Evaluating UR by Desgin and Comparison

[cnewtonne]

First of all, let say this is my first post after purchasing UR this week. I'm looking forward to sharing my ideas and thoughts in the most constructive and objective way possible. Despite is natural limitations (just like any other software), I found UR to be a genuinley crafted product with one of the very best development experiences I have seen for desktop apps.

I think, first of all, we have to agree on some information as facts...

1) There is no such thing (at least yet) as the ultimate and COMPLETE PIM. Having evaluated nearly all PIMS out there, I have not seen one that came close to becoming one. Initially this sounded disappointing, then I realized it to be nothing but natural. This is so only because the combination of one's thoughts, abilities, and needs are as unique as our fingerprints. No one developer or a team of them (including micosoft) have the ability to to capture these individual distinctiveness. One IMpossible way to do it would be to get the data management knowledge and insights that ADM has, combine it with the development ability of UR team, enhance it by the rock sold technology of MyBase. If you can have all agree on one thing, then we can say we man have the ultimate PIM solution.

2) So the solution to the above problem is to find out what ties us together when it comes to dealing/managing data. These processes are mostly (80% if not more) are cognitive in nature and are implemented by our CNS (Central Nervous System) on top of which is the human brain. The ultimate rule when it comes to executing cognitive functions like memorizing, retrieving, eye-scanning, ..Etc is to minimize the expenditure of energy. The less we expend, the more stable we are (in systems terms). So whatever tool we devise, software or otherwise, must take into consideration this very fact. Computer tasks to a great extent are repetitive in nature, so even though a single step may require an 'x' amount of brain power (which might be unnoticeable) multiplied by 'y' number of times can potentially be extremely exhaustive to the user.

I can assure you if the later concept is not attended do as software is designed, it ought to fail and miserably so. I have dozens of example of software I have seen where a single task like retrieving a password required the user to get the DB name it was stored in, open it, scan through the tree, click on pwd box, copy it to clipboard, go to browser, paste it, and ... Compare this with roboform where a user has to do practically nothing.

3) Any software must constantly and consistently evaluate its usage processes using efficiency measures. Namely, time, steps, and energy expenditure. Giving user a small menu of 5 options to choose is less demanding than having to remember 5 shortcuts.

One last thing before I proceed and this is to avoid being misunderstood. The product comparisons I make here and the associated product names are NOT meant to either promote or demote a particular product. I mention them to be thorough and nothing more.

Narrowing it down to the PIM category of software, I would like to quickly compare and contract UR to what I think are the critical design issues of a PIM solution as well as to other competitors. Overall, a PIM must EFFICIENTLY manage the 5 domains of data management ; data storage, capture, organization, retrieval, and sharing.

Data Storage
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Must be proven-technology with zero-tolerance for data loss and corruption. As basic at it sounds, just go and visit some of the PIM forums to see what often people are complaining about data loss or corruption. UR uses the well known sqllite engine that they later modified to serve their compression needs. This is certainly a trust-worthy solution. MyBase (MB) is also known for its rock solid DB engine. I have personally used (and still do) for years now without a single issue whatsoever. I have not used UR long enough to compare it ,but I browsed though the forums for last 2 days and I did see some posts referring to data loss issue. They were old, however, and the near immediate response from the developer makes me think that is no longer an issue since I have not see recent posts. Believe it or not, there are still PIMS out there that still use straight text based ASCII files to store data. Files you can simply edit with notepad!!! So do not take this feature for granted.

At the compression level, I have seen UR, MB, and MyDBTree(MDT) do a great job. I compared all 3 with exact identical content. MB scored the best with no 2nd. It used 1/2 the storage of UR and 1/4th of MDT. To this date, I have not seen any PIM that came even close to MB. On the other hand, compare this to something like Treepad which stored same content using 13 times the space.

Data Capturing
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Everything starts here. How good is any PIM if it is so painfull to get the data into it. Unfortunately, I have not see a single PIM that does a good job at this. May be I can exclude ADM to an extent. To understand this particular feature, there are some known and well identified usage issues we should attend to. Examine how data is distributed to people or users. The number one distributing channel (up to 70%) is the web. The second major source is emails. From the remaining, you'll get a mix of things like CDs, scanned, and .etc. So a PIM must give the web data source its fair share of ease of capture. Before comparing, let first agree on this ...

- UR and all other PIMs are NOT web browsers, can never be (in concept), and won't be able to. So, this process will always be examined using an external browser.

- The objective of this process is to move a piece of data from an external browser to its FINAL DESTINATION in the PIM software. I emphasize FINAL DESTINATION !!! Truly, organize as you collect is the best thing to do. I think we can all agree that collecting now and organizing later is not that appealing. In 2 days, my 'imported items' has grown to contain 500 items. Many of them contain 1 or 2 lines and as we know, you can not combine them. This is in no way a good process, really BAD.

- I will put the std windows procedures like copy/paste and drag aside. These are good for simple and relative easy tasks. They will NOT work for a user who has decided to use a PIM to manage information. Having to resize/reposition the windows that comes along this task is just tooooo expensive. The windows clipboard limitation (one clip at a time) is so severe that it is absolutely useless.

So what do we have left with? Let's weigh in in the efficiency factor....

UR procedure:
- Launchy: scan for the button, click, scan for command (link/copy), done.
- Copy, use hot key, done. On my system, this process is confused (not me). It can not consistently paste in same DB if I have many open.
- later on, re-organize data to its final destination from 'imported items'. Having the software force me to procrastinate the organization work is just not acceptable. To understand the severe limitations of UR in this area, compare it to MB..

MB procedure:
Clipboard monitor: set final destination,copy, scan a menu, choose final destination (item or text).
browser plugin: scan for button or menu, choose DB, choose title, make additions, done

So as compared to MB, UR suffers from these severe limitations ...
- forces user to capture data as an info item even if this data is a single word. Also, you can not combine later.
- Has no concept of final destination built-in the process. even though it allow you to preset the destination to anything you like, this is a major hit in term of usage. I can not revert to UR, navigate to some item, then back to the browser with every catpure. I also have to remember where I was before continuing to capture further data. Just does not work.

Over all, any web based capture process to be efficient must take benefit of the following usage criteria...

- the capture process must be easily invoked. The simplest way I've seen is in ADM by dragging it to a floating icon that is alway on top. Using a shortcut key is good too. Having to scan for a button or navigate a menu is not a good design. Imagine having to do this 50 times in a long article you're summarizing. Too expensive.

- the capture process MUST allow an on-the-spot organizing or organize as you collect. Again, ADM does a great job, it allow you to set the final destination, data title, edit it as well, append to previous, pate as item or text all on the spot. It then allows you to either use the previous setting or change it as you wish. This way your subsequent captures do not have to go through Same process. This indeed is a very intelligent design. The MB process is similar. However, ADM's is available to all apps not only the browser.

So on this feature, UR scores low in terms of the design of the capture process and as it compares to others.


I will follow up on the remaining areas in future posts.

Thanks for all