Screenshot: Usability Quick Fix for Seeing Account Transactions

What's the most obvious way to jump from an account listed on your FamZoo Overview page to the list of credits and debits within that account?

After some usability testing we conducted last week, it turns out the answer should be "click on the name of the account". But that's not how we had it initially. Instead, clicking on the name of the account took you to the account diagram (a pretty picture showing how allowances feed into an account), and this confused a lot of people. It turns out you had to click on the amount next to the account name (the current balance) to jump to the credits and debits (transactions).

So, after watching 3 out of 3 usability subjects from usertesting.com (fabulous service by the way!) struggle with this in excruciating ways, we decided to apply a quick fix over the weekend. Now, clicking on either the account name or the account balance will take you to the account's transactions as expected. (Note: if you do want to see the diagrams, you can still click on the "Bank" tab and then click on the "Diagrams" viewing link in the left sidebar.)

Here's a screenshot showing the change:

(Click to enlarge)

Sometimes it's the little things that make all the difference!

Are there other things that you find confusing within FamZoo? If so, please don't hesitate to contact us (on the site or via twitter or facebook), and we'll see what we can do to make things more clear.

FamZoo Now Open

It's 2:23AM PST, and the "Coming Soon" sign is finally down. FamZoo is now open to the public!

WooHoo!

Come by and check out our new home page. Here's a peek:

(Click to enlarge.)

Drop us a line, and let us know what you think. Got suggestions? Fire away! Our Contact page is here. Our Twitter is here. Our Facebook is here. Or, leave a comment right here on the blog.

We're pretty darn tired at this point, so not gonna say much more except...

A very hearty thank you to our 100+ Charter Families! You've been a wonderful source of ideas, inspiration and validation throughout the (multi-year - gasp!) Charter Program.

Now, on to the second leg of the journey!

Spread the word.

FamZoo Youngsters Support the Haiti Earthquake Relief Effort

As outlined in the FamZoo Privacy Policy, we periodically analyze "Anonymous Information records" in our database to understand our member usage patterns and to enhance the services that we provide.

An anonymous query of recent FamZoo charitable account transactions with descriptions matching the keyword "Haiti" indicates that our young FamZoo members have donated a total of $190.46 to the Haiti relief effort. The average age of the donors is 14.5 years. When you consider that the FamZoo membership currently consists of a very small population of Charter Families, this is a truly wonderful result.

It makes us enormously proud that we are achieving the "ulterior motive" behind FamZoo: to introduce and encourage the good habit of thoughtful charitable giving - a habit that we hope youngsters will carry with them into their adult years.

We must remind ourselves that individuals making seemingly small donations individually can make a huge difference when acting together.

P.S. FamZoo members, please include the keyword "Haiti" (don't worry about upper or lower case) in the transaction description of any charitable contributions related to the relief effort. That way, we'll be able to pick it up in our subsequent queries.

Weekly Upgrade: What?!?! You Want to Cancel?

This week, we polished off more of the nitty gritty details of subscription support. Details like sending an email receipt for a subscription purchase. We also made a first pass at the pages for updating your billing info (e.g., switching between a credit card and PayPal as your payment method, changing credit cards, updating a credit card expiration date, etc.). Fun stuff...not!

Oh, and as much as we think you'll love FamZoo, we do want to make it very straightforward to cancel your membership. Don't you hate it when companies turn that into a game of hide-and-seek? We make it really easy. Here's the screen:

And now...the countdown is on: one more week and we're opening up the doors!

P.S. We also replaced our old "Community" link in the top navigation bar with links to our Facebook and Twitter pages. Please join in and help us spread the word!

Weekly Upgrade: Cops, Crashes and Canadians

After this week's upgrade, you'll notice that Henry gave us a new illustration for our secure forms. Now you'll see a FamZoo "cop" in the upper left of each secure form to remind you that your information is being encrypted before it passes across the Internet. Here's what it looks like on our Sign-In page:

Henry also supplied a couple of fun graphics for our error page. Of course, we hope you never encounter them because that'll mean something went wrong! But, if it does, you'll see a page like this:

We continue to work through all the finishing touches and unglamorous details of our subscription/payment support - like a Canadian version of our Credit Card Info form. Looks like we'll have it wrapped up within two weeks, and then we can open our doors to the public. We can't wait!

Happy New Year to all!