Rant: Bad Upgrade experience

[tombigel]

I had a really bad user experience upgrading to Alfred v2.

It feels that with the (totally understandable) excitement and workload involved with version 2 you lost the sight of the user experience for existing users.

 

Some examples -

• I did not receive any upgrade notice by mail nor within Alfred, I only learned about it because I follow Alfred on twitter.
• When I went to Alfredapp.com site, I couldn't find any "Upgrade Alfred!" notice on the front page, or any text or link targeting existing users for that matter.
• When I installed Alfred v2 (Which does not work for me btw, posted a bug report about that) I did not get an "Upgrade Powerpack" notice and learned that I need to upgrade only after trying to enter my old Powerpack license key.
• When I encountered some upgrade problems I expected to have a direct support link for paying customers in the support section but couldn't find any.

 

Now that I released some steam I just want to say that I use Alfred since forever, from the days it was a pet project and I love it.

I can't imagine working on a Mac without Alfred, it's the first app I install on Mac newbies computers' and I guess that as long I'll be using a Mac it will be the first app I install.

 

Just writing this because Alfred is an example of good UX for me, and it hurts a bit to see it fail in that area.

Edited March 17, 2013 by tombigel

[Andrew]

I had a really bad user experience upgrading to Alfred v2.

It feels that with the (totally understandable) excitement and workload involved with version 2 you lost the sight of the user experience for existing users.

 

Just writing this because Alfred is an example of good UX for me, and it hurts a bit to see it fail in that area.

 

Hi there,

 

I have already replied to your bug report as soon as I saw it. Alfred was created by me and Vero alone, so the reason we are holding back on the press and the big blast is to help us spread the v2 release over a longer period rather than a huge peak at the beginning. We do all the support ourselves and want to provide this with the highest quality possible to every single user.

 

Over the coming weeks, the v2 site will get much more clear, v1 will be updated to give an easier license migration path, we will be launching new microsites with curated workflows and themes and we will be sending out a newsletter to our subscribed users. Ultimately, we are trying to do our very best!

 

I understand that it's nice to vent some steam, but I just truly hope that once v2 settles for you, that you enjoy him as much as v1

 

Cheers,

Andrew

[tombigel]

Totally understandable,it's all written in good faith to help my favorite app become even more awesome

[Andrew]

Totally understandable,it's all written in good faith to help my favorite app become even more awesome

 

No worries, I appreciate the feedback! Also, you have made me realise that in Alfred's help preferences tab, the middle "Known Issues & Bugs" leads to an incomplete and unhelpful page. Vero is updating that page as we speak to make it more obvious how to report a but.

 

In an ideal world, more time would have allowed me to create a much more invisible and seamless upgrade process, but with such a huge overhaul of Workflows, this could have added months to Alfred v2's release.

 

Let me know how you get on with my reply in the bugs forum

 

Cheers,

Andrew