With the tech team buried in code redeveloping our online SMS product, Textburst, I thought it worth highlighting some of the usability improvements in the mill.
Upload Contacts
Our largest source of customer queries surrounds uploading bulk SMS contacts. This is in part because the current page is not exactly what you’d call intuitive. (click the image)
The sheer length of the page scares users. The instructions are at the top, perhaps logical, but most users forget the latter steps by the time they have completed the first stages. The “select fields” and “groups” sections in particular are confusing.
We’ve made a few tweaks and come up with this draft which we believe will make the process much smother.
You’ll notice the page is now much shorter with clear instructional copy to guide you through the process.
To de-clutter the page we’ve removed the instructions of how to convert excel to CSV. These is no reason to force you to read these instructions, we’ll include a link to a popup window so you can choose.
We’ve also introduced a preview sample of the uploaded data for you to confirm before committing. And, importantly, you’ll now be able to continue working in Textburst, sending and receiving SMS, while the upload is processing. The actual upload will process in the background, no more waiting for the screen to refresh.
A much improved process, I hope you agree?
Timeout Settings
We currently time out a session on 20 minutes of inactivity.
On this point we’ve listened to you, we’ve heard your requests, we know you don’t like this, so we’ve transferred power back to you:
You log in
You stay in
You log out.
Improving the “To” Field
As web technology improves it’s important to include those developments which add to the usability of our products. To make the send message page more fluid the inclusion of a clever bit of coding will certainly help in the “to” field.
I’ve struggled to describe this in a non techy manner but I think this series of images speak for themselves.
On the send an SMS message page, you have the “To” box that you can type numbers, names, or groups into:
As soon as you click in the box a menu appears:
Start typing and the Ajax functionality will automatically find relevant SMS contacts and groups, simply click the contact or group you were looking for.
Personalise
Finally, you may have noticed the addition of “Personalise” in the image above.
The current version of merging fields in a text message is cumbersome and hence frequently overlooked.
Recipients of SMS messages will undoubtedly respond better to a personalised message and hence why we have drawn more attention to this functionality.
As you are typing a message, use your mouse to click the relevant field to insert into the message.
Simple, effective, and helping you improve communication.
Until January
Hopefully you’ll see your feedback is being taken into consideration and an improved product is just around the corner, scheduled for release early January.
It’s all looking good, looks like uploading contacts is going to be so much easier in the future, should save lots of time and confusion. Looking forward to seeing the final version.