The team at Evernote is making a big push right now to let users know about the upcoming new Evernote 5 for Mac. They have even released a beta version for users to try.
I won’t be trying it. I’ll wait for others to take the chance.
Why not?
Primarily because…
Evernote completely burned me with their “upgrade” of Skitch!
This “redesigned” Skitch took away pretty much everything that I loved about the application. Now I realize that the Skitch development team is different from the developers behind the main Evernote app, but still…
they have lost my trust.
Further, I have been so burned in the past by other software companies that whenever I hear (as I do in the Evernote 5 video) the words “we’ve completely redesigned the application“, I immediately think:
NOOOOOO!!!! THEY ARE GOING TO TAKE AWAY ALL THE POWERFUL FEATURES I LIKE!
Evernote did it with Skitch. Skype did it with their Skype 5 for the Mac that left behind so much of the Skype 2.8 that we all loved. Apple’s done it too many different applications to count (ex. iMovie, Final Cut).
So I cringe whenever I hear the words “completely redesigned“!
Now, granted, I do appreciate it when companies take in user feedback and make new versions of their applications. I love it when companies are responsive and make applications better. I just don’t like it when they remove powerful functionality (even as I do understand that sometimes they need to do this to re-do the application).
For me, Evernote is a critical part of my daily workflow. I am a paying Evernote customer and use it across my multiple systems and mobile devices.
I don’t want that workflow screwed up!
So I will wait for a bit and see what others who are more daring than I say about the new version. I am pleased to see that the initial comments to the beta release post seem to be positive. I’ll continue to monitor the flow of comments for a while before I even think about upgrading.
What about you? Are you going to take the plunge?
FYI, here’s their video about Evernote 5:
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Here’s the contrarian viewpoint: the reason why Skitch 2.0 sucked so badly and made us all very angry is that they didn’t beta it, at least not widely. We all got ambushed by it, and our wrath was wholly justified. Not participating in the beta process for Evernote 5 allows that to happen again – so jump in, test it out, and LOUDLY YELL when they do stuff that breaks Evernote for you.
Agree on how utterly useless Skitch is now for me. The good news is that I’ve switched over to FlySketch which actually I’ve come to like better then the original Skitch. Unfortunately the developer (FlyingMeat) has stopped working on the application but if enough disenchanted Skitch users convert maybe they’ll renew their efforts. You can download for free here http://flyingmeat.com/flysketch/
Makes perfect sense. I also get very nervous when companies say they’ve completely redesigned something I use regularly.
However, we spent a lot of time listening to our users before going in this direction and the new Evernote actually adds a ton of great features. I won’t try to sell you on it, but it’s worth giving it a try.
… however, I may be biased 🙂 great blog btw!
Jack
Mac Product Manager
Evernote