Jean du Plessis and Craig Raw
For this week's Quirk Chats, Kristi speaks to the sleep-deprived duo, Jean du Plessis and Craig Raw, whom, it’s rumoured, have spent just under a thousand hours a piece over the last few months putting the finishing touches to a tool that is set to shock and amaze those in the Online Reputation Management and PR fields. BrandsEye Version 2...which if you hadn't heard or read by now launches today! They took some time before launch to reflect on the process of giving birth to this beast, and on the joys and challenges faced when building for the Web using technologies that have only recently arrived.
1. What can clients expect from the new BrandsEye?
Jean: A lot of thought has gone into making the interface easier and faster to use. On top of that we’ve added lots of new functionality and allow the user to get an overview of their brand's position much more easily.
Craig: BrandsEye Version 2 is a big step of change for us. I think it's competing (and often winning) with the world's best ORM tools now - everything one would expect, from full automation to social CRM and deep data segmentation is there in a compact, modern interface. Above all it's easy to see the big picture, while still being able to drill down to the specifics of everyday ORM.
2. One of the big stories about BrandsEye Version 2 is that it has been built in HTML5. That's an ambitious move. What was the thinking behind it?
Craig: For the second version of BrandsEye, we decided to really push the boundaries of what's possible in a browser, and so we developed the tool using versions of browsers that hadn't been released yet - Firefox 4, IE 9, and Chrome 8 etc. With the growth of HTML5, the capabilities of the latest modern browsers have increased tremendously over the past 6 months, and we’ve reached a place where open Web technologies compare favourably with desktop and Flash software. It's an exciting time!
3. What challenges did you face in the development of BrandsEye in HTML5?
Jean: Learning and using new technologies is always fun, but it comes with its own set of headaches. Working with browsers that are still in development is challenging sometimes as things tend to change throughout the development process and you constantly find yourself adjusting.
Full HTML5 implementation is also not available yet on all browsers and thus for the moment the current BrandsEye V2 interface uses only two small subsets of HTML5, being the new markup tags and CSS3. That said I do think we have a base platform now that will lend itself to being enhanced with the other HTML5 technologies when it does get implemented by mainstream browsers.
4. We’ve been hearing a lot of talk about CSS3 in relation to HTML5, what does it stand for?
Jean: CSS stands for Cascading Style Sheets and defines rules that determine the styling of the elements on a Web page. The previous standard was called CSS2.
CSS3 has brought a whole new array of tools to the Web developer. Not only does it allow you more power to target your styling rules, it has added a lot of new visual styling effects that enhances the interface. No longer do we have to use images or JavaScript to get effects like rounded corners, shadows, and much more. Not having to use JavaScript or other workarounds also lead to a faster experience for the user.
5. Another really big achievement is Sentiment Automation as it has previously been very difficult to teach a computer the nuances of semantics– how did you manage this?
Craig: Sentiment Automation has been called the Holy Grail of computer science, and for good reason. Our brains are amazingly good at picking up the connotation in phrases, but even we differ from person to person. For a computer, this task is very difficult. We have gone the route of machine learning, and employed the services of an expert with many years of natural language processing experience to create a solution. I'd like to stress that no one has really got this even near perfect yet, but our numbers are looking comparably good and the sentiments are feeling right. It's an area we'll continue to work on, and we have some exciting plans in the pipeline here.
6. Can you comment on the thinking behind the new design on the interface? What was the look and feel that was being conveyed?
Jean: Right from the start of our planning we had two clear goals in mind: It had to be fast and it had to be fun. Web application interfaces in general still tend towards the safe and boring, and we wanted an interface that inspired the user while being functional and allowing them to spend a reduced time working through data.
Settling on an interface design was probably one of the most frustrating and difficult parts of this project (with numerous internal iterations of what the design speaks for) but we like the look now.
7. Did customer feedback influence your development process, and if so how?
Jean: When we did our planning we were able to identify 4 personas that made up the majority of our clients or users.
We constantly validated our decisions based on these personas' wants and needs and also their proficiency. This allowed us to make sure that we adjusted the functionality and information provided based on their needs. In the future, I can see us adjusting functionality based specifically on the type of user that uses the interface to provide them with the optimal interface for their task at hand.
Craig: We have always relied on customer feedback - I have an email folder with 4 years of good ideas, many of them implemented - and many more have been incorporated into Version 2.
8. What functionality makes you the most proud?
Jean: From an interface point of view I would say the fact that all the content is loaded via Ajax (Asynchronous JavaScript and XML) calls, which in turn allow for a much faster user experience, even if it adds a lot of complexity for the Web developer (wink wink).
Craig: For me, it's been really satisfying to see Twitter and Android come out with the same interface concepts as we have in their most recent updates, particularly around the sliding panels we use extensively in BrandsEye V2. Clearly all three teams were working on these ideas independently at the same time - however, given our freedom to target the latest browsers, we have really been able to create an entire interface in this way.
9. How do you feel now to finally be able to set sail to BrandsEye Version 2?
Jean: Extremely proud and excited! I think we are only scratching at the tip of the full potential that BrandsEye V2 has to offer and it’s going to be an exciting time as we improve and push this interface even further over the next few months. We have lots of features still in the bag that we are looking to roll out soon and as the browser features and performance increase over time, so we will adjust and improve as well.
Craig: We have some really exciting plans that we've had to hold off on while Version 2 was being completed, so I'm really pumped to start on those. I think it’s within our reach to become the world's premier ORM product, a crown which has not yet been claimed.
10. What are you doing to celebrate the official launch today?
Jean: Launch day is a combination of ironing out any issues that might arise immediately, but also hopefully catching up on some much needed sleep later on. However, during the day I'm sure the team will have a special moment where we open up some bubbly to celebrate finally reaching this big landmark.
Craig: We will all gather round to sing the BrandsEye anthem.
11. And now for just a tiny Quirk punt, BrandsEye used Quirk for the development of the new interface. What does the successful development of a product of BrandsEye Version 2's level of innovation do for Quirk’s engineering expertise?
Jean: The knowledge we have gained during the development of BrandsEye Version 2 will no doubt benefit Quirk's development teams which leads to better quality and creativity being delivered for our clients.
Craig: Ultimately this will raise the bar - many problems solved and lessons learned will be harnessed - particularly around engineering a high quality Web product. I believe the level of software engineering skill within the Quirk Group continues to be of a world class standard, which going forward will be an increasingly critical differentiating factor.
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