If you’re a working creative, the ideas you generate probably have to go through some type of approval process. Typically, you print something off, people scratch all over it, and you get it back to make changes. It’s hard enough having the committee redesign or rewrite your work, the least they could do is write legibly.

My co-workers and I have always tried to use some type of “electronic routing” solution, but it was always too complicated and non-digital people didn’t seem to “get it.” That’s why I’m optimistic about Review Basics, a piece of web-based software that lets you upload your work and have other people review it using an interface geared specifically towards providing feedback.

What I Like About ReviewBasics

• Uploading a .jpeg was easy and I can control who on the “design by committee team” has access to it
• Site design is slick and easy to use
• The walkthrough they provide up front is one of the best I’ve seen. Quickly shows you where to do things while your project is in there, not some generic template.
• All the functions are designed for one thing - feedback. Not too many extraneous actions here
• I was most impressed with the ability to comment on video. For people collaborating in this medium remotely, this completely eliminates the need for annoying video conference calls and WebEx
• As an author, it’s easy to sort through who made the comments and who hasn’t gotten back to me yet

What I Don’t Like About ReviewBasics

• When I created a user name and password, I was logged in as “anonymous” and had to log out and back in. Not a huge deal but when it comes to web apps, the little things count
• Since everything is done real-time, the interface got a little choppy at points
• The actual review interface has too much going on. I’d like to be able to collapse and expand things as I need to use them
• No version control. For me, this is huge. I’d like to be able to see where we’ve come from and what’s changed in a document if I need to.

All in all, ReviewBasics is mostly upside. If they tweak a few things as it gets out of Beta this should be a nice little app for working professionals.

Tags: review, basics, online, feedback, electronic, routing

Posted by Classic Jef on Monday, February 19th, 2007 at 2:12 pm.