Demo Version?

[mikelove]

As some of you may have noticed, the demo version of PlecoDict is missing a lot of features - the handwriting recognizer is absent, the flashcards are crippled and there are too few words to search effectively. Since we can't change these things (and in fact the situation is likely to get even worse with the Pocket PC port), we've started wondering whether it's even a good idea to offer a demo version of PlecoDict at all. The thinking is that if prospective customers try out a demo version and are frustrated by the fact that they can't do anything with it, it may make them even less likely to buy the software than if there was no demo available at all.

Now we wouldn't stop offering a demo without putting at least something in its place, most likely a mildly-interactive Flash animation that let you get a sense of what PlecoDict's interface felt like, but it would still be a pretty big change.

We're planning to send out an e-mailed customer survey on this and many other topics in a month or two, but I'd love to get some informal feedback on this here.

 

[David]

I'd be very wary about paying $80 for software that I hadn't tried.

 

[curwenx]

A demo is in theory a very good idea. However, I remember trying the "demo" of the first preview release, and finding it completely useless because I could only see entries starting with a and b. That way it was very hard to get a proper impression of how the dictionary would behave in actual use.

I agree that if the demo is too crippled, it is perhaps better not to have a demo at all.

 

[Anonymous]

I only bought the Oxford Dictionary after trying out the demo, which included the handwriting recognizer and flashcards. I also don't think I would have bought the software without trying out the demo. In addition, if I couldn't use the handwriting recognizer and the flashcards in the demo, I may not have bought the software, unless I read all the great reviews in the various forums - even then, I probably would have been sceptical.

Why don't you leave the demo for the old Oxford CE available, and just list the improvements of Plecodict? Or is this also not possible?

 

[haraldalbrecht]

I also only bought the Oxford dictionary after having tried out the demo. It was in fact important to me to try it out to get a feeling for what the overall handling of the software -- it gave me the impression that Mike is in fact doing a fantastic product and not just some nice flash or powerpoint demonstration.

However, just being able to look at A's and B's was really annoying. Maybe it would be more helpful if the dictionaries would be crippled in a nother way, for instance, just displaying 1 out of 1000 entries.

 

[mikelove]

Unfortunately, for licensing reasons we're not going to be able to offer the Oxford E&C in a demo or a full version after the end of this month - it's PlecoDict only from here on out.

But perhaps we could find a way to make some of the feature crippling in PlecoDict less annoying. For example, we could leave the handwriting recognizer screen intact even if we're not able to put the recognizer itself in - maybe we'd pop up a little dialog every time you turned the recognizer on that explained it. We could even have the recognize button bring up a fixed set of characters, just so people could get a sense of the process of entering words.

And it might require some haggling with licensors, but perhaps it would be possible for us to leave the headwords and Pinyin intact and mask out only the definitions in the demo version - that would give people a sense of the breadth of each dictionary even if they couldn't look up words in it. It would require some changes to the engine, though, so it might not be possible until a major update.

An annoying problem on the horizon is that it looks like we might not even be able to include fonts in the demo version on Pocket PC (since they're in standard .ttf format and hence not really possible to copy-protect) - we'd have to bundle some lower-quality free font and put up yet another warning message explaining that. This is part of what prompted me to start wondering about a demo version.

Thanks for the feedback.

 

[Jim]

What about creating a demonstration instead of a demonstrator. It would run on the Palm and would take you step by step through the various methods of using Plecodict and would be mildly interactive. For example, re HWR, it would show the HWR palette and say to write a certain character. No matter what was scribbled at that point would be accepted as that character and take you to the definition. A window would explain to not worry about writing the character properly as anything will be accepted in the demo. It would then explain changing settings to use full screen HWR and repeat the process. It could then tell you to highlight a certain word in the definition and us soon as you touch the screen anywhere it would highlight that word and take you to the next step. This way you could likely get around most of your licensing concerns. I think it would give just as much feel for the product as the current demo and maybe more. I found with the demo that I had to keep reminding myself that the things I couldn't do could be done in the purchased version. This wouldn't allow the freedom to try words at random but would give a clear picture of what happens at each step and having some interaction would make the user feel some participation instead of just watching.

You have a lot of bright customers out there Mike and I am sure many of them can suggest variations and improvements to give it a better feel. I know many of us would volunteer to test run anything you produce and give you feedback.

 

[David]

And it might require some haggling with licensors, but perhaps it would be possible for us to leave the headwords and Pinyin intact and mask out only the definitions in the demo version - that would give people a sense of the breadth of each dictionary even if they couldn't look up words in it.

Being able to access all those headwords would be enough to hook me. How about offering a demo database, tailored to whatever you can negotiate? That way, you don't have to download 18 megabytes just to see a demo. (People without memory cards could decide if they want to buy a memory card and PlecoDict.) The full version of the database could be totally locked, if you wanted. And you wouldn't have to make major system changes.

 

[mikelove]

Jim - the only problem with this is that programming an automated demo like this on a Palm is a *lot* of work - there is a version of Flash for Palm OS but it's not widely used except on the newer Clie models. But doing it with Flash for the PC is definitely something we'd consider.

David - I'm not sure about this one; we used to use files like this with Oxford, but we switched to full-size files like this with PlecoDict specifically so that people could verify that the software works on their Palm before purchasing it. We didn't think installation would turn out to be quite as much of a headache as it is, but we did think it might cause problems with some Palms, and we wanted people to be able to try out PlecoDict with the full-size databases in anticipation of that.

 

[sfrrr]

I vote for keeping the demo in its current form. Everything that has to do with computers is a pain for someone at some time. And I'd bet that the number of people who have used the demo to see how it works and whether it works on their particular Palm-based OS device far outnumbers the people with problems.

Don't start flaming me, folks. Yes, I do feel your pain. I install new programs on computer thingies every day and I know what it's like to crash your system, lose your data, or otherwise waste time on a product that simply won't settle down.

Sandra

 

[bryant]

Demo Version ?

I think its worth keeping. I did try the demo version before buying. Its well worth having a go with the flash cards as that was the real clincher for me. In fact my Palm is now by best friend and not my wife.

 

[goulniky]

I probably wouldn't buy a Palm app without being able to test it. Demos are always crippled and irritating, the more you use them the more annoying they get, but I think it's the only way to really know whether you need them or not.
Things might be different a) if there's no alternative tool on the market, b) if there is extensive documentation available, screenshots, possibly animation (which could then be on the web, I don't see the point of doing it on the PDA itself).
In any event I think a demo should be of reasonable size to be downloaded quickly without any need to suffle installed apps around to make room and restore afterwards.

 

[herve]

My feeling about that :

When I buy a dictionnary, I need to understand how the engine works, and what the dictionnary itself contains.

Starting with the dictionnaries : why not producing demo dictionnaries with all the entries, but keep the definition for, let say, one hundred of them. If you select the same in all dictionnaries, the potential customer will be able to compare which one is good for him.

For the engine, you probably have no problem with the "kernel" that you own.

For the handwriting system, remove the code in the demo product, and when the button is clicked, open a windows which refers to your web site on which you will put a demonstration (not just screen copies, probably a flash demonstration).
Same idea for the flashcard system.

But in no way I would pay $80 or $100 without testing the product!

 

[sui.generis]

Jim - the only problem with this is that programming an automated demo like this on a Palm is a *lot* of work - there is a version of Flash for Palm OS but it's not widely used except on the newer Clie models. But doing it with Flash for the PC is definitely something we'd consider.

That's an excellent idea. I don't actually remember what convinced me to buy, but I'd generally want to get a good look at the software in action before I'd be willing pay this kind of money for it (which I consider completely worth it, after the fact). A good flash presentation could do the trick. But only if it really went thru the paces with the software.

 

[mikelove]

Thanks for all of this - it seems pretty clear that the consensus is that we should keep some sort of demo version. But with the font issue on Pocket PC I think goulniky's point about having a separate, smaller demo version makes a certain amount of sense - a 1.2 MB keyfile is problematic enough, but a 6 or 7 MB one is almost ridiculous. We would however design the PlecoDict demo version to work better than the Oxford E&C one - no worries about the demo data files getting mixed up with the full-version ones and causing crashes or other nastiness, in fact we'd probably even offer a simple "remove demo version" command built into the software which would clear out all of the data files.