Team-Oriented Feedback with Notable

So, I was lucky enough to score an invite to a new app called Notable, created by ZURB. I say lucky and I really mean it. This app rocks!

Feedback

Notable is designed to be an app that teams who create websites can use to give feedback on projects. Their website states that it is the “Easiest way for teams to provide feedback on websites.” It is not only the easiest, it is also the most extensive. Within minutes of receiving my invite, I had a site into the app to begin testing. (To make this very easy, they provide a Firefox add-on which lets you capture a site with a single click.)

Feedback, Feedback, Feedback

As an app fan, I have tested out multiple feedback services. Notable utilizes familiar controls to highlight and comment areas, but expands greatly on the overall functionality. I immediately started highlighting areas of the site that I imported and making comments. When I was done, I noticed a down state on “Screenshot” and two buttons for “Code” and “Copywriting”. Can you guess what they let you do?

You got it! You are able to switch over to the source code and mark it up. It also strips all of the actual copy writing from the site and lays it out like an office document for easy reading and review. When I finished playing with these features, I saw the huge potential that Notable has. Most feedback apps that I have tested are geared towards making revisions or getting approval. Notable is designed to manage a project from start to finish.

Everyone can use it

Each person involved in the creation of a website can, and probably should, use this app. For a decent-sized project, you may have a designer, developer, copywriter and project manager. Oh, and don’t forget: the client! Notable provides a centralized location to review and provide feedback for all aspects of the design process. Understanding the need for this tool to be used by the team and also to get final approval from a client, Notable allows you to set permissions for each user.  (This means your client won’t have to see the designer/developer arm wrestling that went on during the building of the site.)

It’s all about the Team

Along with the ability to give feedback for multiple areas of the project, you also get the ability to view this feedback in several ways. This is vital when working in a team environment, where people have different preferences for consuming information.

Features Include:

• Section Feedback:

Each comment is highlighted with a yellow background in its viewing area: screenshot, code and copywriting.

• Dashboard Style:

Feedback is also displayed in well-designed layout including a screenshot with feedback list, each snippet of code that was commented on and any text that was commented on.

• PDF:

At the click of a button, a very eye-friendly pdf is created featuring the applicable parts of each section. (The one used in this sample was 1.3mb)

Those are the features that stood out from the crowd, but they also offer the standard ability to email feedback and send invitations for users to access the workspace.

My feedback

Overall, Notable was a joy to test out. The design is minimal, in the best way. It stays out of your way, providing excellent navigation with good usage of colors and sizing for buttons and titles. Creating users is very simple and the organization available for projects is deep. It takes a little getting used to the difference between workspaces and sets, but makes great sense once you have arranged them properly.

It’s hard to criticize functionality on an invitation-only beta app, but the one thing that I would like to have improved is importing a site without using the Firefox add-on. It is very easy to find how to import an image using the website alone, but I could not find a way to import a site by just typing a url. I highly recommend that you request an invite and check out this app. It has huge potential!