Devizan is a cloud based development environment with transparency and collaboration tools.
Target Audience: IT managers, software developers, project managers
Website URL: www.devizan.com
No. of Feedback Providers Requested: 5
Feedback sought:
1) Look around the marketing pages (https://www.devizan.com/).
What is your initial impression of what you see?
Ways to improve?
What was confusing about the site?
Were you encouraged to (create a new account, subscribe, look at the demo, etc.)? Can you tell us why (or why not)?
2) Signup and take a look at the demo for the service.
What is your initial impression of what you see?
Ways to improve?
Was anything confusing?
Were you encouraged to subscribe? Can you tell us why (or why not)?
3) Go to a search engine of your choice and find one other company that offers a similar service. Compare the two companies. Which one do you prefer? Why?
4) Please share any additional feedback/comments you may have (how can we sell more software?)
1) My initial impression is that the logo/brand name is hidden due to the conflicting colors of the logo. I don’t believe the brand stands out enough on the page. On the navigation, the shadowing around the text is also troublesome to me and is distracting. The text overall on the homepage is a conflicting use of sans serif and serif fonts. If you’re going to use both types of fonts, try to have them compliment one another more. The space above the fold of the homepage needs to have more relevant information present to inform site visitors what the company does. I was not encouraged to create a new account through this webpage, because the homepage at this point in time is not convincing enough to me as a potential customer that I should sign up with the business. When I think of Cloud solutions and Cloud solution management, I think of a modernized web/tech experience and this website does not communicate that to me at all.
2) The sign-up page for Devizan is very bland and uninviting for a potential customer. I also noticed at the bottom of the page that the copyright year for Devizan has not been updated since 2008, which leads me to believe this website has been last updated in 2008 and further explains why it looks so outdated.. although, I noticed the copyright years of 2010-2013 have been updated on the homepage. The IA/UX design is quote outdated throughout as well which leads me to believe the software follows that pattern. The branding is also not consistent throughout the product which is concerning and confusing for me as a user. Through my experience, I was not encouraged to subscribe to user Devizan cloud services because I do not feel the company has put deep thought into the creation of the product, branding or customer experience. That is not inviting to me as a user, especially when the product is a storage solution for important documents.
3) To compare another company to Devizan, I searched the keywords cloud management solutions on Google and was lead to Scalr’s website at http://www.scalr.com. Immediately upon landing on their homepage, I am able to have a better idea of what Scalr does compared to how I felt when landing on Devizan’s page and felt I needed to search for what they do. In terms of overall page design, I am not overly impressed by Scalr’s website design, however, I do believe they put much more thought into the SEO, UI/UX and trust logos than Devizan did. I believe Devizan’s designers/developers could gain some insight on how to better their site from this example of Scalr.
4) A lot more work needs to be done in order to have the Devizan site be professional and solid enough for the company to gather conversions. As of now, the website is not a place where I feel I can trust the company’s product and services offered. Better explaining the software and a better representation of branding throughout the website would be more encouraging for a user to use your product. I hope my feedback has helped you and best of luck on your journey.
1) This site has a very professional, crisp look. The demo video seems as it would invite many programmers that would visit the site. I do not see much room for improvement- I would suggest in house created content such as technical whitepapers. I was encouraged to create an account, although I did not because I do not have any projects currently
2) The demo is easy to understand and displays it ability to manage projects. Its not much room for improvement, but a livechat option might make sense. I was not confused by the demo. As a manager, I would need to interact with a person via phone or email before I made a purchase.
3) I found https://www.wrike.com/ through a google search. Both sites are pretty good, but I would slightly prefer wrike.com because it has a phone displayed prominently.
4) I think become a knowledge source for web project management with a blog or informative youtube videos would help with trust and credibility. The improvement in trust will lead to more conversions.
First impression is that the text blends in with the background and isn’t easy to distinguish. This seemed to happen to some degree on each page in the main menu. Large text should POP out at me so I know exactly what I’m looking at. The logo suffers similarly. Dark letters on dark background.
I felt every page was the same. That makes it easy to navigate but shows lack of creativity. If you’re selling your product (especially if it’s a web page) the page should be fun and not boring to navigate. I want to see ingenuity in a webpage that I hope will be in the product as well. The information given was good though and would make me want to sign up if I were interested in cloud code sharing
After signing up for the demo what I see is… Bland. Reminiscent of a forum from the 90’s. It’s efficient and packs a lot into a page, but that can also come off as cluttered and daunting to the user. I’m not saying it’s BAD. It’s not, I just think over time it would be best to improve the UI so people feel more comfortable spending a lot of time on the site. Perhaps even make it customizable per user.
cloudshare.com has a website that immediately feels fresher and more professionally developed. Their pre-configured environments are a great feature to help get started quickly too. Consider some templates like that for your customers that are showcased. It’ll make them less leery of signing up since they can get right to using the site.
This isn’t a product I’d be directly involved in using. I’m a novice when it comes to that sort of thing. But aesthetics and usability are things anyone can make a fair judgement on. I like the simplicity of the UI; it’s google-like, but needs to be a little easier on the eyes
1. My initial impression is that the home page is very well done. My only suggestion is that you squeeze the word “code” or “coder” into your tagline somewhere. For example, you might try, “Develop code. Manage. Deploy.” As it is now, I don’t know Devizan is specifically for coders until I’m almost at the fold and read, “Code Anywhere. Manage Anywhere.” In fact, if I were you, I might move this up alongside the image and make this your tagline. I think it’s clearer and simpler than your current tagline (“Develop. Manage. Deploy.”). Continuing on, I like the placement of the intro video (though it could use some music and/or narration, and I’d love to be able to start and stop it at will) and the selling points below it, which are accompanied by some nice touches–dividers, red bullets, and images–to make them attractive to the eye and easy to read. Good job!
I like that the “Management Tools” and “Development Tools” pages continue the visual theme you established on the home page with a coder at work outside, reinforcing the idea that you really can work from anywhere with Devizan. I also like that you have an intro video for each page, although, again, these could use some music and/or narration. Plus, the video windows don’t enlarge, so it’s hard to see the screenshots clearly. However, the main problem with these pages is that I find them to be somewhat too dense with text. You break this up nicely with images, but it still seems dry. A lot of web sites offering SaaS use screenshots to illustrate web copy, and that helps to provide a visual cue and make the text more readable. Even still, I think there’s a lot you could condense here. For example, on the “Management Tools” page, I think you could easily eliminate the blue section and keep the pink and green or eliminate the pink and green and keep the blue without losing much since a lot of this info is redundant. The same goes for the “Development Tools” page. The “Cloud Deployment” page also comes off as a little too wordy. I’ll give you an example of how you could improve this: In the green section, you have two separate selling points that say, “Chat with your development team in real time” and “Watch in real time as your developers work on your documents.” You could combine these to say, “Watch and chat with your developers as they work in real time.” I see numerous statements that could be combined like this.
I don’t have any issues with the design or layout of “Pricing,” but if I may say so, those are some pretty large price jumps between tiers. To me, it seems unfair that a business with 10 employees gets to pay $15 a month while a business with 12 or 15 employees has to pay $50. I’d rather see a price per employee, with discounts for larger businesses with more employees.
Nothing about the site confused me after the initial (very short) delay before I figured out it was a SaaS specifically for developers, but I found it fairly dry to read because of the aforementioned issues.
I signed up for an account for the purpose of giving feedback but wouldn’t have otherwise since I’m not in the web development business. If I was, I might be interested in signing up, but I’d really rather be able to view a free demo or at least a bunch of screenshots before doing so.
2. The sign-up process was smooth, although I’m really not fond of required validation emails. The demo worked fine–I’m not sure why I couldn’t have seen it before signing up. My first impression was that your SaaS provides an extremely detailed way for a manager to track a development team. I was almost overwhelmed by all the detail, but I assume it would be informative and useful for someone accustomed to working with code and coders. I like the “Edit History” timeline, which is so easy to scroll through, and it’s a piece of cake to click on the name of a developer or manager and see their work history. It would’ve been nice to add a project in the IME or a new task in the IDE as part of the demo, but it didn’t seem I was able to do that without giving credit card info. If I was looking for a SaaS like this, I might subscribe at this point, especially since there’s a free trial, but a lot would depend on how many employees I had. If I had 100 users, this might seem like a good deal at $200 a month. But if I had 110 and was now forced to pay $500 a month…not so much.
3. I think you may be on to something with Devizan because I wasn’t able to easily find another SaaS that combines an IDE with an IME. There were lots of free IDEs available, and they were rich in features. But they didn’t include the ability to track individual coders in such a detailed manner as Devizan does. In fact, I had a hard time finding any IMEs at all.
As an IDE example, I found NetBeans. It’s free and looks pretty powerful, but it’s geared toward individual coders to help them organize their work and collaborate with others, not toward managers. In that respect, you offer more and have the advantage.
However, notice some of the ways their web site is currently more effective than yours: The NetBeans home page isn’t too wordy. It immediately informs visitors that it’s for coders (“The Smarter and Faster Way to Code” is the tagline). Their very nice intro video displays in a large window, has music and narration, and really walks visitors through the NetBeans IDE. Their home page has a slideshow of features, and although each feature page is also too wordy for my liking, the text is accompanied by screenshots for visual illustration. These are all things you might implement.
4. How do I think you can sell more software? First, I’d reexamine your intro videos. Allow them to be enlarged, add music and narration, and walk visitors through features step by step. Next, I’d work on reducing wordy web copy. Third, I’d give visitors more opportunity to preview your SaaS before signing up, either by using extensive screenshots or a demo video or by allowing them to demo the SaaS without creating an account. And finally, I’d rethink your pricing structure. I think $15 a month is probably a good deal for a team of 10, but how about that team of 12 that now has to pay $50? Consider a price per user plan or price jumps that aren’t so drastic.
Devizan seems to be offering a combination of software that others aren’t yet (or at least I can’t find such an animal on the first couple pages of a Google search), so this could be quite profitable. If you actually ARE the only company offering a combined IDE and IME, play that up to your advantage and let visitors know you’re the first. Good luck!
1) Look around the marketing pages (https://www.devizan.com/).
What is your initial impression of what you see?
My first look at the site did not make me think of software development/management. Might be because the colors are too dark and make it seem old-fashioned — it does not scream modern technology. But after reading through the text, it was pretty easy to understand what the site is all about.
Ways to improve?
The homepage is alright but I guess using lighter colors will give it a more relaxing feel. Personally, when using development tools, I prefer lighter color schemes.
What was confusing about the site?
Didn’t find anything confusing. It’s great that the information and layout is easy to follow. The image slideshow also helped a lot.
Were you encouraged to (create a new account, subscribe, look at the demo, etc.)? Can you tell us why (or why not)?
Yes I want to see how it works. The service offered by the site is something I find useful.
2) Signup and take a look at the demo for the service.
What is your initial impression of what you see?
I was a bit overwhelmed. There was so many things written on the page I wasn’t sure what to check first. After going through the sections though, I finally had an idea of its features.
Ways to improve?
The layout feels too constricted. Maybe adding some space between the sections will make it easier to look at. The look and feel probably isn’t the priority but maybe using a more modern looking interface will make it more inviting and easier to explore.
Was anything confusing?
I only find it confusing because there was so much to look at. Being a first time user, I wasn’t sure what to do although the tour did give me a slight idea.
I was wondering what the “Filter” button beside the names of the member. I clicked on it and it turns out that it shows only that user’s activity on the stream. Now I don’t know how to make the stream show all the user activities again (I finally saw the “Unfilter” button at the top while I was looking around).
Were you encouraged to subscribe? Can you tell us why (or why not)?
Not really. It feels like the interface is incomplete or rushed. The features are great but I’m finding it difficult to use and navigate around with.
3) Go to a search engine of your choice and find one other company that offers a similar service. Compare the two companies. Which one do you prefer? Why?
So I ended up at Cloud9 (https://c9.io/)
I prefer Cloud9 over Devizan. They have a cleaner interface which seems easier to learn and use. The features are also great although I don’t think they have some sort of “Activity stream” but I’m still leaning towards Cloud9.
4) Please share any additional feedback/comments you may have (how can we sell more software?)
The usage terms link is broken.
I did not find it user-friendly. I can see that the features are great but it seems complex. It might also be due to the looks of the interface.
Devizan seems to be something really useful but I don’t find it interesting to explore. Perhaps improving the interface, layout and colors will make it a lot more inviting and simple to use.