Native Access - Q4 Update
Comments
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That CyberSeason add is a little intrusive (app). I totally get why you're doing it - but it feels like it's filling available space, rather than drawing attention to offers.
If it must have ads, then something more discreet would certainly be appreciated. I think having it at the top is an even worse distraction, and having it as large as it is at the side is somewhat overwhelming, almost making the advert the main focus.
The word 'tacky' does somewhat spring to mind. Somehow, the words 'professional' and 'elegant' don't
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@Hayo_NI I hope posting this here is appropriate.
Does it really have to be like this?
Idea #1 - Reducing the size and adding a grey border around it:
Idea #2 - Add a single side menu entry that when clicking it will open a modal:
Clicking the image in the modal will take you to the respective store page.
(These are just mockups, but you surely get the idea 😅)
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Idea #2 - Add a single side menu entry
I like that idea if it clicked through straight to the web page rather than the modal.😁
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Do these sorts of eyesores belong in NA at all?
Why not display something that matters like Release Notes on a plugin or a warning about what installing KK3 against a MK1 keyboard will result in. You know - stuff that might matter.
Never thought I would see the day that Native Access (an authorization and install tool) would look like the boards at an EU hockey rink OR like Waves Central where the UI looks like Times Square on a Friday night.
VP
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Hey all!
Thanks for the feedback on the banners. We can definitely adjust the styling a bit here. We wanted to try and get a different manner of advertising into the application that's a bit more tasteful, but weren't able to reach our target, and as such did a slight pivot.
I'm closely monitoring the feedback, and really appreciate the ideas everyone has come up with. With the next release I'll see if we can make it a bit smaller so as not to harm the user experience.
We tried the header idea, but on smaller viewports this really hindered browseability and more drastically affected the flow for users who are dependent on keyboards. We also felt adjusting the Go to shop link or adding another one above wasn't enough space to tell users what's on offer for our Cyber Season, so we came up with the banner as the best way to use what we have available. Lastly, while I'm personally a fan of having a separate window appear for the offers, it was also not feasible within the timeframe we had. I own up to the decision making here.
In the future, there's other ways we'll be going about this. But with what is coming for Cyber Season we really wanted to let everyone know what great offers we have to give them. That being said, we'll make sure that for smaller viewports it's a bit less intrusive on the click areas in the next release, which is coming soon.
We sincerely appreciate your feedback and understanding! Enjoy Cyber Season everyone!
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Personally I don't find the left side advertising in Native Access that intrusive or that annoying , I almost kind of like it in the sense that had I not participated here or not been receiving email then I would have liked to be informed. I do though think that such advertising ought to be limited in time or in numbers of 'pop up'. Personally I find the way that more other companies advertise extremely more annoying, here referring to those that pops up on desktop from notification area in Windows and which can often be difficult to turn off. So I prefer the in.app as shown in Native Access and I like the graphics also. I am not going to be popular saying so, but maybe those that are frequently here are maybe not the most representative of users but maybe more those most opinionated ? Just saying ! 🤣
So my personal opinion is that you ought to keep the advertising in Native Access just the way it is , I like it and I find it quite OK !
In particular then spare me the "a separate window appear" and also please spare us any seasonal dressing of the apps such as Christmas and Halloween and what not , those I could also do without...
Come to think of it , then why does it have to be so damn difficult all of it ??? Why don't you just make it customizable , FULLY , so that people can either turn all such things off completely or have them in app or have them in separate windows if they like. Then I can turn it on and have pretty pictures if I like and the rest of population can turn it all off ! ? I mean how hard can it be ? And why should any one or any one group dictate a design that could be customized in design and appearance or to not appear at all ! To appear or not to appear that is the question ! Or was it to properly design or to not properly design that is the question ! ?
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Dang, there goes our May the 4th idea of turning the logo into a starwars-esque design.... Just kidding :D
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Appreciate it , please notice I did update my post afterwards !
Thank you ! 🙂
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We will add the ability to turn these off (as some of our features already allow this) at some point down the line once we put adequate time into this feature. We know it's a contentious one, and for now we'd like to make it fit a little more comfortably before people shut it off right away. There's a lot of cool stuff coming this sales season, but we'll keep your feedback in mind. Again, appreciate all of it!
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We will add the ability to turn these off (as some of our features already allow this) at some point down the line once we put adequate time into this feature. We know it's a contentious one, and for now we'd like to make it fit a little more comfortably before people shut it off right away. There's a lot of cool stuff coming this sales season, but we'll keep your feedback in mind. Again, appreciate all of it!
Although having options can be a bit daunting and confusing for new users, there are increasing areas of the NI universe where having them could ease a whole heap of disgruntlement and I for one, would wildly encourage much more rationale along those lines.
So many people use the same programmes differently where they can, and being able to configure things to the way you work can be a major plus point.
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Agreed. There are a TON of unique experiences people will have and many more to come, but managing your products with confidence should be Native Access' number one use case. Customizing your interface shouldn't be too difficult to do. We'll take a look next year at what we can do, but for now we have a few other releases we're committing towards. Thanks again for the feedback.
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So, that's it for my (extended) Q&A here. I appreciate all the feedback and comments you've presented. One thing that's clear is that our ongoing maintenance efforts are continuing to be well received and that the latest quarter's features landed well, so I'm happy to hear that we're doing well here. I'm especially eager to see what comes out of 3.8.0. As it's a big release, there might be hotfixes that could come, but we're thoroughly testing all of the work out as we speak.
Some takeaways from me this time around:
- The Komplete Kontrol situation needs to be taken a thorough look at. I've escalated this internally and I'll see if there's something I can communicate by the end of this quarter. Thank you all for the discussion and the frustrations you've expressed, as it helps hammer the point home.
- NA1 users are still not aware that a different entity of Native Access is being maintained. We'll take a look at handling that as soon as we can. I think there's going to be an unpopular reception to our approach, but we truly believe that the live Native Access is superior and easier to manage, and as such hope that we can maintain everyone's needs through one platform.
- Some minor gripes have arisen, and I'm thankful that they've been brought up. The contrast on the installed button in light mode will improve slightly (I'll be keeping an eye out for further feedback), and we'll look at returning the version number clickability to toggle the release notes again at some point.
- Sonoma needs prioritization. We're on it, and with 3.8.0 we're going to thoroughly test its Sonoma compatibility. Please see 3.8.0 as the official Sonoma compatible version. We're confident no drastic changes have been made to Sonoma that would affect Native Access, but we're not 100% sure of that just yet. If you do bump over, please do create a thread or file a support ticket so we can take a more thorough look.
- Hiding products has reared its head once again. But moreover, hiding product UPDATES is new. I've added it to our feature request list and will take a look at the overall experience there. I cannot promise delivery on either one of these two features this quarter, nor promise anything on prioritization for these features in the near future, but I will start some chats internally about these.
- Some users have expressed desire for disk management features. This is not new, but we're happy that users are providing some new ways they'd like to manage their NI software, as this helps us with our resolve on enhancing this experience at some point down the line.
- In-app advertising has been contentious. This is not unexpected, but I'm really excited that some new suggestions have been made for improvements. It's things like this that make me appreciate this amazing forum and all the members on it. We'll definitely be making some adjustments in the next release to make the space it currently takes up a bit more natural and less intrusive, and we'll continue internal discussions on how we can do this more tastefully moving forward.
Happy Cyber Season everyone, and we hope that you all continue to stay healthy as the seasons continue to change. Happy holidays, and in advance, happy new year!
Hayo Friese
PM Native Access and Product Portal
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Amen to that.
in Netflix, you can star items, add them to “My list” etc. Think of users with limited space on a laptop for instance who may have to uninstall something to be able to install and try out x or y new library they got when space is freed up. @Hayo_NI
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Then why can’t NI keep a version of Kontakt 6 next to Kontakt 7? I don’t understand why they d break older libraries. @Jeremy_NI
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Thank you very much for the kind reception of my scribbling.
Just to sort of 'round off' all of that discussion then I think that you should compare it all to over at Steam. Some people want their games to be really easy and relaxing while others have a 'hurt me' attitude and can not get their games difficult enough and even in design of games there is no solution there will please everyone. Unless... that you make as much as possible configurable. In your closing remarks I hear your concern that it has to be easy to manage. And I also understood that some people finds the in app advertising 'intrusive'. But I have to say that I respectfully disagree with the latter. I think the left side advertising in the Native Access app rather well done. I think that your problem is much more about how it were introduced. Like 'look at what they did to my app' (like we don't get enough bad surprises here). So I think that the problem is that it has been sprung on people like a surprise without any choice in the matter. You could have delivered a one time pop-up asking people if they wanted the in app advertising or not and if not then it would been turned off and they could blah blah blah go to the settings and turn it on later if they want , more blah blah , if they accepted they could always go to settings and turn it off. Or if too much of an effort required for that then there ought to have been a little X to close the advertising and then when people started to complain where is my advertising then have customer service come to the rescue in the forum and tell that they just needs to go to the in-app settings to turn on advertising again ! (Forgive me for not being able to turn my scribbling into a complete soap operatic act even if I do try !) Further more if using 'smarts' when putting it all together then it could all well also be low maintenance. And you could even allow people to add a piece of custom graphic that could be loaded into the space when not used by N.I. for communications (Like if N.I. would not always have something they would want to communicate to us all ! 😜) The graphics part I think that in most cases would be known as a skinning capability... Again , using 'smarts' one could 'one time' design functionality in a way that would not allow people to screw up basic app functionality. and spread a little joy at the same time !
But in short , I myself find the in-N.A. advertising well made and not unnatural , I just think that N.I. should be better at give people choices and especially to think before springing surprises on people into their 'holy apps' , and especially when it comes to things that actually really matter (upgrading people from KK 2.9.X to 3.x.x. with major screw ups as a result or EOL lock people to an app version and then allow them to screw it all up both by not give them in-app warnings and also allowing them to have a one-wrong-click screw it all up option named 'update all'). The in-app communication in N.A. (including tasteful rare advertising) is great , but , you know , be careful what kind of surprises you give people and how you manage it !
Best wishes !
'Poor Fellow'
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