An Interview

Nathan Kaiser runs a networking group for entrepreneurs, here in Seattle, called "npost". He organizes a monthly get-together -- usually at a bar in the Queen Anne neighborhood of Seattle -- and an online newsletter which frequently includes interviews with local entrepreneurs. The latest issue features Kerika....

Multiple Kerika IDs

A user writes in:

I have installed Kerika on my machine at work. I have also just installed Kerika on my home machine but the installation process is asking me to register again. Is there a way that I can log on to Kerika from home using the email address I used to register when I was in work?

Let me first explain what's going on: Kerika works using peer-to-peer technology, not as as hosted service.

What does this mean? Well, it means that all your data are stored locally, on the computer where you created the account. With a hosted service, such as Yahoo or Gmail, all the data are stored on a central server. The advantage of a hosted service is that you can access your data from any computer, but the big disadvantage is loss of privacy: Yahoo, Google, MSN, etc. are all reading your email -- in an automated way, of course -- so that they can show you targeted advertising.

With Kerika, you get privacy because your data are always on your computer, but the disadvantage is that you need separate accounts for separate machines.

So, what should you do? It's simple: just create two IDs and become buddies with yourself. That way you can synchronize your information across two machines -- check out this blog entry that I wrote explaining how many of our users are using separate accounts on their laptops and desktops -- it should do the trick!

The Design Challenge

An interesting article from Harvard Business Review on "Feature Bloat", summarized here....

Adding features improves the initial attractiveness of a product but ultimately decreases customers' satisfaction with it.

This is something that I can really empathize with: the Kerika user interface started off rather complicated and "powerful" and then it went through many iterations before it became simple enough for mass consumption. And we are far from done: I am sure there are further simplifications that we could do!

Our first version was really designed for power users: it was optimized for speed, and lacked many of the dialogs, menu options and buttons that are available now. Unfortunately, it took a very long time to explain all the subtle interactions that it offered. After trying it with a small handful of beta users in December and January, we decided to considerably increase the number of dialogs, wizards, tips, etc. so that there was more communication about status and next steps to the user.

I hope we did this in a smart way: we tried to make sure that you could turn off wizards and tips if you didn't need them anymore, so that the more experienced users can get a more streamlined experience.

Did we succeed?

Picture Show

We have a kind of "hidden" feature in Kerika for a while -- a function that's existed for many months, but one that we have never talked about before...

As you already know, you can put any kind of content on an Idea Page -- a memo, presentation, spreadsheet, bookmark, whatever.

Here's the hidden function: if you put a picture on an Idea Page (e.g. a JPEG or GIF file), you can actually view the picture on the page itself by pressing the F6 function key.

If you press the F6 function key, this will toggle the view of the Idea Page so your picture is shown in its exact size, and in its original position. If you press F6 again, the view goes back to the "normal" display where the picture is shown simply as an icon, just like all the other files that you have on the Idea Page.

So, why have we kept quiet about this all along? Well, it's kind of a cool feature, but not quite perfect by any means so we weren't sure whether it was worth publicizing just yet.

One problem you might encounter is if the picture is adjacent to a bunch of other stuff -- other files, bookmarks or ideas. In that case, using the F6 key could result in your picture obscuring other items that are adjacent to it. We never quite figured out what would be a good solution to this scenario, so we never publicized the existence of this feature.

I would welcome your thoughts on this: what do you think should happen when a picture clobbers other items on the page?

Got Java?

A user wrote recently:

I'd like to download your Kerika program, as it looks useful. However when I download the windows version of the program and try to install it, I get a pop up error which says "Error locating class: com/kerika/ui/ui" I use Internet Explorer & Windows XP Professional. Just wondering if you can give me any hints as to why this might be happening.

The answer: make sure you have the latest version of Java by visiting www.java.com.

Why? Well, maybe you remember a long-lasting fight between Microsoft and Sun regarding the way that Microsoft "embraced and extended" (and accidentally/deliberately broke) the Java that they were bundling in with Windows XP? This finally got resolved last year with many millions of dollars changing hands, but not before the damage had been done: millions of people got PCs with Windows XP installed with a broken "Java virtual machine" -- which is what Kerika needs to run!

Since then both companies have been trying to clean up the mess, with Sun trying a little harder than Microsoft, but there are still many, many machines out there with a bad Java environment that came packaged with Windows XP. If you have never run any Java programs on your machine before -- and a shocking number of people haven't! -- you probably never knew that you didn't have a good Java environment on your computer. Well, just visit www.java.com and get yourself updated!

And now, Mac < Windows

Some time ago I noted that we were seeing a surprising distribution of Mac users vs Windows users, with a far greater number of Mac users than Windows users. This was thanks to Apple, who gave us a link on their site which prompted other Mac-oriented websites to create links to us as well. And so at one point we had nearly 5 times as many Mac users as Windows users.

Oh well, back to normal now... As word gets out about Kerika, we are seeing more Windows downloads than Mac downloads. It is currently running at about a 2:1 ratio, and I wonder if it will asymptotically approach the 97:3 ratio that reflects the overall market share of Windows vs Mac...?