why there was a “shared” and a “sync” tab at the tab since these two tasks seem to be already accomplished when I connect, say, my personal and facebook calendar and click on the connect this calendar box. These 2 tabs at the top seem redundant since they also appear on the calendars window.
   Do you have any other suggestions or ideas?
   I love the idea of Calamander, but, it’s missing more information. Maybe you can add a tab section with examples of calendars and what sync and share exactly does.
   Reorganize the navigation tabs something like this: Home, How It works, About Us, Faqs and then add a subsection with its own tabs to say something like this: Connect to calendars, View Calendars, Help, Contact Us. I’d recommend each tab be a different color other than white different from the background.
   How likely are you to recommend Calamander Beta to a friend or colleague?
   I would be very likely to recommend this Calamander. I can see how useful and easy it is. I can definitely think of just about anyone needing an application like this one in this day and age where everyone is busy and having just about everything on their smartphone.
   How often do you use a calendar?
   I occasionally use  calendars, however, that is due to my current circumstances. I know many people who do use them, in fact, in my household and family. My older child, my relatives in college, my husband at work, stay-at-home moms part of the school program, etc.
   Which feature is most appealing to you?
   My favorite feature is probably Calamander’s niche: the connection to other networks. I like being able to integrate all events, dates, appointments, reminders coming from different sources and putting them all together in plain view.
   Did you sign-up? Or did you browse our site? If you didn’t sign up, could you share why not?
   Yes. I did sign-up and browsed the site. The sign-up was a breeze and the system did all the work.  I just need to understand and see how it is used on a smartphone.
   Overall, how valuable are the services we are developing?
   If the application is near free, saves people time and you can take it with you, then I would say this is of extreme value. Most people have multiple calendars depending on where they are and which network is being used and sometimes dates and events are scheduled on our behalf and this service is so simple yet ingenious enough to pull it all together and combine it for you and it allows a person to take it anywhere via smartphone. It’s a great win-win service.

8. Overall, what are your first impressions of Calamander?
   My first impression was that the website was a little basic. That being said I think that you have a great idea syncing calanders together for easy time management.

   Which feature is most appealing to you?
   I like how you go from gadget to gadget, smartphone, any calendar service and computer. Now that I must say is awesome. I like that you offer the ability to update as well.

   What areas need most improvement?
   The visual appeal of the website needs to jazzed up a bit. I love the concept of the site itself but it really lacks the zest that your service is offering. I really don’t like the pink next to the blue, it doesn’t stand out enough. Personally it to much white back drop on each of the pages.  It’s great you have a video but it should be so far on the page. Because you want to sync so much information together that how to video should be at eye level to be able to watch. You dont’ state if this service cost anything and that should be highlighted some where. If it’s free that play up that and if not that make a easy to follow pricing list.

   What were most unclear or confusing?
   I’m a little confused with some of th tabs that you have featured to the left of the page. You have: “connect calendars” “sync” and “share.” Aren’t thos essentially all the same function. After reading them I can see that there is a clear difference that each tab offers but at the onset it seems like your repeating featuring but just choosing to tittle them differently.

   Do you have any other suggestions or ideas?
   I would definitely put a how to video or put some samples of that things might look like using mock data. I was really happy that you had a video but it was not what I expected. I would scrap the video because it seemed very juvenile for your company. Your branching into a very tech savvy service and that video did not personify that. Again there is to much white featured on the pages and open space. The colors on the pages are not messing well together. The calamander is sort of like mascot for your company but it’s so small it’s almost unoticeable. If your going to have it, use it. For example Geico really plays up the geico, so use that as a branding tool. Play up the three main colors you use: that deep green, rustic burgundy and that pop of bright blue. Maybe you could have the tabs change colors to the ones you have featured. They gray looks like some random color just thrown in. 

   Im back tracking, sorry. If you are going to use the little puppets in the video then play it up and use them in several videos. Maybe even use them as a guide throughout your website. I felt like I didn’t know if you were going tech savvy or fun and light.

   How likely are you to recommend Calamander Beta to a friend or colleague?
   If the website was revamped I would definitely recommend it.

   How often do you use a calendar?
   I personally don’t use them that often but I can see using it more as my children are getting older and school and activities are increasing.

   Which feature is most appealing to you?
   I like how you can go from program to program messing all the calendars into one. You have a great niche syncing everyones busy schedule into one easy to read application. 

   Did you sign-up? Or did you browse our site? If you didn’t sign up, could you share why not?
   I did not sign up but it seems really easy to do. I like how you can sign in using different accounts. Nice feature. I liked the use of the salamandar of this page. This is the “moscot” use I like to see.

   Overall, how valuable are the services we are developing?
   I think the service you are providing is very valuable. Life is so demanding that it seems we need to schedule the everything even our family time. This is in invaluable in that you can see what everyone in your life is doing and see what needs to be changed. Time management is key, again great service.  

9. Feedback sought:

   Overall, what are your first impressions of Calamander? My first impression is that this would be a great tool for business as well as personal use.  I could see this being used this for my employees, family, or for some type of organization.
   Which feature is most appealing to you? I like the idea of the “Connect Calendars”.  It gives you what appear to be the most popular calendars used at the click of a tab.  The “Personal” tab is what caught my eye because of the Outlook/Exchange, Hotmail, and Outlook/Personal.  I could use this alone.  The other tabs are a bonus.
   What areas need most improvement? I experienced some freezing when trying to navigate through the tabs:  Share and Sync.
   What were most unclear or confusing? Is it free?  Are there different price ranges for different levels of use?  Do I “have” to sign up to use the service or is it because it is in “beta” status that I am able to have full access?
   Do you have any other suggestions or ideas? I think that the homepage could use a different layout.  The information that is listed in the bottom three boxes maybe could be set to the left side or incorporated into the header of the page.  The coloring for the links in the upper right corner do not seem to stand out enough.   They seem faded and give a “cheap” feel to the page when the actual product you are providing seems to be very valuable.  The name of  the product and the logo are great!  Maybe just a little larger and more space around them to make it “pop” on the page.  The font on the logo on Firefox 3.6.6 is showing a little blurry.
   How likely are you to recommend Calamander Beta to a friend or colleague? Very likely.
   How often do you use a calendar? Everyday.
   Which feature is most appealing to you? The “Connect” feature.
   Did you sign-up? No.  Or did you browse our site? Yes, I did browse the site. If you didn’t sign up, could you share why not? I was able to access the information without signing up.  But, I do plan on signing up and exploring in more depth what you have to offer.
   Overall, how valuable are the services we are developing? It is hard to place a value on something as useful as the services you are developing.  For someone who is not able or not knowledgeable on using their Microsoft Office or other platforms; the service is priceless.  Basically, with a few clicks outside of entering their own information into the calendar it could turn what might be a daunting task for some into a stress free experience.  🙂

10. Tricia,

    Thank you so very much for your feedback and assistance.

    Your suggestion about a step-by-step process is right on.  We’ve been considering that as part of the experience.

    Also, Derek would like to reach out to help you with the google connection.  Part of the beta release is to find issues like that  – though I apologize you had an issue in first place.  Argh.  Is it okay for him to contact you?

    I’d love to keep you in loop as we make updates and improvements so you can let me know if it’s getting better or I can simply get your preference on something.  It would really make a difference to actually making this an application you can easily use.  I’ll need your contact information if you are interested.

    Again, thank you!  Let me know if you need assistance with anything as well with anything from our team.

    Celeste

    Celeste M. Combs, Co-Founder
    Design and Customer Experience
    celeste.combs@mycalamander.com
     

11. Wow!  These are great ideas and feedback. 

    I agree with you on the color scheme, I’ve been hankering to change the tab colors and background is too dark for legibility.  

    I’m glad you like the idea of viewing everything in single spot.  As I use this everyday, I have found it really useful to see my primary personal calendar, a google account, separate from Facebook events.  I have also been feeling more connected to the local community by adding public calendars.  Keeping track of tech events alone and making sure I get to them can be painful.  Based on your feedback, it sounds like we’re on the right track. 

    I’d love to keep engaged with you as we roll out and make improvements.  Or if I could get your opinion before we release something.

    Can I do that?  I’ll need a way to contact you directly.

    Again, thank you so very much.

    Celeste
     
    Celeste M. Combs, Co-Founder
    Design and Customer Experience
    celeste.combs@mycalamander.com

12. Your feedback and ideas rock!  Thank you!

    Pink definately increases high contrast and especially when it’s used in a fine line there (I worked with pink a lot on the susan g. komen website and t-mobile clients – very challenging.  Definately take note and we will get that changed to magenta.  As we refine our product positioning and functionality based on all this feedback, I plan to revamp homepage for sure and will be careful with that pink.  :) 

    I also anxious to improve the visual design, as you suggest, of how it works.    The slow loading is app running on Flash.  As we tweak the design and functionality, we’ll need to  address that for sure.

    We are looking for a team or small group to beta test the application.  If you are interested and your team is willing, I’d love that!  Please let me know how to reach you or email me.  I’d love to have your feedback, too, as we make improvements.

    Again, thank you – – –

    Celeste
     
    Celeste M. Combs, Co-Founder
    Design and Customer Experience
    celeste.combs@mycalamander.com

13. Really good idea on the calendar examples.  We can definately do that – I’ll get some up on our blog as well.  I’d love to have your continued participation and feedback.

    You know, you have hit the nail on the head on stress of managing all calendars – I used to type up all my events on MS Word document.  I was only ‘interested’ in these because my personal, work and training schedule fluctuate.  I have actually noticed, now that you say that, feeling a little calmer viewing everything on one calendar. 

    Again, thank you so very much! 

    Celeste
     
    Celeste M. Combs, Co-Founder
    Design and Customer Experience
    celeste.combs@mycalamander.com

14. Thank you for the feedback and ideas –

    After we dropped in the new home page content, I didn’t change the tab colors but it’s a must do.  Improving legibility as well and the footer, got it!  Will do.  Once we have those changes made we will post on our blog. 

    In our field research, busy moms were really, really interested in this service.  Families, moms and dads are an important audience to us and I know simple is really important.  We have a ways to go – would you be willing to help out some more as we iterate?

    Again, thank you, thank you!

    Celeste
     
    Celeste M. Combs, Co-Founder
    Design and Customer Experience
    celeste.combs@mycalamander.com

15. Really appreciate your feedback. 

    As you noted, Facebook aspect of the service is so useful.  Have you tried it?   You can connect to your Facebook  (and create a login) through Calamander.  Once you do so, you will see all the Facebooks events in a carousel.  From there, you can add that event to your calendar.   It’s very easy to add and remove them very quickly.  I’ll post an example out on our blog about that, too.

    I’d love more feedback, let me know if I can reach out to you as we iterate or you can follow us on our blog, Facebook and Twitter 😉

    Warm regards,

    Celeste

    Celeste M. Combs, Co-Founder
    Design and Customer Experience
    celeste.combs@mycalamander.com

16. Overall, what are your first impressions of Calamander?

    First off, I love the colors, the box layout, and the bulleted information explaining your site.  The tabs at the top make for easy navigation, and I like your logo.  Really loved the “how it works” and “our vision” pages. They really helped explain your site in a clear and concise manner.  The graphics were a plus as well.

    Which feature is most appealing to you?

    I especially liked the calendar synchronization. That is a great feature! It’s especially great that I could sync my calendar with my spouse’s.  I always love to see video tutorials on sites like these.

    What areas need most improvement?

    This is being picky, but since your tabs and the boxes inside the big box are rounded off, I would do the same with the larger boxes on the main page.  This would provide more visual continuity.  I don’t really like the way the “view calendar” page looks, however, I am not seeing it with information.

    What were most unclear or confusing?

    I thought everything was very clear. Lots of great information and explanations.  I never felt lost or confused.

    Do you have any other suggestions or ideas?

    I would round off the large boxes on every page (some of them are and some of them aren’t) and put a big box around the information on the sync page so it matches the other pages.  I do not like the way the help/vision/how it works pages have to be closed down. Just make the links that can be navigated away from.

    How likely are you to recommend Calamander Beta to a friend or colleague?

    Very.

    How often do you use a calendar?

    Hardly ever.

    Which feature is most appealing to you?

    The sync feature.

    Did you sign-up? Or did you browse our site? If you didn’t sign up, could you share why not?

    I didn’t sign up simply because I don’t have any calendars (on my computer or online).

    Overall, how valuable are the services we are developing?

    For people who use calendars and have lots of different schedules to keep up with, this is a great service.

17. Pingback: Calamander Showcased on StartUpLift « calamander

18. That is a bad domain name. The user is more likely to remember Calamander and go to calamander.com, rather than remember the ‘my’ part.  Especially, since your logo does not even has ‘my’ in it.
    The blue splash feels out of place with the rest of the website, which is green. The text looks very bad, I don’t even want to read what it says.
    When I clicked “Watch Video” the video should autoplay. I don’t want to have to click it to play. I enjoyed the video.
     
     

19. Overall, what are your first impressions of Calamander?
    I really liked that you could sync all of your calenders into one. There were several things that I did not like about this site.  From what I saw, you only had daily view, not weekly or monthly view.  Personally I like the monthly view, that way I can go to a particular month, and see exactly what I have going on during that month and on what day each event is.  I definitely don’t use the daily view calenders at all.

    Which feature is most appealing to you?
    The feature that is most appealing is that you can sync all of your calenders into one.  That way if you have a personal calender, and a work calender, you can put them on one which is very helpful.
    What areas need most improvement?
    I think that you should have the option to view daily, weekly and monthly.  I don’t use the daily view at all, and personally like the monthly view much better as well.  It would also be beneficial if you could add colors to the calender as well.  For example red for very important events, and different colors for other events.
    What were most unclear or confusing?
    There was really nothing that was unclear or confusing on this site.  All you had to do was to click a button to sync your existing calenders, so it seemed very straight forward and easy to use.
    Do you have any other suggestions or ideas?
    The only suggestion I have is to add color to the calender.  It makes it visually appealing, and it is practical as well.  The ability to record events in different colors would be very helpful.  Red for important ones, blue for work, green for social events for example.
    How likely are you to recommend Calamander Beta to a friend or colleague?
    I would recommend Calamander to a friend or colleague that needs an online calender to keep track of things.  I am sure that there will be more options soon, so I am pretty confident in recommending this product.

    How often do you use a calendar?
    I use a calender every day.  I have a lot of things going on, and it is hard to keep track of all of it.

    Which feature is most appealing to you?
    The feature that I liked the most was that you were able to sync all of your calenders into one.  It is much easier to keep track of one calender instead of having a bunch of calenders for different things.

    Did you sign-up? Or did you browse our site? If you didn’t sign up, could you share why not?
    I did not sign up, because I don’t like the daily view calender.  I prefer to use the monthly view calender, and I did not see that as an option on this site.
    
    

    Overall, how valuable are the services we are developing?
    I think that the service is extremely valuable for those who have separate calenders for different things. The ability to be able to sync all of your calenders into one is very valuable.

20. $5 awarded to melaniestuber.

21. $5 awarded to prwriter2008.

22. $5 awarded to Tricia.

23. $5 awarded to Orchid7.

24. $5 awarded to mustangsally105.

25. Absolutely. You can contact me via my personal email at melaniestuber@gmail.com.

26. Your comments are awesome.  We think sync will be a big hit but it’s also (from my perspective leading design) it’s complex.
    Your feedback about daily, weekly and monthly view is really valuable.  You can view the calendar in each of these but clearly it’s not easy to find.  If you try creating an account and then add a calender you’ll see the multiple choices for viewing a calender.
    The ‘calendar’ view is an area where I see a lot of improvement needed.  It’s a complete shift in how someone can view a calendar.
    I’d love to get more feedback from you as we make improvements.  Would you mind sending me your contact information?
    Warm regards,
    Celeste Combs, Co-Founder
    Design and Customer Experience
    celeste.combs@mycalamander.com
     
     
     

27. Your comments are amazing!  I’m blown away!  I am going to take a lot of these and put them on the table for us to consider!  Thank you so much. 

    I’d like to invite you to continue helping me by participating in the previews and giving me feedback.  We’ll be pretty seamless about that anyways but your insights on site organization and interaction are right on!  We have a long ways to go.  Noting, this is probably the first time in my 15+ years in design releasing something that isn’t fully finished on design, so your generosity with the roughness is so cool!

    Please let me know your contact info if possible – –

    Celeste Combs, Co-Founder
    Design and Customer Experience
    celeste.combs@mycalamander.com

28. Hi Harp,

    Thank you so much.  Yea, we definately hear you on the name and URL.    We’d love to have the name match the URL but its taken ;(  We have a lot of people loving the name though and would love to change the URL the instant its possible.

    I agree 100% with you on the color and legibility, I’m losing sleep over that one.  We plan to change that soon as we’ve had many comments on that.  It’s still so rough but we wanted people to start testing the calendar connection so we can tweak the technical issues. 

    Let me know if I can followup with you on changes.  Or you can track us on our blog, too.  

    Thank you again! 

    Celeste Combs, Co-Founder
    Design and Customer Experience
    celeste.combs@mycalamander.com

Comments are closed.