Great Design - PBwiki

Posted on April 25, 2007
Filed Under Uncategorized |

While I think pretty highly of the entire PBwiki as a whole, there’s one feature I want to point out that is a great example of someone thinking about how an actual customer will use a feature and then making it work so that it fits the way they work.

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When I copy/paste a URL from my browser window I copy the entire url including “http://”. Some systems parse out the “http://” because they support other protocols, but they then require the user to only paste in the URL minus the protocol… in other words, they want “www.teqlo.com” while “http://www.teqlo.com” will create an error condition.

PBwiki handles this nicely by letting me paste the entire URL string into the text box, at which point the dialog box code kicks in and strips out the protocol part (”http://”) automatically. It’s really a small thing and certainly not a complex feature to code, but it reflects an appreciation for making a system work the way an actual user will want it to work. Culturally, this is one of the more challenging aspects of building a software service or product and here PBwiki has done a commendable job.

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