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This is the discussion thread for the new IMatch 5 web site.

The password doesn't work.

You were to quick  ;)
I corrected it in the mean time.

Mario,

at the first glance: Just SUPER
I do love the virtual users and how you demonstrate in short there possible workflow.

Very well done!

Regards,
Michael

Hi Mario. Looks good.  8)

just a quick comment..

Title: IMatch 5 at a Glance
Second bullet: "Developed and supported since 1998. Thousands of in over 60 countries." You're missing somethin' there.. thousands of what?

And something else..

Claude:

"Claude is a freelance photographer and works multiple press agencies." I don't know.. does one work multiple agencies? or does one work for multiple agencies?

Thanks for all your work!

I think it looks very good Mario.  Add some user testimonials to the site and it would be ready for launch IMO.

Quote from: nacho02 on April 23, 2014, 09:37:18 PM
Hi Mario. Looks good.  8)

just a quick comment..

Title: IMatch 5 at a Glance
Second bullet: "Developed and supported since 1998. Thousands of in over 60 countries." You're missing somethin' there.. thousands of what?

And something else..

Claude:

"Claude is a freelance photographer and works multiple press agencies." I don't know.. does one work multiple agencies? or does one work for multiple agencies?

Thanks for all your work!

Thanks. Typos fixed.

Quote from: JohnZeman on April 23, 2014, 11:23:30 PM
I think it looks very good Mario.  Add some user testimonials to the site and it would be ready for launch IMO.

I'd love to. So far I have once (from Lane). I asked for publishable testimonials a couple of weeks ago in the other thread ("Why would you buy IMatch?") but have not received any comments so far. I need a quote with a name and the explicit agreement to publish it on my web site. Only then I will use the quote.

@All:

If you have a quote for me, please post it here.

Something like:


"IMatch 5 is the best invention since sliced bread."
-- Mario M. Westphal (Author of IMatch)


;)

Quote from: Mario on April 23, 2014, 11:30:08 PM
Something like:


"IMatch 5 is the best invention since sliced bread."
-- Mario M. Westphal (Author of IMatch)

"You love coffee? IMatch 5 is like a coffee with celestial fragrance from a portafilter coffee machine. Unique, powerfull, and with the proper settings, you will feel the magic world of coffee with IMatch 5."
-- Markus J. Hässig (CEO of Fotoagentur sinus.ch, Switzerland)


well, a try, and my English, my English  :-[ :-[ :-[

I like the color, design and content too. I like the good balance between simple messages, screenshots and more complicated feature descriptions.
This is a very important point compared to e.g. the DAM PhotoSupreme website at http://www.idimager.com/WP

Licensed users of Idimager v5 received today an offer for PhotoSupreme v2 with 34.99 USD instead of 79.99 USD. That is nearly nothing for a good DAM. However the website information about PhotoSupreme does not convince me and does not look trustable. The mix with tools like PimpMyPicture does put a bad light on everything there. For me the website does not look serious at all even if the product is. Therefor I hesitate to test again the 30-day version of PS v2 and I think, that every minute I spend for IMatch is better than any second for PhotoSupreme, isn't it?

So the continuous challenge with IMatch promotion will be: "Not frightening the first-time-DAM-users and not discouraging the DAM experts".
The individual pages with customized screenshots for the typical usage of the users Mike, Susan, Claude, Paz, Paul and Emma are a very good idea.

A certain improvement could be a responsive webpage design.
Ok, that is a challenge and should not be the highest priority.

Regards, Martin


P.S.: Today is the 156th birthday of Max Planck. Does fit well to my avatar image with E=hv.

Quote from: Mario on April 23, 2014, 11:30:08 PM
If you have a quote for me, please post it here.

"I have about 200,000 photos taken by my wife and I in 60 countries over the last 50 years; literally a lifetime of memories.  We use IMatch to categorize and retrieve those photos/memories quickly and easily.  We would be lost without it."
--- Ted Cash (Retired).

From a fast look I was very impressed but I did spot some things that I question.

QuoteBatch Processing for Printing and Presentation on the Web Emma sometimes uses an image editing application for cropping and retouching files. Just easy stuff, nothing too complicated. But what the uses often is the built-in Batch Processor in IMatch.

But what she uses often is the built-in Batch Processor in IMatch. ????

QuoteIMatch is a Digital Asset Management system (DAM). It solves the problem of managing large collections of digital files by making them searchable and accessible. IMatch provides tools for finding, viewing, organizing, and converting collections of images and other digital documents.

I find the words "images and other digital documents" to be rather limited. For example: I do not consider music to be a document but I can organize music in IMatch. Maybe: images and other digital files.

Quote from: Mario on April 23, 2014, 11:30:08 PM

Quote from: JohnZeman on April 23, 2014, 11:23:30 PM
I think it looks very good Mario.  Add some user testimonials to the site and it would be ready for launch IMO.

I'd love to. So far I have once (from Lance). I asked for publishable testimonials a couple of weeks ago in the other thread ("Why would you buy IMatch?") but have not received any comments so far. I need a quote with a name and the explicit agreement to publish it on my web site. Only then I will use the quote.

@All:

If you have a quote for me, please post it here.

Something like:


"IMatch 5 is the best invention since sliced bread."
-- Mario M. Westphal (Author of IMatch)


;)

Many thanks to Lane for showing the rest of us how a testimonial should be written out.  ;D

Mario many of us have responded in your "Why will/would you buy IMatch 5?" thread asking for testimonials but obviously the rest of us didn't respond in the format you need us to.  :o

I'll do some thinking and will hopefully add something you can use to that thread over the weekend.

QuoteMike can also display overlays for histograms, a camera dashboard and many other information displays as needed.

QuoteHe switches on the collection, histogram and camera dashboard overlays to see the info he needs in this phase.

IMO, those two quotes say almost the same thing and are redundant.

User type: Mike

QuoteThis is a freely configurable panel can display any combination of the over 12,000 metadata fields IMatch supports.

Maybe: This is a freely configurable panel that can display any combination of the over 12,000 metadata fields IMatch supports.

Or: This freely configurable panel can display any combination of the over 12,000 metadata fields IMatch supports.

User type: Mike

QuoteFavorite Keywords anda dynamic list of the 50 most often used keywords.

Favorite Keywords and a dynamic list of the 50 most often used keywords.

User type: Mike

Quote
he opens the files from IMatch directly in Lightroom, Photoshop or his video editing software.

It implies that Lightroom and Photoshop the only editors he can use for images.

User type: Mike

QuoteWhen Paul saves a file in LR or Photoshop,

Should be: When Mike saves a file in LR or Photoshop,

User type: Mike

Quote
If we wants to upload the files to a social network or his web site,

If he wants to upload the files to a social network or his web site

User type: Mike

Quoteby using the timeline to see all photos taken at this day

"At this day" Maybe: On this day

The IMatch 5 website is good-looking and VERY impressive. 

I particularly like the examples of various typical users, but noticed some minor grammatical or spelling errors -- perhaps just typographical mistakes -- that crop up there.   Although I haven't finished going through ALL of the text, this paragraph under User SUSAN, jumped out at me:

"Since Susan and her team still work out the best ways manage their large collection, they often change their category layout bymoving, renaming, adding and removing categories. Since IMatch performs all these operations inside it's database, it's very easy and quick to reorganize their organizational structure. They can move thousands of files . . . "

The errors here are quite minor, but real:
1. "best ways manage their large collection..."  --> "best ways to manage their large collection..."
2. "bymoving" clearly needs a space separating the words "by" and "moving"
3. In the second sentence, you use the possessive pronoun "it's" which should be spelled without the apostrophe: "... its database..."
The same sentence then correctly uses the form "it's" which is ALWAYS a contraction meaning "it is."   

Mario, do you want to have such typos and minor errors in English usage pointed out?  Or am I (with my background as an English major, published author, and former University professor) being too picky here?  My nitpicking is intended only to strengthen this already powerful website, as will the suggested corrections posted by Richard and others . . .

And I REALLY like the top panel of the site, with a sharp picture and a short phrase that expresses the entire purpose of the software in just three words:
"Organize Your Stuff."    That sums it all up! 

Excellent!

You've already addressed prior comments. Other corrections:

"Since 1998 photools.com develops software ..." --> ""Since 1998 photools.com has developed software..."

Minor: Decide how to handle capitalization consistency in headers. E.g., "Why do You need it?" and "IMatch 5 at a Glance": other headers only contain initial caps (except for proper names, e.g., IMatch).

Paul: "Paul is specializing in food photography..." --> "Paul specializes in food photography..."

Emma: "Emma currently moves the family photo collection...." --> "Emma is currently moving the family photo collection..."

IMatch at a glance:
"Developed and supported since 1998." --> Technically, IMatch 3 has been around since 1998, but IMatch 5 hasn't....
"Databases can be shared between multiple users." --> "Databases can be shared among multiple users."

Otherwise, looks very good!

Quote from: Photon on April 23, 2014, 11:55:58 PM
A certain improvement could be a responsive webpage design.

95% o all visitors of my web site use a PC or similar device with a screen resolution of 1280 or higher. Since IMatch is no application you would typically run on a phablet or smart phone, a true responsive design is not all that important. I'm no on-line shop trying to sell on every device  ;) The site looks pretty well on mobile devices and I think that's OK for now. If the need arises, I will switch the site to one of the responsive WordPress templates, no problem.

Quote from: Richard on April 24, 2014, 12:46:45 AM
I find the words "images and other digital documents" to be rather limited. For example: I do not consider music to be a document but I can organize music in IMatch. Maybe: images and other digital files.

I changed that to

IMatch is a Digital Asset Management system (DAM). It solves the problem of managing large collections of digital files by making them searchable and accessible. IMatch provides tools for finding, viewing, presenting, organizing and converting images and other digital files.

Quote from: JohnZeman on April 24, 2014, 12:59:39 AM
Mario many of us have responded in your "Why will/would you buy IMatch 5?" thread asking for testimonials but obviously the rest of us didn't respond in the format you need us to.  :o
I'll do some thinking and will hopefully add something you can use to that thread over the weekend.

Thanks for considering it. A publishable quote is what I need. If somebody says something cool about IMatch in a community posting does not mean that he/she allows me to publish it. I will not just rip quotes out of context and plug them to my web site, with the name of the poster. That's not right, and probably not legal. If somebody tells me: "You can quote me with this ..." that's what I'm after  :)

Quote from: BanjoTom on April 24, 2014, 02:38:03 AM
Mario, do you want to have such typos and minor errors in English usage pointed out?  Or am I (with my background as an English major, published author, and former University professor) being too picky here?  My nitpicking is intended only to strengthen this already powerful website, as will the suggested corrections posted by Richard and others . . .

Absolutely! I'm grateful for feedback of that kind (also thanks to users who point out problems, omissions or typos in the help).

English is only one of my secondary languages, and I a) write most of the stuff during nights (https://www.photools.com/community/Smileys/photools/indifferent22.gif) and b) German syntax sometimes creeps in. And c) there is a saying: "You never see your own typos. You always read what you intended to write, not what you have written.".

I'm already updating the web site to incorporate Richard's and your feedback and the other corrections and suggestions made here. This is a lot of text that I had to type and come up with, and corrections and suggestions are welcome. That's why I run this "web site Beta test"  :)

I would like to see my user type as enthusiastic hobby-photographer - but maybe Emma is right for me...

Correction for Emma:
"Files and Folders/She creates a new folder on here disk" -> "on her disk"

Quote from: meyersoft on April 24, 2014, 09:12:46 AM
I would like to see my user type as enthusiastic hobby-photographer - but maybe Emma is right for me...

I think that many users are actually a mix of several of the prototype users. "enthusiastic hobby-photographer" these days often have the same or even better gear that professionals - and sometimes even more complex workflows. A bit of Mike, a bit of Paul and some Emma thrown in and you're set  ;)

I like it, Mario, and think that this could be a real puller.  At the penalty of over egging and extra work for you, how about a example of Joe Blogs?  He has a lot of holiday snaps, follows the odd hobby (like train spotting, stamp collecting, whatever), has a large music collection.

One or two nit-picks:

In "IMatch 5 at a Glance",  "images and other digital files";   I would insert "music" to make it "images, music and other digital files".  I think that there is probably a large potential market with music lovers.

I do not know what "scalable" means.  It looks a bit if a buzz word to me.

"Thousands of users in over 60 countries." - I hope that this will be true, but is it a fact at this time?

"Since Susan and her team still work out out the best ways"  -  better English to say are still working out .

In Susan's conclusion: " If you have read this far, you should have now a good idea ".  Better English usage to say should now have .

In Paz's conclusion:  "IMatch plays a very important role in Paz's daily workflow. It manages all their files and allows them to find each file within seconds. They ...." .   "Paz" is singular, but you have followed this in the next sentence with the plural "their" & "they" .  These should be replaced with "her" & "she", or give the first sentence a plural object, e.g. "daily workflow of Paz & her team" .

A nit - ....  tools for finding, viewing, presenting, organizing and converting .... shown right at the top of the site. I'd move organizing to the front of the list as that's what makes all of the rest feasible.

I added a testimonial at the "why....buy" thread.

Another thought -

I believe that one of the largest potential customer pools is users of Lightroom. If a clear and succinct statement could be added that answers "How would I, a LR user with its organizational features, benefit from using IM?" you'd probably get more that just a few added sells. Without that explicit addressal, most will scan the site and think - Sounds a lot like LR - because they are DB users, not experts, and the IM pitch will sound much like any other DB (or photo organizer). Differentiation needed....

Quote from: DigPeter on April 24, 2014, 01:13:35 PM
I do not know what "scalable" means.  It looks a bit if a buzz word to me.

Scalable means that IMatch can handle also very large libraries. That's a common "IT" word and important for some user groups. Since I know that competing products do not scale well (e.g. start acting erratically and sluggish once you exceed 50,000 files in a 'catalog') I thought I mention it.

Quote from: DigPeter on April 24, 2014, 01:13:35 PM
"Thousands of users in over 60 countries." - I hope that this will be true, but is it a fact at this time?

That's the count. There are very small countries, e.g. Lichtenstein...  ;D

Quote from: jeknepley on April 24, 2014, 01:50:36 PM
A nit - ....  tools for finding, viewing, presenting, organizing and converting .... shown right at the top of the site. I'd move organizing to the front of the list as that's what makes all of the rest feasible.

What about:

"IMatch is a Digital Asset Management system (DAM). It solves the problem of managing large collections of digital files by making them searchable and accessible. IMatch provides tools for organizing, finding, processing, viewing, presenting and converting images, music, videos and other digital files."

Quote from: jeknepley on April 24, 2014, 02:06:09 PM
I believe that one of the largest potential customer pools is users of Lightroom. If a clear and succinct statement could be added that answers "How would I, a LR user with its organizational features, benefit from using IM?" you'd probably get more that just a few added sells. Without that explicit addressal, most will scan the site and think - Sounds a lot like LR - because they are DB users, not experts, and the IM pitch will sound much like any other DB (or photo organizer). Differentiation needed....

All the RAW processors lack in the DAM department. Naturally it depends on whether you know what you are missing or if that what is offered is sufficient. I have this paragraph under the "Why do you need it" heading:

IMatch is an ideal companion for typical RAW processing applications, which usually have only limited organization capabilities. IMatch also complements image and video editors, audio software, office applications, media players, databases, back-office systems...

I would not go as far as to do an explicit enumeration of what's missing in LR, and the well-known "check lists" often seen on US sites are legally problematic here in Germany (you can be sued if one of the X's you make is wrong or the competitor just thinks it is). I could add a bit more text (one or two lines max) so I'm open to suggestions...

@Lightroom users: Why do you use IMatch in addition to LR? I do, and I know why. But why do you? I mean LR has keywords and shows metadata too.

Quote from: Mario on April 24, 2014, 06:03:13 PM

Quote from: jeknepley on April 24, 2014, 02:06:09 PM


@Lightroom users: Why do you use IMatch in addition to LR? I do, and I know why. But why do you? I mean LR has keywords and shows metadata too.

I am also a LR user. But it its too slow to use it as an DAM. At least on my computer (IMAC)

Quote@Lightroom users: Why do you use IMatch in addition to LR?

Not all of my images go through LR, but all images need to be managed somehow and the capabilities of LR are quite limited...
I have never used LR for editing or adding metadata (only rating and labeling is sometimes done within LR)

Cheers,
Michael

Quote from: Mario on April 24, 2014, 06:03:13 PM
@Lightroom users: Why do you use IMatch in addition to LR? I do, and I know why. But why do you? I mean LR has keywords and shows metadata too.

Does LR handle non images files?  I do not think so.

IM is more versatile, is scriptable, more user friendly, less resource hungry.

Quote from: DigPeter on April 24, 2014, 08:00:04 PM
Does LR handle non images files?  I do not think so.

Doesn't.

Quote from: DigPeter on April 24, 2014, 08:00:04 PM
IM is more versatile

:)

Quote from: DigPeter on April 24, 2014, 08:00:04 PM
is scriptable

LR can be scripted using a programming language called "Lua".

Quote from: DigPeter on April 24, 2014, 08:00:04 PM
more user friendly

(https://www.photools.com/community/Smileys/photools/ashamed02.gif)

Quote from: DigPeter on April 24, 2014, 08:00:04 PM
less resource hungry.

I sometimes wonder if Adobe has shares in or a deal with the big RAM factories. People using LR or Photoshop (or Nikon Capture, RIP) install amounts of memory in their systems which usually is sufficient to run database servers or web servers serving thousands of users. One instance of Photoshop with a few RAW files loaded on a multi-layer PSD file, and gigabytes of RAM melt like the last snow in spring...

Quote from: Mario on April 24, 2014, 05:48:03 PM

Quote from: jeknepley on April 24, 2014, 01:50:36 PM
A nit - ....  tools for finding, viewing, presenting, organizing and converting .... shown right at the top of the site. I'd move organizing to the front of the list as that's what makes all of the rest feasible.

What about:

"IMatch is a Digital Asset Management system (DAM). It solves the problem of managing large collections of digital files by making them searchable and accessible. IMatch provides tools for organizing, finding, processing, viewing, presenting and converting images, music, videos and other digital files."

:)

Quote from: picolo on April 24, 2014, 07:02:52 PM

Quote@Lightroom users: Why do you use IMatch in addition to LR?

Not all of my images go through LR, but all images need to be managed somehow and the capabilities of LR are quite limited...
I have never used LR for editing or adding metadata (only rating and labeling is sometimes done within LR)

Cheers,
Michael

Mario, not to pick on this poster but the phrase "....capabilities of LR are quite limited...." gets at some of what I mean. Michael knows that LR is limited, but the typical LR user probably doesn't AND without knowing what IM can do (that many users need and LR doesn't provide) there's no reason to switch. I'm not a lawyer and have no idea what you're up against in that arena but couldn't you list under the heading "Can your image organizer do this?" (without naming any particular program) and illustrate several important IM features that that are mostly or totally unique to IM (at least as compared to Adobe products)? These features should those that almost any photographer would love to have. Mike Chaney (QImage) used to have (maybe still does) a downloadable test image with instructions on how to compare its print output with those of Photoshop. Offer several small data bases with tests (questions to answer) on both IM5 and the organizer of their choice. Letting prospective customers decide (once you tell them the right questions to ask) would be within the law I'd hope.

Quote from: jeknepley on April 24, 2014, 10:51:08 PM
(...) Michael knows that LR is limited, but the typical LR user probably doesn't AND without knowing what IM can do (that many users need and LR doesn't provide) there's no reason to switch. I'm not a lawyer and have no idea what you're up against in that arena but couldn't you list under the heading "Can your image organizer do this?" (without naming any particular program) and illustrate several important IM features that that are mostly or totally unique to IM (at least as compared to Adobe products)? These features should those that almost any photographer would love to have. Mike Chaney (QImage) used to have (maybe still does) a downloadable test image with instructions on how to compare its print output with those of Photoshop. Offer several small data bases with tests (questions to answer) on both IM5 and the organizer of their choice. Letting prospective customers decide (once you tell them the right questions to ask) would be within the law I'd hope.

Maybe it's better to let the user come to that conclusion himself/herself. If a potential IMatch user does not recognize what LR (or another RAW converter) is lacking in the DAM department after browsing the IMatch 5 site, and especially the How other users use IMatch sections, there is a good chance that he/she does not need more DAM than included in LR or other RAW processors.

Of course the web site is in flux as everything else IMatch 5. I will soon send out information to journalists and bloggers (I've just completed the IMatch5 Reviewer's Guide). This, and what early bird users write in the blogspehere will help me to fine-tune the IMatch web site. Currently it's all guesswork and fog...  ;)  But I'm sure we'll see "How I use IMatch with <name of RAW processor>" blog posts soon after IMatch 5 is out. And then I can link to them, mention them on my web site, Facebook and Twitter. Or incorporate the direct feedback in other ways.

Quote from: Mario on April 24, 2014, 11:20:45 PM
Of course the web site is in flux as everything else IMatch 5. I will soon send out information to journalists and bloggers (I've just completed the IMatch5 Reviewer's Guide). This, and what early bird users write in the blogspehere will help me to fine-tune the IMatch web site. Currently it's all guesswork and fog...  ;)  But I'm sure we'll see "How I use IMatch with <name of RAW processor>" blog posts soon after IMatch 5 is out. And then I can link to them, mention them on my web site, Facebook and Twitter. Or incorporate the direct feedback in other ways.

I've already written several IM related posts on my blog that end with "Can your image organizer do that?" Maybe in future posts I'll also ask - if you use LR, can you do this? I use LR, but almost exclusively as a RAW converter and so am not qualified to speak for LR as a DB.

Very minor point: watch for double-spaces between sentences. The only one I noticed is in the text for Claude: "...an efficient workflow is very important for him.  IMatch has many...".

It's looking good!

Quote from: jch2103 on April 25, 2014, 12:49:04 AM
Very minor point: watch for double-spaces between sentences. The only one I noticed is in the text for Claude: "...an efficient workflow is very important for him.  IMatch has many...".
It's looking good!

Very minor point fixed (removed the extra blanks on both landing page and the Claude detail page).

Quote
That's the count. There are very small countries, e.g. Lichtenstein...  ;D

Nitpicking: you probably mean Liechtenstein :-)

Some thoughts (sorry, a bit late) about content and structure of the introduction on this page:

• 
  The first part "Since 1998 photools.com ..." is not a good starter, as this page is about your new product. I believe that this would better fit on the "Home" or "About ..." page or at least more towards the end of this page
  
• 
  The next part "Organize images ..." is too much of an eye-catcher (at least for my personal taste), which does not fit well in the professional look & feel of your website. Especially "your way" is too blatant.
  

How about starting this page with the second part as follows, but in less intrusive manner (with a smaller font):

IMatch 5: Organize images and other digital files your way.
[blank line]
Start quick and simple but have unlimited possibilities later. IMatch is reliable, scalable, affordable, fast, independent, works with all your other applications, is based on Open Standards and does not lock you in.

I think the individual workflows are an excellent idea. When I have told folks about IMatch, I always relate to their potential workflow.

Found one typo under "Susan" --> "...answer questions like:..." --> "on" should be "one or more persons"

A suggestion. 
At the end of the "Susan" or other workflows, I think it would be better to have the tool tip for each icon read "See how Emma, the amateur photographer, uses IMatch".  The intent here is to make it very easy to drive the prospective customer to the workflow that most closely matches their potential usage of the program.

"I am an amateur photographer and genealogist. My image collection was about 25,000 images when I started with IMatch many years ago and has grown to about 55,000 images today. I know in my mind that I have an image somewhere that just suits the purpose for one of my many collages, one of my entries into my genealogy database or perhaps, a request from my wife for a print of a certain image taken many years ago. Before IMatch, it could take me many hours to find that image.

I started by cataloging all new digital images while digitizing and cataloging my existing negatives and old prints. After many years, I can find "that image" with just a few clicks in a very short time. I could not have done this without adopting DAM principles and the IMatch software with the availability of the hierarchical its cataloging features. I have grown with IMatch and am looking forward to working with the many very powerful features in version 5."

David Hankinson

Mario, you have my permission to use my quote if you like.

Quote from: tvi55 on April 25, 2014, 10:53:45 AM
Some thoughts (sorry, a bit late) about content and structure of the introduction on this page:
The first part "Since 1998 photools.com ..." is not a good starter, as this page is about your new product. I believe that this would better fit on the "Home" or "About ..." page or at least more towards the end of this page

That's a 'landing' page. Blogs and papers will very often link their users directly to the product page, not the home page. The idea of this first sentence is to build trust by explaining that photools.com is around for quite some time.

Quote from: tvi55 on April 25, 2014, 10:53:45 AM
The next part "Organize images ..." is too much of an eye-catcher (at least for my personal taste), which does not fit well in the professional look & feel of your website. Especially "your way" is too blatant.

Statistics show that when somebody visits your web site, you have five (5) seconds to catch his attention. Or she leaves. It's therefore very important to get the USP (unique selling proposition) clear, easy to find and 'placative'. I've thought about the wording and formatting of this first two paragraphs for several weeks and I guess that they will do their job.

The enlarged "your way", like the "does not lock you in" are directly targeted as an argument against other DAMs, which import all your files into some proprietary database and thus lock them away. Or which enforce a certain folder layout you have to use. These statements work for users without any DAM knowledge, and also for users which have a DAM or have been "burned" by another DAM revoked from the market.

Since it obviously did not work for you I will give it another think. When the side is live, click through rates, conversion rates and other statistics will help me to tell whether it works or not based on hard facts.

Quote from: oldhank on April 25, 2014, 02:04:42 PM
A suggestion. 
At the end of the "Susan" or other workflows, I think it would be better to have the tool tip for each icon read "See how Emma, the amateur photographer, uses IMatch".  The intent here is to make it very easy to drive the prospective customer to the workflow that most closely matches their potential usage of the program.

Thanks for the reporting typo (fixed already) and the quote.

Regarding your tooltip suggestion:

A user hits the landing page (with the table showing all users) and then he either picks the one he considers the best match or (less often, I guess) he starts with Mike because he's first. After reading or just scanning the selected user story, the visitor sees the icons for the other users. I think (I might be wrong) that it's better to keep things a bit more adventurous ("See how Mike is using IMatch") to actually make him click the icon to see what Mike is doing, or Emma. The visitor gets directions on the landing page by the short texts in the user table, but later he should browse, and click through the other users at his leisure. Each user story might highlight a feature he has been looking for, or explain a solution for a problem he has. Basically every visitor should browse all users, optimally starting with the user that matches his personal requirements best. At least that was my idea by setting up things that way.

Of course it's all a bit of guesswork, frankly. The comments here and the emails I get help me a lot. You cannot make it right for all visitors, obviously. It should be just "informative, easy to navigate and helpful for the majority of visitors. The only target is to make them download and install IMatch 5 - well, and to buy it  ::)

QuoteThe only target is to make them download and install IMatch 5 - well, and to buy it

My bet would be that majority of those who give the Evaluation version a through test will buy a license. One of the most common  complaints about IMatch 3 was the user interface and I fear it turned some away. That is no longer the case so I expect more folks to become users. There are other things that add to my feeling that IMatch 5's public release is going to result a whole lot more attention than any prior IMatch release. Before I found IMatch I had spent six years looking at every DAM I could find. Now a number of those competitors have disappeared and I believe that IMatch 5 will be the cause of some more falling by the wayside.

Mario,

I think Emma represents your most important targetgroup (in sales numbers, that is). She is an enthousiast amateur photographer and there are millions of these (as opposed to the other types of users). I would therefore suggest that you put her first instead of last. In all 6 types of users, you underline in some way the fact that he/she is in some kind of business with pictures. In order to make some money with IMatch (what you certainly deserve), you need to hit the mass-market as well as the professional market. So target also on these people who are not in any "business" way involved in photography, but are nevertheless interested in organising collection(-s) such as scout-groups, football or any other sport, family websites, etc..

Opening sentence for Emma could be : "She is an (enthousiast) amateur photographer and a mother of three. She joined the local photo-club a couple of months ago". Delete the second sentence (She works part-time as a graphic artist for local businesses). Underline the fact that the batch-processor makes it very easy for her to make pictures presentable/usable for social media (like the local website and Facebook).

Secondly: on the home page you state that IMatch solves the problem of managing large collections of digital files. That could put a lot of potential customers off. They could think : "I'm only an amateur and I don't have a large collection. So I won't need or benefit from IMatch". The main point is that IMatch organises any (from very small to very large) collection of any digital files (photo's, scans, pdf, etc). And it organises from very simple ways (just dates, folders and renaming) to very complex ways (metadata all the way, scripts, categories, keywords, etc.).

Why do you need it? Exchange second and first paragraph. Again: quite a few people in your potential target group don't work in RAW, but are only interested in organising their pictures, not in RAW workflows.

How users work with IMatch. I would suggest to replace the words "It gives you a very good idea  ...." by "It provides you with an impression ....". Let them judge for themselves, don't boast.

Lastly: I know it will be a lot of work, but nevertheless. Would it be worthwhile to make your IMatch website multilangual? If you have any kind of analysis to which countries/languages IMatch is mostly sold, you could consider to translate the site into the most important languages. Again: this is mainly oriented towards the "enthousiast amateur photographer" and not all of these people are good at English. No wonder that Canon/Nikon (and the like) provide multilingual user interfaces.

Hi, lovely stuff, the examples.
After reading about Paz, I can't help wishing that I had digi photos, GPS, GIS, and last but not least, iMatch to organize it all, when I started my biologist's career (way too far back now...). At least it is not too late to catch up with some of the photo organizing, thanks to the renaming and metadata editing features.
You can quote me on that!  ;)

And for the typo department (Paz):
"The Viewer can display up to 16 files at simultaneously"  the 'at' should be dropped.

User Emma, under "Keywords and Descriptions" has entitled a picture "Family Picknick at Ground Park" and also lists "picknick" as a keyword.   I don't think she is referring to the online image editor called "Picknick," so this seems to be a misspelling of the English word "picnic" -- which is spelled "picknick" in German, though . . .

User Emma:

Quote"After a short time all photos are processed and she can take the USB stick with here to print the images at the mall."

Should be ". . . take the USB stick with her to print . . . "

User Mike:

QuoteIf you are a professional photographer or an ambitioned amateur, this should give you some insight in how IMatch will help you with your workflow.

Suggestions: 
1. " . . . or an ambitious amateur . . . "
2. ". . . some insight into the many ways IMatch will help you . . . "

Then, under "Renaming and Distributing Files":

QuoteMike reuses this project code in the Renamer to give each image an unique name.

Fixed: "Mike reuses this project code in the Renamer to give each image a unique name."

And, under Integrating Other Applications, you refer to "LR" -- this may be too basic for most professional photographers, but will ALL readers of the new IMatch 5 website know that LR=Lightroom?   

 

Quoteknow that LR=Lightroom

Good point and I believe it is wise to avoid abbreviations and acronyms when writing for the general public.

Quote from: Mees Dekker on April 25, 2014, 06:07:19 PM
I think Emma represents your most important targetgroup (in sales numbers, that is). She is an enthousiast amateur photographer and there are millions of these (as opposed to the other types of users). I would therefore suggest that you put her first instead of last. (...)

You have a point there. I think I will re-arrange the order and make some changes to Emma's story.

Quote from: Mees Dekker on April 25, 2014, 06:07:19 PM
Secondly: on the home page you state that IMatch solves the problem of managing large collections of digital files. That could put a lot of potential customers off. They could think : "I'm only an amateur and I don't have a large collection. So I won't need or benefit from IMatch". The main point is that IMatch organises any (from very small to very large) collection of any digital files (photo's, scans, pdf, etc). And it organises from very simple ways (just dates, folders and renaming) to very complex ways (metadata all the way, scripts, categories, keywords, etc.).

Good point, too.

Quote from: Mees Dekker on April 25, 2014, 06:07:19 PM
Lastly: [/i]I know it will be a lot of work, but nevertheless. Would it be worthwhile to make your IMatch website multilangual?

I could do a German version. But for all other languages I would need to buy translation services, and they are very expensive. Even when you use today's on-line translation services (I don't mean Google translate but one of the services where you upload your documents an it is then translated by some translator sitting wherever) you pay between 1,500 and 3,000 US$ for 10,000 words (depending on complexity etc.) The IMatch 5 section at photools.com has about 10,000 to 12,000 words. At that's just for one language!

QuoteNo wonder that Canon/Nikon (and the like) provide multilingual user interfaces.

Yep. But these companies operate on different budgets  ;)
I pay for computers, servers, tools, domains, certificates out of my own pockets. If I make enough molah from IMatch 5 I will first invest in tools and libraries to port it to 64-Bit (the scripting engine library for 64-Bit costs alone about 5 times as much as the 32-bit version, plus annual royalties). And when I make even more money, I will invest in translating the web site and maybe the resources. Until then, it's Google translate. Which produces at least a readable translation...

Quote from: BanjoTom on April 25, 2014, 10:52:04 PM
User Mike:
(...)

Thanks. All fixed.

Quote from: Kucera on April 25, 2014, 08:48:58 PM
Hi, lovely stuff, the examples.
After reading about Paz, I can't help wishing that I had digi photos, GPS, GIS, and last but not least, iMatch to organize it all, when I started my biologist's career (way too far back now...).

A certain biologist (the real Paz) was actually the reason for me making IMatch being able to handle large taxonomies in categories. And for the new category import feature introduced recently (because they maintain taxonomies in a simple tab-indented format).

During my research I found this site: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/taxonomy which is a large (and free) on-line taxonomy database. They have massive amounts of data (> 400,000 entries) and still claim that they cover only 10% of the described species of life on the planet. Amazing!

Some other suggested small fixes as of 12:01 PM -07:00 today:

Mike
"The Shooting" --> Better to say "The Shoot" or "Shooting"
"In preparation for a shooting," --> "In preparation for a shoot,"
"directly downloads files from the camera via the network link." This isn't clear; did you mean via a (USB) cable? Or did you assume Mike is using a wi-fi link from the camera?

Metadata templates
"a set of standard keywords etc. " --> "a set of standard keywords, etc."
Caption: "They can be used to fill in standard data and stationary," --> Unclear; what's 'stationary'?

Review and Culling
"During and after the shooting," --> "During and after the shoot,"
"e.g. picks make by his clients." --> "e.g., picks made by his clients."
"a camera dashboard and many other information displays as needed." --> "a camera dashboard and as many other information displays as needed."

Editing Metadata and Keywords
"This freely configurable panel that can display" --> "This freely configurable panel can display" or "This is a freely configurable panel that can display"
"In addition to standards like IPTC, EXIF, XMP, GPS, PSD, Office, MP3 IMatch" --> "In addition to standards like IPTC, EXIF, XMP, GPS, PSD, Office and MP3, IMatch"
"create sets of frequently used keywords in the thesaurus etc." --> "create sets of frequently used keywords in the thesaurus, etc."

Conclusion
"Only for editing he had to switch from IMatch to Photoshop and LR." --> "Only for editing has he had to switch from IMatch to Photoshop and LR. " or "Lightroom"

Some other suggested small fixes as of 12:29 PM -07:00 today:

Emma

Files and Folders
"This makes finding images in Windows easier, and also tasks backups." --> "This makes finding images in Windows easier, and also simplifies backups."
Caption: "The optimal IMatch feature to find the best photos and to delete images not worth to keep." -->"This is the optimal IMatch feature to find the best photos and to delete images not worth keeping."
"IMatch stores the data she enters in the Metadata Panel to the database" --> "IMatch stores the data she enters in the Metadata Panel into the database"

GPS Coordinates
"This is great when the later uploads images to Facebook" --> "This is great when she later uploads images to Facebook"

Organizing Images with Categories
"The feature Emma likes most are categories. " --> "The feature Emma likes most is categories."

Small fixes as of 12:45 PM -07:00 today:

Susan

Categories
"All images with motives of Arabia" --> I assume this should be "All images with motifs of Arabia" Likewise for the earlier usage.

The Timeline
"Susan and her team fill the corresponding metadata value" --> " Susan and her team fill in the corresponding metadata value"

Import and Export
"The CSV format produced in this example is ideal to export data" --> "The CSV format produced in this example is ideal for exporting data"


General comments:
"e.g." should always be followed by a comma, e.g., "e.g., "
"etc." should be preceded by a comma, e.g., "(long list of items), etc. "

Small fixes as of 1:00 PM -07:00 today:

Paz

Annotations
"One feature of IMatch which uses used often by scientific users are Annotations." --> "One feature of IMatch used often by scientific users is Annotations."
"From here Pat can" --> "From here Paz can"

Exporting and Using Annotations
"The Batch Processor is able to render annotations to out images," --> "The Batch Processor is able to render annotations to output images," ?

Using Attribute Data
"Attribute data but can be utilized in many ways." --> "Attribute data can be utilized in many ways."
"Ideal for publishing or presentations." --> "This is ideal for publishing or presentations. "

Conclusion
"With a custom database built using Attributes they handle  whatever data they want to manage for each of their files." --> "With a custom database built using Attributes they handle whatever data they want to manage for each of their files." (Extra space)

Small fixes as of 2:50 PM -07:00 today:

Paul

The Universal Thesaurus
"Since Paul often shoots similar motives," --> should be "motif"

"It us used most often" --> "It is used most often"

"he can now just pick them for the list he manages" --> "he can now just pick them from the list he manages"

"For quite a number of fruit and " --> "For quite a number of fruits and "

"The IMatch Thesaurus and it's synonym feature" --> "The IMatch Thesaurus and its synonym feature"

Conclusion
"He can work with the Viewer very similar to a classic light table," --> "He can work with the Viewer very much like a classic light table,"

Small fixes as of 3:01 PM -07:00 today:

Claude

"over 10,000 metadata fields" --> elsewhere it's "over 12,000"

"Claude has direct access the the Universal Thesaurus" --> "Claude has direct access to the Universal Thesaurus"

Doing a line-by-line review of the new website just reinforces what a powerful, flexible product Mario has developed!

"stationary" I too had wondered about the meaning but decided that the meaning must be as used in this sentence. 'Mike ordered stationary for his office.'

Quote from: jch2103 on April 26, 2014, 11:14:03 PM
Doing a line-by-line review of the new website just reinforces what a powerful, flexible product Mario has developed!

Two words need more emphasis.  :D 'what a powerful, flexible product Mario has developed

More screenshots on the main page.

Quote from: jch2103 on April 26, 2014, 11:14:03 PM
Doing a line-by-line review of the new website just reinforces what a powerful, flexible product Mario has developed!

(https://www.photools.com/community/Smileys/photools/sign31.gif)

And also thank you very much :) for your review and feedback. I have today fixed the typos you found and incorporated your suggestions.

Quote from: aloney on April 29, 2014, 04:37:27 AM
More screenshots on the main page.

You would add screen shots of which features?

I decided that landing page should look as clean as possible. One big screen shot at the top as an eye catches, then the necessary text. I tried with three screen shots but these made the page too "busy", and without adding more text to explain them, they're useless.

The general aim is that the visitor should quickly find the user profiles and click them. They all have plenty of screen shots, but also a context which explains what the visitor sees.

Quote from: Mario on April 24, 2014, 06:03:13 PM@Lightroom users: Why do you use IMatch in addition to LR? I do, and I know why. But why do you? I mean LR has keywords and shows metadata too.

• LR does not support most or all other non-image media and office files
• LR does not allow Drag&Drop to other applications
• LR does not allow sidecar files for ALL file extensions
• With LR you need a lot of free or payed add-ons for efficient work with metadata
• LR is not really convenient for file and directory management
• User interface of LR has less room for modification than IM
• I use LR only for editing selected RAW images from my big jpg, raw, png, video, office, ... file collection
• For minor image modifications of image files I do not need LR, but I use non-destructive and real-time-rendering presentation tools

Main reason: LR does not have the basic philosophy to support third-party non-Adobe tools. But IM has the build-in basic principle to support a lot of other tools (RAW converter, presentations tools, media viewers, image processing tools, command line tools, ...). A DAM (or database) without flexible interfaces would be a bad DAM (or database). In this context LR is not, but IM is a real DAM.

Regards, Martin

I like the website.  I like the feedback many have suggested.  But, from a marketing standpoint and to reinforce a point you made early on; people tend to look at web pages quickly and want to be sold quickly on something quickly.  They want something to the point.

I feel like what is there now has a lot of great information but perhaps too much...  I remember once that in a web design class that they generally recommend not making it so users have to scroll too much. 

That being said.  I wonder if you could collapse a lot of your content into subjects that would expand when a user clicks with the primary page being the text you have in white between the red lines and a nice large screen shot with the headings of each section visible, clickable, and expandable.  This would have the effect of making things look a bit "cleaner".  I'm not sure how easy that is.  I surely didn't do things like that 20 years ago when I was taking a web design course in college, but wikipedia routinely does something like this with their site (perhaps only on their mobile site).

Another item I suggest is somehow having an ability to use more of the screen space. On my 1920 pixel wide monitor, the page only takes up about half the width of my browser.  Couple that with the right column, and the page feels a little tight. 

I like the idea of Emma being first and I like the typical user idea in general.  Unfortunately, I can't see it when i first browse the page, but that is probably the one feature of your web page that is quite useful for what you are trying to do.  The amateur is useful up front not only because there are a lot of us out there, but we are probably also the most finicky.  The professionals will spend more time researching and learn about a software and realize that there is more than meets the eye.  The amateur and casual user is the one who needs to be grabbed in those 5 seconds.

Most users are going to be won by the fact that their organization and DAM is independent of their processing software.  Those who like the integration of LR aren't going to be easily won, but those who rely on more than just LR are there for the taking.  LR is probably one of the better DAM's when it comes to RAW processing + DAM, but your program is great because it allows me to easily use any RAW program, not just one.  The scriptability with IM is nice.  I wasn't even aware LR had scriptability, so if anything you make it upfront and out there.  MWG compliance is nice, and a developer who keeps the program inline with the state of the practice is useful.  At the least, a user can switch from LR to IM without missing a step and doesn't have to do much more.  There is little effort needed. 

Anyway, whatever happens, you've put a web page together that works.  I hope you sell lots of copies of IM, perhaps enough to allow you to make it your real full time job (not that you don't put full time into it already), but perhaps enough to quit your real job and maybe travel in the time that job "used" to require :)

-Erik

Quote from: Richard on April 26, 2014, 11:41:40 PM
"stationary" I too had wondered about the meaning but decided that the meaning must be as used in this sentence. 'Mike ordered stationary for his office.'

Shouldn't it be 'Mike ordered stationery for his office'? (Mnemonic: stationery has an 'e' as in envelope). Stationary, of course, means still, not moving.

Already fixed that a couple of days ago. Or did you find that today?

I am wondering if a Glossary Of Terms might be of benefit. If a reader sees a word like "Collections" s/he may wonder what that actually means in IMatch. Carrying this idea to the maximum would be links from words to the right location in Help.

During the six years I searched for an application that really suited me I downloaded and installed a lot of trial versions. I soon learned that many applications install well but do no uninstall well and left a lot of garbage on my HD. As a result I often spent hours reading before installing a trial version. I am probably the exception and the website has a good introduction to IMatch but some common words may leave a reader with questions about exactly what that word means in IMatch.

(You cannot link from a web site to a help file installed locally. )

I'm not sure, really. I've read a lot of current statistics recently about web site design, user interaction, visitor behavior etc.

Too much information, too many details actually drives visitors away from a web site! Catchy phrases, nice pictures, a cool USP in big bold letters and some 'trust-building' information is what visitors expect. Look at the web sites of competitors or the big software brands to see what I mean.

I doubt that a visitor who lends my web site his attention for a few seconds should be bombarded with too many details. This will be counterproductive, I suppose.
If somebody is interested enough to wonder about details like "Collection" (there is a light-weight explanation for collections in some of user profiles) he/she can download the help file to get all the info before installing - or better, download the demo version and see for him/herself.

I don't know if this is at all valid, but it sounds interesting:

http://arstechnica.com/business/2014/05/this-ai-tells-you-if-your-website-is-too-cluttered/

I found it interesting but it seemed to be aimed at sites with multiple products to sell. I like what I see at the IMatch 5 Website and it is not at all hard to follow.

Designing e-commerce web sites (which photools.com is not) has become a matter of a lot experimentation, research, science, and probably some dark magic as well over the past couple of years.

Sometimes even small changes can make a huge difference. Or just improving the time a web site requires to load. For example, Amazon did a study in 2006 where they found out that if the web site loads 100ms (1/10 of a second!) slower, they loose 1% of sales. In a more recent study, Walmart found out that if their web site loads 1 second faster, it generates 2% more in sales. That's called conversion rate in tech lingo. Here in Germany, web shops have a conversion rate between 1 and 3%: from 100 visitors 1 to 3 buy something.

Sometimes even something apparently trivial like the color or placement of the "Buy" button, or the information 'surrounding' it can have a huge impact on whether the visitor buys something - or spends his money elsewhere.

Whatever online shop you use, you are being tracked, analyzed and psychologically studied in order to generate an Internet experience which  makes it easier for you to part from your money. Whether it's ads you get served, or how you 'see' your favorite on-line shop is dynamically adjusted to match your our your 'groups' psychological profile.

Amazon can look very different for different users. And that's not only the "what you might be interested in" offers - sometimes different users get different prices at different times, or even a different look of the web site. That's called A/B test and the results of these tests tell the shop operator which way works better for which user groups.

That's all a bit over the top for my honest "Here is more software. Try it. If you like it, buy it" web site of course ;)

Quote from: Mario on April 23, 2014, 11:30:08 PM

@All:

If you have a quote for me, please post it here.

Something like:


"IMatch 5 is the best invention since sliced bread."
-- Mario M. Westphal (Author of IMatch)


;)

;) Shouldn't be to long.
"I M A T C H  5 - Just Add Photos" or assets.
But most consumers don't know what assets are. IMVHO.

I fully agree with Mario that texts on a website should be short.
If my memory serves me well you have only a couple of seconds to draw the attention of the visitor.
When the site has long texts, or is difficult to understand, people tend to click away.

Thinking about quotes.......
It should be simple, short, say everything in one line......
What about these:

Taking Digital Asset management to the next level.

Redefining Digital Asset Management.

QuoteTaking Digital Asset management to the next level.

QuoteRedefining Digital Asset Management.

This is the typical overpaid BWM-driving black-clothes wearing marketing people mumo-jumbo you get everywhere these days. Statements like "redefining X" "revolutionary", "next level" or (sigh!) "premium" make many people just sick :D

I try to stay away from such jargon and show people what they get from IMatch in simple words and pictschurs. Of course the web site is marketing, but of the informative kind, I hope.

And, yes. A web site has only about 5 seconds to grab the attention of a visitor. Based on fairly recent studies. That's why the eye catcher image and the USP are right on top, the landing page has only as little text as possible and the unusual comic book characters are used for the user examples. It's all to draw attention and to get the visitor to read more about IMatch.

Quote from: joel23 on May 05, 2014, 10:00:58 PM
Shouldn't be to long.
"I M A T C H  5 - Just Add Photos" or assets.
But most consumers don't know what assets are. IMVHO.

That statement sounds pretty negative: ...Just Photos. Can't IMatch 5 do anything else?
I use the "images and other digital files" for the USP and the intro text. This is much clearer and positive I guess.

QuoteOf course the web site is marketing, but of the informative kind, I hope.

I can't comment about the marketing aspect but I believe that it is certainly informative.

Quote from: Mario on May 06, 2014, 07:51:41 AM

Quote from: joel23 on May 05, 2014, 10:00:58 PM
Shouldn't be to long.
"I M A T C H  5 - Just Add Photos" or assets.
But most consumers don't know what assets are. IMVHO.

That statement sounds pretty negative: ...Just Photos. Can't IMatch 5 do anything else?

A slogan is about to draw attention to a product/website, it should not be to descriptive. 
I don't think it's is negative and sure IMatch can more, but the user should find out him self. You can't sell all the advantages of an "eier_legende_woll_milch_sau" (swiss army knife) in a short slogan.

This "just" is not to understand as "can only" but as "only add your photos/assets, IMatch will take care of the rest".
But anyway. It's like with jokes: when a joke has to be explained, there is no. ;)

IMatch 5 is something of a "swiss army knife" DAM. That could be made into a pretty good slogan.

Mario, I am trying to look at your website dispassionately  and have several suggestions which I hope will not offend you. I say this because you have made it clear that you have given great thought to the current content and layout.

Just now I am unable to connect to your IM5 web site so cannot check and revise that which I have written below, so excuse any errors.

• I think there is too much text to read, there is only one screen shot, rather than several, and too many words and phrases in bold which tends to spoil the appearance of the text and serves little purpose. Since you now have an image which pops out when clicked why not have at least three more which illustrate features? These should be much smaller (i.e., thumbnails) than the main image in order to conserve space but IMatch is so much to do with photographs and graphics so why not utilise images? Much of your audience is in the business of images: that's what they will respond to.
• I'd be inclined to present all the salient features (time-line etc.) as captioned thumbnails ('pop outs', illustrating each), perhaps in a grid of three across and two down, or whatever looks/fits best. I believe all your main points need to be there, at a glance, at the top, preferably with thumbnails to click on. Use dot points for speed reading.
• Your 'IMatch 5 at a Glance' should be at the top and, perhaps, re-written for the purpose. You need to engage your prospective customers within seconds of opening your website. If you look at the use of images on your site you'll see that only one illustrates IM5 itself. Indeed, I think they occupy as much of the page as the screenshot. I'd be inclined, if at all possible, to replace the cartoon characters with small pictures of real, happy, people. Frankly, 'cartoon characters' don't seem to fit well here.
• Swap the first two paragraphs.
• Use lighter text and/or larger font
• Remove all/most bold text in paragraphs.
• Replace text on 'banner' 'Organize Your Stuff' with 'Get Organized!' I am not in favour of the word 'stuff' in this context.
• Lastly, I would simply delete all the following:
  
  "While developing IMatch, we used several user types for guidance. Each of these prototype users has a different job, works in a different environment and has different requirements for a digital asset management system."
  "Check out how these folks use IMatch. This will give you a very good idea of how you can use IMatch to solve your image and document management problems."
  and just retain the heading 'How users work with Imatch' or 'How typical users work with Imatch'

Well, I'm sure IM5 will be a great success come what may.

Quote"While developing IMatch, we used several user types for guidance. Each of these prototype users has a different job, works in a different environment and has different requirements for a digital asset management system."
"Check out how these folks use IMatch. This will give you a very good idea of how you can use IMatch to solve your image and document management problems."
and just retain the heading 'How users work with Imatch' or 'How typical users work with Imatch'

That's the key part of the IMatch 5 web site!
Have you clicked on one of these sample users to see how they work with IMatch? Behind each user there are images, screen shots and descriptions of how these people use IMatch...

Quote from: Mario on May 06, 2014, 06:14:08 PM
Have you clicked on one of these sample users to see how they work with IMatch? Behind each user there are images, screen shots and descriptions of how these people use IMatch...

Just an observation: I didn't realize at first that the sample users were 'clickable', but I'm not sure if there's a way to make that more obvious. In any event, at this point we're all guessing about how a wide range of visitors with a wide range of interests will respond to the site. Mario will have more solid analytics data after the site goes live.

Well, it's in the text.
The icons react on the mouse when you hover over them.
The cursor changes to a "click" hand.
A red rectangle appears when you point with the mouse at one of the users.
A tooltip tells you "Click here to see how Emma is using IMatch".

I'm not sure how do "more"... maby put a "click" text and link under each of the short descriptions...

Since so many of you have commented on the users and the stories behind them, I think most intuitively clicked the images. It's a web thing.

Quote from: Richard on May 06, 2014, 04:23:31 PM
IMatch 5 is something of a "swiss army knife" DAM. That could be made into a pretty good slogan.

I support this  :)

Quote from: Mario on May 06, 2014, 06:43:39 PM
Well, it's in the text.
The icons react on the mouse when you hover over them.
The cursor changes to a "click" hand.
A red rectangle appears when you point with the mouse at one of the users.
A tooltip tells you "Click here to see how Emma is using IMatch".

I'm not sure how do "more"... maby put a "click" text and link under each of the short descriptions...

Since so many of you have commented on the users and the stories behind them, I think most intuitively clicked the images. It's a web thing.

You're right of course about the icons reacting - my problem was that since I didn't realize at first that they were active icons, I didn't try clicking them... However, you may be right that most folks figure this out faster. Analytics should give you a good handle on click paths on the site.

When I go to a new website I look at the main page and if something fails to catch my attention, that is were the "5 seconds matter". However, once they have my attention I will look and read until something negative turns me off or I am sold. Just this morning I was searching for an item and hit sites that were nice looking but then had to hunt down long lists in a sidebar to find what I was looking for and did not find it on the first three sites in the time I alloted each.

Nothing of the above really applies to the New IMatch 5 Website. Folks looking for pictures of a dam will know in <5 sec. that they should move on. If they are looking for a DAM, Mario's first page should grab their attention in about 2 seconds and there is a lot that they can learn if they are as hesitant to download stuff like I am. What I don't know is how one can look at the hit results and learn anything. Say 98 out of 100 of the folks leave the site within 5 seconds. What does that really tell you? That the site is bad? Maybe 90 were looking for dam pictures.

If the site could somehow record how each visitor got there, then the statistics could mean a whole lot. For instance if How is: "Referred by a user" and 98% of them download. That would tell me that the site is doing exactly what it should. Maybe actual customers would be willing to check mark what brought them to the site. That could prove interesting. I believe that we the IMatch users can have a huge impact on sales. There is no better advertising than recommendations from satisfied users. Once IMatch 5 is out the door, I intend to email a lot of my friends and relatives and ask them to forward my email to anyone that might be interested in organizing their digital files. If I have 50 contacts in my address book and some forward as requested, how many people will see my email. Hundreds for sure but more likely thousands.

Quote from: Richard on May 06, 2014, 10:26:27 PM
...What I don't know is how one can look at the hit results and learn anything. Say 98 out of 100 of the folks leave the site within 5 seconds. What does that really tell you? That the site is bad? Maybe 90 were looking for dam pictures.

If the site could somehow record how each visitor got there, then the statistics could mean a whole lot. For instance if How is: "Referred by a user" and 98% of them download. That would tell me that the site is doing exactly what it should. Maybe actual customers would be willing to check mark what brought them to the site. That could prove interesting. I believe that we the IMatch users can have a huge impact on sales. There is no better advertising than recommendations from satisfied users. Once IMatch 5 is out the door, I intend to email a lot of my friends and relatives and ask them to forward my email to anyone that might be interested in organizing their digital files. If I have 50 contacts in my address book and some forward as requested, how many people will see my email. Hundreds for sure but more likely thousands.

Tools like Google Analytics can provide a surprising amount of information/insights even in the free version (though I suspect some of the best options are $$). For example, they can give you a flow report showing traffic into and through the site (e.g., https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/2519986).

But I agree that there's no better advertising than recommendations from satisfied users, and the price to Mario is right ($0). All of us happy users will need to send out the word when the time comes.

Quote from: Mario on May 06, 2014, 06:14:08 PM

Quote"While developing IMatch, we used several user types for guidance. Each of these prototype users has a different job, works in a different environment and has different requirements for a digital asset management system."
"Check out how these folks use IMatch. This will give you a very good idea of how you can use IMatch to solve your image and document management problems."
and just retain the heading 'How users work with Imatch' or 'How typical users work with Imatch'

That's the key part of the IMatch 5 web site!
Have you clicked on one of these sample users to see how they work with IMatch? Behind each user there are images, screen shots and descriptions of how these people use IMatch...

I wouldn't dispute that it is a key part but I think that it is unnecessarily verbose. Yes, I had clicked on the sample users and this is very good. I think that a simpler introduction to the section would be enough because it is only when visitors click on the characters, which they surely will, that they will become informed.

However, as I wrote before, I think it will be a success anyway.

Four down, two to go.  :P

Susan

QuoteThe Batch Processor Susan uses the Batch Processor to export images with the library logo and text in different sizes and formats. The Batch Processor has access all the metadata and Attributes available in their database, which enables her to add captions and descriptions to each exported file. Images produced that way are ideal for publishing, catalogs and web site usage.

The Batch Processor has access to all the metadata

Paz

Quote

Category Formulas Such queries can be performed ad-hoc as needed, but also made persistent using the unique category formula system implemented IMatch. You can create a new category from such a query which contains the query as a formula. The new category will be fully dynamic, evaluating the formula every time it is viewed or used. When Paz writes new documents, the category will automatically reflect this.

QuoteAnnotations One feature of IMatch which uses used often by scientific users is Annotations. Annotations are vector-based shapes and objects which can be added to any file managed by IMatch. Annotations are stored in the database and are non-destructive – they don't modify the original image or file.

Quote from: jch2103 on May 06, 2014, 10:54:18 PM
Tools like Google Analytics can provide a surprising amount of information/insights even in the free version (though I suspect some of the best options are $$). For example, they can give you a flow report showing traffic into and through the site (e.g., https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/2519986).

Unless you include Google analytics in your site (or the competing products from Adobe or others) the efficiency of the analytics is very limited. Adding support for these trackers will allow Google to track my users, to follow them over the web. I don't like the general idea of users being tracked all over the web. For example, you don't see ads in this community or on my web site. And I don't use tracking cookies myself, don't automatically inform Facebook or other networks about you visiting my site.

But I think to get exposure for photools.com I might need to do all this, sooner or later. A large amount of traffic is driven by Google, Facebook and Twitter to websites like mine. If I don't include their tracker include files which allow them to follow and analyze you, they move my web site deep down into their suggestion lists and search results - basically a punishment for not helping them to track your visitors or users movements over the web.

If you use nice tools like Ghostery you see how many tracking cookies, social network trackers, advertisement network trackers etc. are triggered whenever you surf on popular sites. I sometimes see more than 10 advertisement networks, Google analytics, Adobe and others trying to track my web usage. I really don't like this, but I may be forced to in order to drive more traffic and thus potential users to my web site.

Quote from: Richard on May 07, 2014, 06:25:10 AM
Four down, two to go.  :P

Thanks, Richard. I have already implemented your changes.

I've also reworded the intro for the user types today (paragraph above the user table).

(Probably) final version of the IMatch 5 web site now on-line:

http://www.photools.com/im5/

(password see above).

I've added a slider to show some more screen shots without using up more space.
Some rewording.
Made it clear that the user profiles can be clicked by adding buttons. This also looses up the side a bit.

Added the user testimonials some of you have thankfully provided. @All: If you have to say something quotable about IMatch, with your name under it, please post to this thread. User testimonials build trust.

QuoteEfficient and easy to use whether you have 20,000 or 200,000 files to manage.

The tends to sound like a fixed range of 20,000 to 200,000 files.

Efficient and easy to use whether you have 200 or over 200,000 files to manage. 

I cannot image using anything else to organize my digital media. — John Zeman, semi pro photographer / webmaster, Sac City Iowa.

Quote

Hey John, Did you mean to say imagine but wrote image?

Hi Mario,

I would love to see a testimonial for JohnTax.
If you will recall he runs his office with IMatch 3.
See: http://ptforum.photoolsweb.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=57257&Searchpage=1&Main=8878&Words=John+%2B+Tax+%2B+Mary&Search=true#Post57257

Should I try to contact him?

Quote from: Mario on May 11, 2014, 01:42:19 PM
(Probably) final version of the IMatch 5 web site now on-line:

http://www.photools.com/im5/

(password see above).

For some reason, I'm having trouble with the page freezing up in Chrome after I enter the password; after a while, Chrome says the page is unresponsive. Seems to work OK in Firefox, at the moment, though.

Sorry. I use Chrome only to access gmail and my web master tools. I don't want let Google into my web site or the protected area (it's closed for spiders etc. at the time because I don't want to get the word out yet).

I don't trust chrome at all, nobody knows what Google is transmitting...I will do a test when the site is officially open, but not earlier.

IE and Firefox work.

Quote from: Mario on May 11, 2014, 01:42:19 PM
(Probably) final version of the IMatch 5 web site now on-line:

http://www.photools.com/im5/

(password see above).

I've added a slider to show some more screen shots without using up more space.
Some rewording.
Made it clear that the user profiles can be clicked by adding buttons. This also looses up the side a bit.

Added the user testimonials some of you have thankfully provided. @All: If you have to say something quotable about IMatch, with your name under it, please post to this thread. User testimonials build trust.

Can I ask which password to use for this please

Its OK I found it

Quote from: Mario on May 11, 2014, 06:56:32 PM
Sorry. I use Chrome only to access gmail and my web master tools. I don't want let Google into my web site or the protected area (it's closed for spiders etc. at the time because I don't want to get the word out yet).

I don't trust chrome at all, nobody knows what Google is transmitting...I will do a test when the site is officially open, but not earlier.

IE and Firefox work.

Obviously your choice. However:
1. Until the latest iteration of the web page, Chrome was working perfectly. Now I just get a blank page with the message 'Waiting for www.photools.com...'. Must have been a recent change that caused it to stop working. (I notice that Google Analytics now shows up on the Ghostery scan.)
2. You'll be missing quite a few potential users if Chrome users can't access the page (see summary table at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usage_share_of_web_browsers : Chrome share ~= IE share + Firefox share). I assume you'll open it up when the site goes fully live.

Suggested corrections, in the testimonials that are now accessible by sliders:

John Zeman: 

QuoteI cannot image using anything else to organize my digital media.
— John Zeman, semi pro photographer / webmaster, Sac City Iowa.

should probably say "I cannot imagine . . . "

- - - - -

Ted Cash's testimonial says: 

QuoteI have about 200,000 photos taken by my wife and I in 60 countries over the last 50 years;

should be ". . . taken by my wife and me . . . "   

These are minor corrections, of course; in general I LIKE the testimonials very much and think they add a lot to the site.

(password see above).  Have done a search on each page and cannot see it any where, so could someone please advise this so I can have a look, thanks

Quote from: ianrr on May 12, 2014, 01:27:00 AM
(password see above).  Have done a search on each page and cannot see it any where, so could someone please advise this so I can have a look, thanks

https://www.photools.com/community/index.php?topic=2163.msg13750#msg13750

Thanks for that.

Just taken a quick look at the finished (nearly) web site and I must say that it is very impressive. A prospective customer will be overwhelmed by the amount of information you've supplied and the flexibility of IM5.

Quote from: jch2103 on May 12, 2014, 01:13:24 AM
Obviously your choice. However:
1. Until the latest iteration of the web page, Chrome was working perfectly. Now I just get a blank page with the message 'Waiting for www.photools.com...'. Must have been a recent change that caused it to stop working. (I notice that Google Analytics now shows up on the Ghostery scan.)
2. You'll be missing quite a few potential users if Chrome users can't access the page (see summary table at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usage_share_of_web_browsers : Chrome share ~= IE share + Firefox share). I assume you'll open it up when the site goes fully live.

I've made a quick test with Chrome and it works without problems at all. Tried under W7 and W8.1.

Quote from: Sorted on May 12, 2014, 05:02:03 AM
Just taken a quick look at the finished (nearly) web site and I must say that it is very impressive. A prospective customer will be overwhelmed by the amount of information you've supplied and the flexibility of IM5.

Hopefully there is not too much info on the first page to drive visitors away. It's always a balance act.

Quote from: Mario on May 12, 2014, 07:59:30 AM

Quote from: Sorted on May 12, 2014, 05:02:03 AM
Just taken a quick look at the finished (nearly) web site and I must say that it is very impressive. A prospective customer will be overwhelmed by the amount of information you've supplied and the flexibility of IM5.

Hopefully there is not too much info on the first page to drive visitors away. It's always a balance act.

Yes, it is a balance act ... but I think, you have got the right balance!

For me it looks very good, a good balance  ;D between Design and Information! Well done!

QuoteFor me it looks very good, a good balance  (http://community.photoolsweb.com/Smileys/default/grin.gif) between Design and Information!

I fully agree with Markus.

As I was reading how Paul uses IMatch it occurred to me that the New IMatch 5 Website would make a wonderful "Teaser" if more folks could see it as it is today. Based on ignorance of all implications I would make it available to all IMatch users. Maybe even the general public.

When someone clicks on [Download Free Trial Version] they are taken to the download page with has no mention at all the IMatch 5 exists. Much less that it is in the final stages of Beta testing.

I am thinking of a gradual build to the public release of IMatch 5.
1. Let existing IMatch users access the New IMatch 5 Website.
2. Let the general public access the New IMatch 5 Website.
3. At the download page include some mention of IMatch 5, its current status, and a link to the New IMatch 5 Website.
4. Let existing IMatch users download the free trial version with the understanding it is still a Beta version.
5. Let the general public download the free trial version with the understanding it is still a Beta version.

Again based on my ignorance, the main problem that I can see with the above steps is that it could generate a ton of email that you really don't have time to deal with. On the plus side you will be, in effect, expanding the Beta test to old forum members and then the general public.

Hi, Richard

There is a teaser banner right at the front page of photools.com.
Plus the banner in the old user forum.
Plus search engines already list IMatch 5.

I will open the IMatch 5 site soon to the public anyway, because the official release of IMatch 5 is almost there.
I have the site ready, the connection with the share-it/DigitalRiver shopping system, the press information, reviewer guide etc.
So the "infrastructure" to roll out IMatch 5 is in place. This was quite a project all by itself.

I even have already generated the voucher codes for all users with a 3.5 and higher license  - which allows you to purchase IMatch 5 at a fair discount.

I need to fix some final bugs before going live (we will of course not have an empty bug list before the release) and implement the reminder of the "evaluation version / expire) functionality. From my point of view we will have one or two more Beta releases, and that's it  :D

And over the weekend I checked out all major (and some minor) DAM vendors to get a price point for IMatch 5. I don't want to compete with price tags like 79,95$ because that software is rubbish and has 1/20th of the IMatch functionality. And I don't want to place IMatch in price areas like 499,00 US$ (FotoStation) or 2000US$ (Extensis). I will set a fair price and (most) users will consider it fair.

I've put a lot of work and money into IMatch 5 and making a buck from it will allow me to continue to work on it, buy the licenses to migrate it to 64-Bit etc. And I have so many cool ideas on my list and also many useful and cool ideas here in the feature area. I'll bee busy as a bee after IMatch 5 is out for sure. Happy days!

Quote from: Mario on May 12, 2014, 11:04:21 AMFrom my point of view we will have one or two more Beta releases, and that's it  :D

:D :D :D

Quote from: sinus on May 12, 2014, 11:10:47 AM
:D :D :D

Oh, yes. I may even take the first week off since three years when the initial rush is over and everybody can work happily with IMatch 5.

QuotePlus search engines already list IMatch 5.

I had not done a search for IMatch in many years. Back then one had to know to pick the right site. I just did a search and was amazed at what I got. One I liked was: http://photo-organizing-software-review.toptenreviews.com/imatch-review.html
Until today I had no idea that Consumer Reports had reviewed IMatch. I did not understand this comment: "However, adjusting your images is rather difficult because you have to perform the edits while looking at a small preview window." Did they contact you prior to that review?

QuoteThere is a teaser banner right at the front page of photools.com.

Nothing that I know of holds a candle to the New IMatch 5 Website. I consider most of what exists as being made obsolete by the New IMatch 5 Website. In case you had not noticed I am thrilled with the New IMatch 5 Website.  ;D

I'm usually not contacted prior or afterwards. Only print magazines contact me sometimes to check the facts.

I will push IMatch 5 into all channels (press and photo/DAM-related bloggers with a minimum of reach) so we'll see a lot more of that soon - for the IMatch 5 product.

I also plan to open IMatch for share-it/Digital River affiliates. This means that people can make money by selling IMatch via their web site. They only need to register with share-it/DigitalRiver as an affiliate (free, no strings attached) and then they can contact me when they want to sell IMatch. If I agree they get a special link and when somebody buys IMatch via this link, they get the usual share. That may be interesting for DAM-related or photography-related web sites with some reach.

I now also have the option to create time-limited or number-limited (first 100 visitors) vouchers. Print magazines which include a DVD often ask for a special "light" or discounted version they can distribute on their DVD. In the future I can offer them a time-limited (e.g. 60 days) voucher with a 10% or so discount. If one of their readers purchases IMatch and enters that code he gets 10% off the full price.

I'm not sure yet if and when I will use that new feature, but it's good to have it. I plan to do a bit of marketing for IMatch 5  ;)

Quote from: Richard on May 12, 2014, 01:58:02 PM

QuoteThere is a teaser banner right at the front page of photools.com.

Nothing that I know of holds a candle to the New IMatch 5 Website. I consider most of what exists as being made obsolete by the New IMatch 5 Website. In case you had not noticed I am thrilled with the New IMatch 5 Website.  ;D

Well, thank you very much,Sir!
Since you did a lot of proof-reading (and many other users here also helped to shape it, review it, change it, change it again, ...) it's basically a team effort. And when a user points somebody at the photools.com web site they can tell how hard it was to get there.

Quote from: Richard on May 12, 2014, 01:58:02 PM
I consider most of what exists as being made obsolete by the New IMatch 5 Website.

Yes. I will remove the old stuff at the same time the new stuff goes live. The press section is already open (protected) and I will soon start to contact some pres people. They usually (and rightfully so) don't review Beta products, but as soon as IMatch 5 is out, I will give them press licenses so they can do their tests (and hopefully write positive reviews).

I did not get much with a search for "DAM" but I did for "Digital Image Management". Via http://www.capterra.com/digital-asset-management-software (http://www.capterra.com/digital-asset-management-software) I learned that there are a lot more DAM applications then I imagined.
IMatch is listed but (HINT) needs a lot of reviews. At this time it has none. And it also shows "Vendor has not completed this information." too many times.
http://www.capterra.com/digital-asset-management-software/spotlight/126559/IMatch/photools%20com

Quote from: Mario on May 12, 2014, 07:58:35 AM
I've made a quick test with Chrome and it works without problems at all. Tried under W7 and W8.1.

Sorry, Mario, I'm still having problems with Chrome accessing the site on my W7 desktop. But no problems with my W8 laptop (same version of Chrome). I'll try figure out what the issue is (must be on my end).

Quote from: Richard on May 12, 2014, 02:25:17 PM
I did not get much with a search for "DAM" but I did for "Digital Image Management". Via http://www.capterra.com/digital-asset-management-software (http://www.capterra.com/digital-asset-management-software) I learned that there are a lot more DAM applications then I imagined.
IMatch is listed but (HINT) needs a lot of reviews. At this time it has none. And it also shows "Vendor has not completed this information." too many times.
http://www.capterra.com/digital-asset-management-software/spotlight/126559/IMatch/photools%20com

Capterra is one of the sites which just collects software from everywhere and produces boiler-plate listings. Then they write to you to complete the form, and optionally to pay for better listings or a higher ranking. There are many of these sites out there and I generally don't bother at all. When you search Capterra for asset management you get a page with maybe 50 or more products. Most are enterprise or specific market segments. Way to crowded to find anything useful. There's no point to add IMatch there. The same is true for most of the other the software/shareware/... aggregator sites. Their sole purpose is to collect as many entries as possible to drive search engine traffic to their site to sell more ads.

Much more effective to get more Facebook likes and reviews on DAM- and photography-related sites.

In the beginning there was this post:
                  Topic: IMatch 5 Public Beta available for download
which has been read 16,488 times. That made me wonder how many of those readers followed through and downloaded IMatch 5.

It should be interesting how the numbers for downloads of the trial version pile up. My guess is that by 2014-06-30 2400 GMT there will have been >16 K downloads of trial and licensed versions.

SMF does not count unique reads so the 16K reads may be from 500 users only  ;)

Quote from: Mario on May 12, 2014, 03:50:43 PM
Capterra is one of the sites which just collects software from everywhere and produces boiler-plate listings. Then they write to you to complete the form, and optionally to pay for better listings or a higher ranking. There are many of these sites out there and I generally don't bother at all. When you search Capterra for asset management you get a page with maybe 50 or more products. Most are enterprise or specific market segments. Way to crowded to find anything useful. There's no point to add IMatch there. The same is true for most of the other the software/shareware/... aggregator sites. Their sole purpose is to collect as many entries as possible to drive search engine traffic to their site to sell more ads.

Much more effective to get more Facebook likes and reviews on DAM- and photography-related sites.

It would be nise to see a comparing table, that include features that distinct them. Ex. on toptenreviews most of the softwares have most of the features. So, what are the differences?

Quote from: mastodon on June 04, 2014, 03:08:42 PM
It would be nise to see a comparing table, that include features that distinct them. Ex. on toptenreviews most of the softwares have most of the features. So, what are the differences?

These "feature comparison tables" are used often, but are pretty useless. It's mostly eye candy for unsuspecting users. You can always tweak the tables so your product looks good compared to others.

And, at least here in Germany, you can get sued if something you put into such a table is not entirely correct. Or the company behind the product you mention just thinks that something is not entirely correct and has a lawyer with too much free time. Even mentioning other products in the wrong way on your web site can get you sued. I won't go there.

Interesting.  I thought that here in the US, we have a very litigious society.  Germany sounds at least as litigious, and perhaps even more so.

German universities produce too many lawyers...