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Discussions QuoteWerks Desktop Installation and Upgrades

ADDRESSED-Unrelevant SPLASH screen

Is it just me ??


How to remove/replace the SPLASH screen at the beginning with the winter scene which is no longer relevant

 

Splash screen.jpg
Splash scree...
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I did raise this as a peculiar thing to have.

Not quite sure what it adds to the product, even during the winter months.


I floated the idea of being able to set your own image to fit there, but didn't seem to get much traction at the time.

Matt


Yes well, it would be good to be able to have a little control on this image indeed

Hi Bernard and Matt,


The image has a purpose....simply to be unique to each version.  It is not meant to be user configurable. After a year of seeing this image, when you update to another version you will notice the image is different. Much like apple has a unique image of landscape for each of their OS versions (which is configurable since it is the desktop that you see the entire time, unlike our passing splash screen).


Each year we put a lot of effort into the next year's version with an average of 150 new features, but from year to year, it mostly looks the same....for the most part you cannot see all these changes because only some of them have UI differences. When you update to version 5.7 there will be a new image on the splash screen. It's looking like it will be a desert/mountain type look (then during the winter you can say "hey, its a summer image!") ;) After that we will probably have an ocean theme, where you can say "hey, the water is not frozen". The images are not about seasons.  You can remember the 5.6 version as the "snowy trees" version or the 5.7 version as the  "desert" version, or just don't think about it at all.


What you will see for sure is that this is a different version of QuoteWerks that you are running now.


You might have noticed there is a blue line growing in length above the image...this is an indicator of how many months have passed since that version release, essentially showing the time left before the next version will be released. We release a new version  about every 12 months. 12 months after the release the line will be all the way across the splash screen, and indicator to know it is time to update.



Thanks for the insight, John!

This is all pretty trivial in the grand scheme of things :) 


I get the intention, totally. I'm surmising that how you're expecting users to think; they, generally, aren't.


  • I had a demo today to a prospect and the comment "are you running an old version?" cropped up.
  • I upgraded someone a week ago "are you sure this is the latest version?"
  • I've had a handful of "how do we remove the image?"
  • I've had a handful of "can we change the image?"


It seems like the intention you have is for a user to know they're on a particular (or new) version and, for those companies with a lot of users, individual users might not even know they've been updated without the change of image - particularly, as you say, due to not all updates containing UI differences.


The blue line indicator I'd not spotted before. 

With me, living and breathing QuoteWerks, not spotting it; I'd dare to suggest no one else would; or know what it meant. 

Will anything happen when it gets to the end of the splash screen?


Is there some sort of (very valid!!) agenda to try and get more people to be on more current versions? On that, I'd say that users that attend webinars (and might spot the new image there) are the ones more likely to update proactively.


What's my 'cue' to update? I'm not going to know about the new image without being proactive.


I've sometimes thought it would be good to have the date of the release on the login screen. ("Released on dd/mm/yyyy"). This would be more a visual indicator that someone is running a version X months behind.

Or, maybe, when they get to the end of the blue line, there is a sort of (subtle) "This version is xxx days old"


All that said, not important, but possibly some food for thought.



Hi Matt,


Thank you also for the insight!


So funny, for these questions:

  • I had a demo today to a prospect and the comment "are you running an old version?" cropped up.
  • I upgraded someone a week ago "are you sure this is the latest version?"

how would anyone ever know this answer...LOL ..unless it queried our web server to ask if there is a newer version every time it started...



>> It seems like the intention you have is for a user to know they're on a particular (or new) version and, for those companies with a lot of users, individual users might not even know they've been updated without the change of image - particularly, as you say, due to not all updates containing UI differences. <<


Exactly!


>>The blue line indicator I'd not spotted before. 

With me, living and breathing QuoteWerks, not spotting it; I'd dare to suggest no one else would; or know what it meant. 

Will anything happen when it gets to the end of the splash screen?<<


The blue line is mostly for me! Just a UI experiment, and as I start QuoteWerks everyday, I get to see how soon it is before we need to release the next version. :) Nothing happens now when the blue line reaches the end, just a visual indicator.



>> Is there some sort of (very valid!!) agenda to try and get more people to be on more current versions? On that, I'd say that users that attend webinars (and might spot the new image there) are the ones more likely to update proactively. <<


Agreed, it is just a good visual indicator that the users and us developers will see.


>>What's my 'cue' to update? I'm not going to know about the new image without being proactive.


I've sometimes thought it would be good to have the date of the release on the login screen. ("Released on dd/mm/yyyy"). This would be more a visual indicator that someone is running a version X months behind.

Or, maybe, when they get to the end of the blue line, there is a sort of (subtle) "This version is xxx days old"<<


It isn't designed for that...but that is a great idea! I just made the change so that on the Splash screen, login screen, and Help About screen it will have text that says "Released 1 month, 3 days ago". Also, fyi....Ever since we added the windows authentication option, many customers never see the login screen anymore (since it gets skipped) and for that reason we started also showing this information on the splash screen.

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