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(Archived) New features in Evernote


justacat

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Posted

Hi,

 

I'm a relatively new adopter of Evernote, but I've been using it regularly and extensively in that short period (maybe two months), and - wow, I didn't realize until I just looked, I have almost 1000 notes already! I've spent a lot of time researching and reading forum posts to try to get the most out of it and to figure whether I could do various things I was trying to do, and how to do them. (Doesn't really matter for this, but I'm on Windows, and also use Android and IOS).

 

So I've seen post thread after thread after thread with people talking about the features they want, features they would like to see, features they hope Evernote is working on, features they believe they might be working on, features that would make EN so much better, etc. etc. This is ongoing - and many of the suggestions are ones that I'd really like to know EN's response to. I've also seen many references to the fact that Evernote's policy is not to give a schedule or timeline for when (or if?) a feature will be adopted, or introduced.

 

Meanwhile, of course, Evernote is expanding into various other products.


My question - and maybe it's kind of stupid? But I'm going to ask it anyway, since I'm so new to EN - is, when and how does EN add new features - individual ones, not complete overhauls? (Not necessarily small, but not part of a major revision - I'm trying to think of an example, something I've seen requested a lot that isn't a systemic change, maybe the ability to export a note to pdf format, or to highlight within a note.)  Can I expect relatively frequent, or at least regular, between-version releases where bugs are fixed and smaller features are added? (I'm thinking of Calibre ebook management, a product I use and love, for which there's a new release every week - a little extreme as an example, maybe, though much appreciated)? Or can I expect to wait and wait and wait and wait and WAIT, and maybe when there's a big upgrade/overhaul, then I'll see a bunch of new things?

 

And how responsive is EN to requests for features? I gather this forum is mainly for users - but there's a constant clamor for new features - do EN employees ever give *any* indication of their reaction to any of these, the good ones or the often-repeated ones, or indicate which ones they might be considering? Do they ever add to EN any of these features that users are asking for?

 

I guess part of what I'm trying to determine, just so I can know what to expect as/if I continue getting deeper into my commitment to this platform, is whether EN is at present closer on the spectrum to a responsive, flexible, user-oriented smaller developer, who makes you feel (whether or not it's true!) that you have a direct interface with them and that they're responsive to you, that they are truly open to user suggestions, or to a...let's say more "remote" type, with which you always feel (again, whether or not it's true) like there are many layers between you - and that they have their own agenda, so no one is really listening. The latter wouldn't stop me from using EN (doesn't stop me from using Google!  :D )  - but it would be nice to know.

Posted

I would like to add my voice to this point. I have committed my business to Evernote because I can see the potential but it would be good to know what is being developed and when the new developments might be available.

  • Level 5*
Posted

Hi. In my experience, you can expect regular incremental updates and occasional overhauls of the app. If you were using Mac, for example, this year you saw (among other things) the addition of:

 

- related notes

- more integration of joined notebooks into your account

- plain text option

- an overhauled interface

- multiple account access

- Evernote Business integration

- type-ahead search suggestions

 

I would expect some (or all) of these will hit Windows any day now. Some of them I (and others) have suggested in the past. Others I never even thought to ask for, but really like. And, some I am not terribly keen on for my particular use case. I imagine it will be a mixed bag like that for everyone. Overall, it is significantly improved over this time last year. Is it a bed of roses? Yes, with a few thorns thrown into the mix too. It isn't perfect... yet :)

 

More to the point, the developers are active on the forums and responsive to user feedback. Even if I don't agree with some of their decisions (you will see plenty of my criticism as well as praise all over these forums), I have to admit that they are engaged with their users. As for telling us what is coming down the pipe, it is probably best that they do not (this is a very competitive marketplace, and I'd say it is better to keep things under wraps). If you want to get some inkling of what is coming, then you can always join the beta testing. 

  • Level 5*
Posted

* Yes, Evernote listens to their customers, here and from various other locales (emails, tech support requests, etc.)

* No, Evernote staff do generally not disclose feature roadmaps. That's pretty much a company rule, as far as I can tell.

* Sometimes, though, you get comments like "I like that", or "Thanks for the suggestion", or "Noted". Means what it says, no promises as to any kind of feature delivery. Remember, the staff who comment here are not always the ones who do feature prioritization.

* Occasionally, you get comments like "Oops, that's a bug; we'll fix it for the next release".

* Very, very occasionally, you get comments like "that's high on our list" or "coming soon". Hooray.

* You may or may not get some clues to future development by following the pronouncements of the CEO, Phil Libin. Some come true, some do not (better to-do support). You can also guess their direction by following new releases; since they do not release in lock-step, you see some features earlier on some clients than others.

 

In general, Evernote is like a lot of software companies -- they do have their own agenda, but can be moved by good ideas, and possibly, popular ideas (but not always on the latter, viz. request for arbitrarily nested noteooks, note highlighting, to-do lists, calendaring, AND/OR searches, colors for tags, LaTex/Markdown, etc., etc.).

 

If you are planning on using Evernote, either for personal purposes or a larger group, the realistic viewpoint for planning purposes is that you work with what Evernote is when you are doing the planning, not what you wish it might be.

Posted

I used Basecamp for my business for about 5 years without too many improvements so you could say I am patient. I am a real EN convert because I can see the potential but I do believe we need to see real improvements on a regular basis. Perhaps more importantly, those who are business users should be tapped for polled for their needs and ideas, because if they succeed in getting EN into businesses exposure to the product will increase exponentially.

Posted

I used Basecamp for my business for about 5 years without too many improvements so you could say I am patient. I am a real EN convert because I can see the potential but I do believe we need to see real improvements on a regular basis. Perhaps more importantly, those who are business users should be tapped for polled for their needs and ideas, because if they succeed in getting EN into businesses exposure to the product will increase exponentially.

 

Yeah, well, a lot of people think some feature they suggest will open a lot of doors to EN.  (Markdown, linux to name two others off the top of my head.)  As Jeff said, EN, like most businesses have their own roadmap that they do not publish.  And with 40 million plus users, it seems they know what they are doing.

Posted

* Yes, Evernote listens to their customers, here and from various other locales (emails, tech support requests, etc.)

* No, Evernote staff do generally not disclose feature roadmaps. That's pretty much a company rule, as far as I can tell.

* Sometimes, though, you get comments like "I like that", or "Thanks for the suggestion", or "Noted". Means what it says, no promises as to any kind of feature delivery. Remember, the staff who comment here are not always the ones who do feature prioritization.

* Occasionally, you get comments like "Oops, that's a bug; we'll fix it for the next release".

* Very, very occasionally, you get comments like "that's high on our list" or "coming soon". Hooray.

* You may or may not get some clues to future development by following the pronouncements of the CEO, Phil Libin. Some come true, some do not (better to-do support). You can also guess their direction by following new releases; since they do not release in lock-step, you see some features earlier on some clients than others.

 

In general, Evernote is like a lot of software companies -- they do have their own agenda, but can be moved by good ideas, and possibly, popular ideas (but not always on the latter, viz. request for arbitrarily nested noteooks, note highlighting, to-do lists, calendaring, AND/OR searches, colors for tags, LaTex/Markdown, etc., etc.).

 

If you are planning on using Evernote, either for personal purposes or a larger group, the realistic viewpoint for planning purposes is that you work with what Evernote is when you are doing the planning, not what you wish it might be.

Just so it's clear, I'm not using Evernote with hopes for what I wish it might be. That's not the point of my question - I'm not trying to find a way to get my suggestions implemented, I'm not claiming I have the key to making Everrnote perfect (though of course, like everyone, I have things I wish for). My question was more about getting a handle on what Evernotepthe-company is like. I'll use Calibre as an example again: knowing how incredibly and immediately responsive and involved that developer is makes me feel positive about contributing to the community and forums, offering feedback, making suggestions, asking questions, that sort of thing. The frustration level is very low, because I know I will get a response, even if it's "that's never happening ever." On the other hand, I'd never bother to make any sort of suggestion or even hope for any helpful changes regarding any Google product, though I use them.  I just live with it, accept that they will never fix the problems, and never even bother to offer feedback or report problems.

 

I don't know if that makes sense - it's a matter of knowing what you're dealing with so you can manage expectations.

 

So I was really hoping Evernote, despite being much bigger and more corporate, was still a responsive, user-oriented developer - for example, that if a feature was repeatedly, over and over, requested, you'd hear something from them (not that they'd do it, but there wouldn't be radio silence). I don't expect an explicit future roadmap of coming features, but iI was hoping that I'd see occasional comments about requests they're looking at more seriously, or things they hope/intend to do someday. And I was hoping that there would be regular updates with features and enhancements, and regular improvements to the core product, helping to fulfill the core purpose of Evernote.

 

That's what I wanted - but my use of Evernote isn't dependent on any of those things..

 

My sense from these responses, though they are very few, is that EN is sporadically and inconsistently responsive. For example, looking at your list of popular ideas on which Evernote can't be momved  (though it's not clear to me why or why not some of these might not fall into the category of "good" ideas, on which EN can be moved!). Has Evernote said these are off the table? Or is it just that they've never responded in any fashion to the incredibly popular, repeated-over-and-over requests? The thing is, if it's the latter, I'd call that a company/developer much more toward the nonresponsive side, despite that they might occasionally say "that's interesting." Ignoring ongoing, repeated very popular requests - by which I mean never offering any kind of response or reply or acknowledgment whatsoever (I don't mean not implementing them) - isn't what I'd call a high level of responsiveness. It's high on the frustration scale.

 

But if that's the case, then that's how it is, and at least I know not to expect anything different as I continue using Evernote.

 

I am however interested to read the opinion in GrumpyMonkey's post that it might be reasonable to expect "regular incremental updates." In the two months I've been using EN so far,the only update to EN Windows I've seen is to Evernote for Business. I guess I'd expect  that if they were "regular" I'd have seen one by now. But in light of what  GrumpyMonkey says, I'll wait and see on this point - I'd be really glad to see regular, ongoing enhancements to the basic EN (as opposed to all the new offshoots), regardless of whether they're  of particular interest to me. That's the kind of thing that would give me confidence in the developer; the single thing I can think of that might drive me away is a sense of lack of commitment to the core product. 

 

Thanks for your replies everyone!

 

Oh wait - one last question. If I ever have to request support/submit a ticket, etc., how does that work? Will I get a real person assigned to the case, who will respond and interact with me and help solve the problem? Or is it just the computer-generated type response?

  • Level 5*
Posted

@justacat: Just an FYI -- my previous comment was directed at conflation of your questions and paulelias's.

That being said, this is primarily a user forum; as far as I know, all posts here get read by Evernote staff, but they always respond, nor do they tend to get too involved with conversations, except in certain cases (often related to getting public beta feedback). Lots of times issues reported here are resolved by experienced users. The Evernote folks are are certainly pretty tight-lipped about future product features or delivery dates -- that's just the way it is; as I said, it seems to be pretty much a corporate policy.

On the issue of "popular ideas" vs. "good ideas": there are tons of ideas that users here suggest that would be useful to some segment of the user base, some of which are "popular" in some sense. That's great, but ultimately it's not up to us to decide which ones make the cut and which ones don't. Ones that Evernote folks like are probably put into the mix with their own ideas and planned features, and they're all prioritized out. There's only so much time and resources to put into these products, and sometimes useful ideas don't align with Evernote's plans for their clients. Consequently some useful things get dropped on the floor. Again, the typical feedback we get is that a feature appears or doesn't appear in some release, though occasionally we might get immediate feedback like "Sorry, but we're not going to do X".

On the topic of updates: If you follow the betas (as GrumpyMonkey does, I believe), you get updates more frequently than normal users, who tend to only get GA (General Availability) releases. Again, no public timetables appear to be in evidence. But GA releases do appear reasonably frequently. Check Help / Release Notes in the Windows client -- mine go back to Evernote 4.4; I just got the first 4.6.3 beta today.

If you open a support request, you will get a person assigned to you. Premium users get priority over free users. You will likely need to go through a cycle of "standard" steps: reinstalling the software, etc.

  • Level 5*
Posted

* Yes, Evernote listens to their customers, here and from various other locales (emails, tech support requests, etc.)

* No, Evernote staff do generally not disclose feature roadmaps. That's pretty much a company rule, as far as I can tell.

* Sometimes, though, you get comments like "I like that", or "Thanks for the suggestion", or "Noted". Means what it says, no promises as to any kind of feature delivery. Remember, the staff who comment here are not always the ones who do feature prioritization.

* Occasionally, you get comments like "Oops, that's a bug; we'll fix it for the next release".

* Very, very occasionally, you get comments like "that's high on our list" or "coming soon". Hooray.

* You may or may not get some clues to future development by following the pronouncements of the CEO, Phil Libin. Some come true, some do not (better to-do support). You can also guess their direction by following new releases; since they do not release in lock-step, you see some features earlier on some clients than others.

 

In general, Evernote is like a lot of software companies -- they do have their own agenda, but can be moved by good ideas, and possibly, popular ideas (but not always on the latter, viz. request for arbitrarily nested noteooks, note highlighting, to-do lists, calendaring, AND/OR searches, colors for tags, LaTex/Markdown, etc., etc.).

 

If you are planning on using Evernote, either for personal purposes or a larger group, the realistic viewpoint for planning purposes is that you work with what Evernote is when you are doing the planning, not what you wish it might be.

Just so it's clear, I'm not using Evernote with hopes for what I wish it might be. That's not the point of my question - I'm not trying to find a way to get my suggestions implemented, I'm not claiming I have the key to making Everrnote perfect (though of course, like everyone, I have things I wish for). My question was more about getting a handle on what Evernotepthe-company is like. I'll use Calibre as an example again: knowing how incredibly and immediately responsive and involved that developer is makes me feel positive about contributing to the community and forums, offering feedback, making suggestions, asking questions, that sort of thing. The frustration level is very low, because I know I will get a response, even if it's "that's never happening ever." On the other hand, I'd never bother to make any sort of suggestion or even hope for any helpful changes regarding any Google product, though I use them.  I just live with it, accept that they will never fix the problems, and never even bother to offer feedback or report problems.

 

I don't know if that makes sense - it's a matter of knowing what you're dealing with so you can manage expectations.

 

So I was really hoping Evernote, despite being much bigger and more corporate, was still a responsive, user-oriented developer - for example, that if a feature was repeatedly, over and over, requested, you'd hear something from them (not that they'd do it, but there wouldn't be radio silence). I don't expect an explicit future roadmap of coming features, but iI was hoping that I'd see occasional comments about requests they're looking at more seriously, or things they hope/intend to do someday. And I was hoping that there would be regular updates with features and enhancements, and regular improvements to the core product, helping to fulfill the core purpose of Evernote.

 

That's what I wanted - but my use of Evernote isn't dependent on any of those things..

 

My sense from these responses, though they are very few, is that EN is sporadically and inconsistently responsive. For example, looking at your list of popular ideas on which Evernote can't be momved  (though it's not clear to me why or why not some of these might not fall into the category of "good" ideas, on which EN can be moved!). Has Evernote said these are off the table? Or is it just that they've never responded in any fashion to the incredibly popular, repeated-over-and-over requests? The thing is, if it's the latter, I'd call that a company/developer much more toward the nonresponsive side, despite that they might occasionally say "that's interesting." Ignoring ongoing, repeated very popular requests - by which I mean never offering any kind of response or reply or acknowledgment whatsoever (I don't mean not implementing them) - isn't what I'd call a high level of responsiveness. It's high on the frustration scale.

 

But if that's the case, then that's how it is, and at least I know not to expect anything different as I continue using Evernote.

 

I am however interested to read the opinion in GrumpyMonkey's post that it might be reasonable to expect "regular incremental updates." In the two months I've been using EN so far,the only update to EN Windows I've seen is to Evernote for Business. I guess I'd expect  that if they were "regular" I'd have seen one by now. But in light of what  GrumpyMonkey says, I'll wait and see on this point - I'd be really glad to see regular, ongoing enhancements to the basic EN (as opposed to all the new offshoots), regardless of whether they're  of particular interest to me. That's the kind of thing that would give me confidence in the developer; the single thing I can think of that might drive me away is a sense of lack of commitment to the core product. 

 

Thanks for your replies everyone!

 

Oh wait - one last question. If I ever have to request support/submit a ticket, etc., how does that work? Will I get a real person assigned to the case, who will respond and interact with me and help solve the problem? Or is it just the computer-generated type response?

 

 

Hi. Windows got a huge update with the inclusion of joined notebooks into your account along with the Business integration a couple months ago. It might not seem like much, but for people with lots of joined notebooks (I used to have several dozen), it changes everything. And, I bet it was no small feat to get it done. There is, however, a lot more we expect will be coming soon. I am not sure I would call Evernote inconsistent. Rather, I think they have a vision of where they want to go. Sometimes that aligns with users, and sometimes it does not.

 

They will include things in the apps upon request (vertical list view was added to Windows in the spring? of last year based on popular support for the feature, but Mac does not have it, so we also have to recognize that there are different teams at work as well). 2fa is another feature that is supposed to be on the way, and I know a lot of people also pushed for that on the forums. 

 

But, some things like deep hierarchies in notebooks (technically speaking, we have no hierarchies -- stacks and notebooks only) have been suggested since about 2,500 BC, and some users are still yearning for them. So, this is one aspect that Evernote is not interested in changing. Are they ignoring their users because they disagree about where the app ought to go? I don't think so, but some people will feel that way.

Posted

Wow this thread is very interesting, and a relatively new business user of EN I am delighted to be involved.

I use support chat and support ticket systems all the time and I can say that the response as GrumpyMonkey suggests is often standard, however they do often suggest remedies, but many times the problem is bug orientated which means you need to wait for the bug to be fixed.

I am based in the UK and my one support wish is for my time zone support representation, which i believe is on the way.

  • Level 5*
Posted

But, some things like deep hierarchies in notebooks (technically speaking, we have no hierarchies -- stacks and notebooks only) have been suggested since about 2,500 BC, and some users are still yearning for them. So, this is one aspect that Evernote is not interested in changing. Are they ignoring their users because they disagree about where the app ought to go? I don't think so, but some people will feel that way.

Amazingly, "you are not doing what I want" is not always the same thing as "you are not listening to me". :)

Also, the Business integration was a critical feature (since strategic for Evernote's direction) that needed to be done across all clients at more or less the same time, making it a relative rarity, and distinct from things like vertical list views, which can be implemented (or not) on various clients without affecting any internal Evernote architectures.

Posted

But, some things like deep hierarchies in notebooks (technically speaking, we have no hierarchies -- stacks and notebooks only) have been suggested since about 2,500 BC, and some users are still yearning for them. So, this is one aspect that Evernote is not interested in changing. Are they ignoring their users because they disagree about where the app ought to go? I don't think so, but some people will feel that way.

Amazingly, "you are not doing what I want" is not always the same thing as "you are not listening to me". :)

Also, the Business integration was a critical feature (since strategic for Evernote's direction) that needed to be done across all clients at more or less the same time, making it a relative rarity, and distinct from things like vertical list views, which can be implemented (or not) on various clients without affecting any internal Evernote architectures.

Yes, this. I tried to be clear that what makes a developer "responsive" to me is not that they do what I want, but that they....respond. If people have been asking since 2500 BC, and Evernote said something to acknowledge and reply at some point - like no, this isn't consistent with our model and we're not interested in changing - that's responding. Maintaining complete radio silence on something about which people have been clamoring for the past 2.5 millenia....isn't. The former is not ignoring users. The latter is. In my world view, at least!

 

The reason I say "inconsistent" is that it sounds to me - from these responses - like, sometimes Evernote replies to very popular user requests, and sometimes they don't. That seems inconsistent and sporadic. A reply, a response, is absolutely not the same thing as an agreement or acquiescence - and it doesn't even always require offering much in the way of substantive information. It's just an acknowledgment that you've been heard, that someone is listening. I'd never expect that every tiny little request anywhere in the forum would get a reply, but there are some of them that seem to have some juice behind them, to be reasonably popular, and those are the ones I'd expect my understanding of a "responsive" developer to consistently reply to, in some fashion.

 

But okay, yes, I would like to see a regular flow of new features, too, even if they're not all ones I care about. GrumpyMonkey, I appreciate the info, but if I'm inferring correctly, there were two Windows updates last year? And putting aside the business integration, which isn't the type of update I'm talking about - that's far more significant - am I right that two features were introduced, vertical lists and joined notebooks? In the entire year?

 

I found the EN blog and looked back over the last few years to see the frequency of updates (well, I just looked at Windows), and while it's not overwhelming (especially because it looked to me like many of the updates had very few features), it is reasonable, and steady, so I am encouraged by that.  And the beta program sounds interesting.

 

I appreciate everyone offering views on this - after reading I'm not sure I wouldn't find it frustrating to get involved in, or even read, lots of discussions of potentially interesting and helpful (from my perspective) features, but it's not a lost cause, either, and clearly there are some thoughtful people who do find it worthwhile! :)

 

I am by the way a premium user.

  • Level 5*
Posted

Sometimes they've responded to "popular" requests in the past, and since they haven't changed their viewpoint, don't see much need for responding again (and again and again...). Sometimes the lifers in the forums will post links to these responses, though...

  • Level 5*
Posted

I don't know how many updates we've had on the various clients. A lot -- some small and some large. Every year has been like this, and if you compare it to way back when (I started using it in 2008), it has improved remarkably. The fact that it doesn't contain everything that people have requested is probably a good thing, and so is the fact that they have not been telegraphing their business plans to everyone (we are talking about a startup here). If you look around on the forums, you'll see plenty of posts by staff members -- more than 10,000 by the Chief Technology Officer. I'd say that is pretty responsive :)

  • Level 5*
Posted

@GM: Yeah, but the CTO hasn't posted in quite a while, as old friend JBenson was wont to point out. It *was* great when he was active, and his comments still get referenced, but I think his time became too squeezed. At this point, I think that you, me, and BnF are in 4th, 3rd and 2nd place on the post list, respectively. Whatever that means... (I'm betting you'll move into 1st place eventually). Anyways, as a community forum, there's a lot of good information about using Evernote available, which is what I prefer to focus on.

Posted

As someone who probably comes across as a serial whinger (although I'm not really), my only contribution to this thread is that we need to be careful what we wish for. 

 

The move to the new versions of Evernote for the Mac had a BIG problem as far as many were concerned - including this whinger right here - in that they actually REMOVED features that were present and working well in the previous version.  Simple things that just didn't seem to make any sense whatsoever - like taking away the ability to configure the toolbar - a basic Apple convention.  And as Grumpy mentioned, the continuing lack of a proper List view on the Mac, and on the iPad.  The iPhone version has Snippet view but not the iPad.  Same OS, but different apps.  And while we can reverse sort on the Mac - we can't on the iPad.

 

The devil is, as always, in the details.  I cannot for the life of me understand WHY they would remove features that work.  Even features that didn't work too well could be improved, but features that worked...???  Just doesn't make sense to me.  Some of those features have gradually been reintroduced - like the back/forward buttons - but why take them away in the first place?  Why can't I put a Print button on the toolbar if I want one?  Go figure...

 

So just be a bit careful what you wish for in terms of regular or frequent upgrades.  They can be a trap if you tend to do updates all the time without much thought.

 

Luckily, I've been able to backgrade to v3.3.0 and am happily using all those features.  But I still wish they'd give us a proper List view on the Mac, and in the 3-column format, NOT with the list above the note content.  That is the wrong way around for computer screens which are wider than they are long.  But we've had to put up with that since the beginning. (That would be around 2,500 BC in Grumpy years) ;)

Posted

@Nightstalker - has anyone from EN ever offered any explanation for this (the removal of features), or acknowledgment of it, or anything at all - or just silence? Wishing for frequent additions to functionality presupposes - for me - that the price is not that other functionality is not taken away. I have really never understood why any developers ever remove features. I can't remember ever, for any software, thinking that removing a feature was a good decision. Hide features away so only advanced users can find them, if you want, but don't take them away once they're there and working. It just makes no sense and does nothing but frustrate and anger users. But why wouldn't EN at least come out and say something about the reasoning behind their decisions, or offer a mea culpa? Even Apple offers those! That too makes no sense to me.

 

Really, I keep coming back to my initial conclusion, that EN's responsiveness is, at least these days, pretty inconsistent and sporadic. It's not what I'd hoped to find, it's a little disappointing to me, but at least I won't expect much else.

 

I do, however, agree 100% with jefito that there's a huge amount of really valuable information in these forums about how to use EN - no doubt about that.

Posted

@Nightstalker - has anyone from EN ever offered any explanation for this

(the removal of features), or acknowledgment of it, or anything at all -

or just silence?

 

Not in so many words, no.  Jack, the Evernote person in the Mac threads, is fairly responsive (between his real work, presumably), and I am sure he got the message loud and clear.  I suppose you could call the re-introduction of the back/forwards buttons an acknowledgement.  But I've never been able to figure out just WHY anyone would remove working features....  it defies logic, to me.

  • Level 5*
Posted

@Nightstalker - has anyone from EN ever offered any explanation for this (the removal of features), or acknowledgment of it, or anything at all - or just silence? Wishing for frequent additions to functionality presupposes - for me - that the price is not that other functionality is not taken away. I have really never understood why any developers ever remove features. I can't remember ever, for any software, thinking that removing a feature was a good decision. Hide features away so only advanced users can find them, if you want, but don't take them away once they're there and working. It just makes no sense and does nothing but frustrate and anger users. But why wouldn't EN at least come out and say something about the reasoning behind their decisions, or offer a mea culpa? Even Apple offers those! That too makes no sense to me.

Really, I keep coming back to my initial conclusion, that EN's responsiveness is, at least these days, pretty inconsistent and sporadic. It's not what I'd hoped to find, it's a little disappointing to me, but at least I won't expect much else.

I do, however, agree 100% with jefito that there's a huge amount of really valuable information in these forums about how to use EN - no doubt about that.

I have the opposite impression, though I am not sure how I would even measure whether the staff are consistent or sporadic in their engagement. It is a user forum, and so they naturally won't be here all of the time posting. They also have product launch cycles, events, trips overseas for business, vacations, sleep, etc. that affect their ability to participate in conversations.

It is an interesting question you raise, so I did a little fishing around on the forums to see if we could answer it by looking at staff postings. I am sure if I put more time into this (15 minutes or so to collect these posts), I could come up with hundreds more posts regarding design and responses to user feedback. This should give you a taste of relatively recent comments by staff members.

https://www.evernote.com/shard/s74/sh/cb2efb47-bfd9-4db8-9634-cb0fbfc397fe/e9710afeaa08ac74941d33464bc5663a

As far as removing features, it makes perfect sense to me. Why continue maintaining code and adapting it to new upgrades if people are not using the features. For example, I don't think many people miss the ability to change fonts in the center column on the Mac. I do, but I don't remember seeing a single other person post about the issue. It's unfortunate (for me), but I get it -- if people don't use it and don't care about it, why keep working on it? Windows never even had the ability (as far as I know), so this is something that actually brings a bit of parity to the clients (unfortunately, by sacrificing a feature I liked).

Other features, like the ability to edit saved searches, seem absolutely critical to using the app. The loss of that feature was quite a blow to me, as I had come to rely on them a lot, and once the search behavior in different clients changed (iOS does not search joined notebooks together with your account), then all of my saved searches instantly needed to be edited. Except, I couldn't. I don't get that, but again, if people are not using it, I guess it had to go. Alternatively, it may be temporarily gone as they work it back into the code after a major update. I don't know. I can't remember if Jack has explained why they removed the feature, but I wouldn't be surprised if he has said something somewhere. In the end, I just adapted to the new normal and moved on -- I've got stuff to do!

Personally, I feel like the developers are doing their best to not only listen to the softball suggestions, but also strive to respond to rather harsh criticisms leveled at the apps by users. It seems like a great environment to me, but I suppose we will all come to this with different expectations.

Posted

@Justacat I'd recommend you watch the recent designer talk videos.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=QMuyO14NgVA

www.youtube.com/watch?v=jWtKizpyhW4

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