Survey results: This is what you think of Nokia Beta Labs
Wed, 2011-07-13 10:47A few weeks back I asked you to fill a survey to let us know what you think of Beta Labs. I promised to share the results once they are in.
Comparing to the previous results, news are mostly positive. We've again seen improvement on how much content we have on the site, but it still remains one of our major concerns.
The launch of the new design has had a tremendous effect on how pleasant the site looks and how pleasantly information is presented, both are up over 13 percentage points.
Both simplicity and ease of getting started has become better roughly 7 percentage points, likely also due to the new design. The mobile site is getting also better scores (+6 percentage points). If you haven't checked out the new mobile optimized website, I recommend to do so as it was one of our promised improvements for the past half.
You are slightly less satisfied about the effort of giving feedback and trying out new betas but also getting help when needed. These are down 3-5 percentage points each. Getting answers quickly has taken a small hit, and a tiny slide on developer participation is also visible. This is alarming, combined with the contribution to overall satisfaction as they all ampflify the same signal: Beta Labs is interesting because of the free content, not because you are able to participate in a trial.
Overall still, I would say the results are positive. For the next round, we will yet again need to concentrate on making Beta Labs more a place to participate in trials and emphasize the interaction over content.
- Ilkka
Comments
S60v5 or Symbian^1 hasn't got any new content now. I think the phones with this system are still in use and still that phones are a lot.
Now this look like Symbian^3 is only good system with support and any other systems (s60v5, s60v3) aren't in use (but still we are buying it). There should be fewer apps but still with application support
Ilkka thank you for the effort you and the team put to make betalabs the place I'm most interested in within Nokia's offerings online. I sense that the survey results may not have been the stella results that you present to a boss and gives them a smile. To be honest I was a bit luke warm the the site redesign but I've come around to liking it. I will say I miss the blog activity panel but the clean design is good.
Giving feedback is really why betalabs exists for Nokia in my opinion, other wise why offer these apps for testing to the wider public. From your post my impression is that the level of feedback is low and the quality of comments leans more towards leaching rather than participation and bug detection. My thoughts on this are that this is how humans behave. They'll take part in trying these apps and keep quiet as long as all is well, thats your 80% of users and the 20% will feedback. Most of the time that feedbck is prompted by some amount of disatisfaction and occasional happiness. I think I'm discibing apathy; suggestion to combating it is to prompt people to feedback by tracking their downloads, there is a reason we now signin to use the service. Have the star rating more visible as the simplest way to feedback.
I would like to disagree with the conclusion that betalabs is interesting because of free content, not because you are able to participate in a trial. This in my opinion is simply not true. We all love free content but I value the high quality free content produced by betalabs and mostly the fact that almost all the apps are stable. I participate because the conetnt is cutting edge and adds value to my phones. In a way it promotes brand loyalty. I understand that the corparate side of things is always looking for evidence to justify carrying on with what appears to be a cash drain. I agree that to show the value participants need to realise that free is not just free. From my mind I would like to say betalabs has been a bright star remember geo tagger, nokia maps and bubbles how users jumped on them.
@grzelny - I know not all apps are released with the full compatibility you're expecting, but what about apps like CNN, Drop, Wellness Diary, and Reader? Those are for S60 5th edition devices like the Nokia 5800.
@archaz - Thanks for sharing your interpretation of the survey results and for your passion towards this activity. We appreciate it!
John - Community Facilitator @ Beta Labs
I agree with archaz on his view that the conclusion doesn't quite hold.
If you want free apps, it is not that hard to find. But in here you have the chance to influence tomorrows build-in (or ovi-store) software.
And of course the risk of the apps being stuffed with malicious code is much less in here that on any random web-page offering free apps.
Best Regards
Eske Rahn
I am sorry to say bu your new site design does not work well with opera 11 .1 mobile.The floating bar tends to cover the entire screen on my N8.I am sure more of people like me would bfacing the similar issue , I have raised the bug as well for this but no one seems to lend their ears to the problem .Probably looking at this and similar issues should fetch you guys better results, as people tend to use opera rather than the problematic nokia browser.
@gaurav.mehrotra.80 - Thanks for your feedback. The issues with the mobile version of the site on certain browsers has not gone unnoticed.
John - Community Facilitator @ Beta Labs
David B.I agree a star system would make giving feedback simpler. The best apps are from beta labs. Particular Bubbles,star gaze,live view and nokia maps 3.8
Muy buena la Pagina, pero creo que se puede mejorar, con respecto a las aplicaciones son las mismas de android beta, nada demasiado llamativo, tengo un nokia n8 00, creo que faltan apps para mejorar, la camara que toma fotos con muy poca resolucion, tengo un lg renoir con 8 megapixel y lejos muy superiores, lo mismo que el sofwre de fotografias mucho mas avanzado, iso 1600, deteccion de rostros, pestañeo, sonrisa, compensacion de luz de fondo, panorama, etc, hace falta algo como Hiperx, fotos en bruto sin compresion, video a 30 frams, autofoco continuo, ahi recien se les pueden llamar fotos, a lo que toma este telefono, lo mismo que en personalizacion, algo como spb mobile shell, algo mas de avanzada, en conclusion hay aplicaciones comunes a android nada del otro mundo, creo que se puede mejorar, saludos
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