(Archived) List of suggested new features/bug fixes?

[CaptainTime 94]

Evernote is such an amazing tool that it soon becomes indispensable. When a tool becomes that important to people, their frustrations run high when there is something they want to do with it that they can't.

I have noticed a lot of negative comments on the forums about requested features being slow or perceived problems not being dealt with as quickly as users would like.

I was thinking that it might help to have a comprehensive list of suggested features and let users vote on which is the most critical that we would like to see Evernote work on next. For example, Evernote might think people would want one feature as a top priority whereas the majority of the users may prefer something else entirely. This would give us a voice and give Evernote valuable feedback.

We could provide a priority number such as:

5 - critical feature that I am thinking of leaving Evernote over

4- important feature that I find lacking every day

3- good new feature that would greatly improve my Evernote experience

2-useful feature I would like to see eventually

1-nice eventual feature

0-don't see the need for this feature

They could add up the numbers and this would quantify the value of new features for us.

For example, here are 3 features I would like to see:

a) Resizing images - nice, but I can easily do this in other programs - 2

Word wrap for images - I would use this lots in my shared notebooks - 4

c) Highlighting text - would use lots - 4

Here are a few examples of how some other software companies do this:

http://www.weebly.com/editor/feature_request.php

http://gallery.menalto.com/sfvote

Please note that I LOVE Evernote and I am not leaving. I am just brainstorming ways to give users a say in what features are most important and helping Evernote understand their customers better.

[GrumpyMonkey 4,319]

Hi. I think your intentions are good -- to provide useful feedback to Evernote about features that users want to see -- but I am not sure how well this would work in practice.

I have made all sorts of criticisms and suggestions, and I am sure that the developers have read them. They've even discussed them with me. But, in the end, they often choose to go their own way. Much as I would like to think that I know what is best for the Evernote app, I probably don't, because I am not the one in the trenches designing it. Multiply this by forty million (assuming all users voted) and we'd probably have everyone not only voting for features, but expecting their votes to count, and being frustrated when the developers decide to take the app in a different direction.

At any rate, Evernote staff members have rejected the idea in the past, and I don't think anything has occurred since then to change their minds.

[Metrodon 2,184]

I have to say I'm with the Evernote team here, I'd much rather hear a constructive criticism than just see a +1 or a vote or a priority.

That kind of stuff makes a forum extremely boring.

[CaptainTime 94]

Doing it as a +1 in a forum is unwieldy, Metrodon. It wouldn't be in a forum at all. Did you look at the links I offered? They provide an easy system to tally votes instead of filling a forum with +1 messages.

At a glance, you can see what your users most requested features are so you could incorporate that into your planning.

[Metrodon 2,184]

This ain't a democracy. Evernote have made it very clear that they decide the product direction.

[jefito 5,589]

I think that Metrodon is arguing against +1's. Evernote has, in the past (and even more strongly than the post linked to by GrumpyMonkey), considered and ultimately rejected voting systems for features.

You might be interested in this post by gbarry: http://discussion.evernote.com/topic/32017-time-for-a-re-think/#entry173014