So I was looking at some of the new web based products from Demo '08, and there is some cool new stuff out there in beta.

The product I liked the best (and I haven't even gotten to use it yet) is blist. I may change my mind once I use it, but right now I love it. They are in beta right now and I signed up to be part of their beta, why haven't they let me in yet?? Hurry up! LOL

I like it for a few reasons:

First, the product looks so much like a design I did for another web based product I designed the UI for. They (other product) utimately used the overall design of my ui, but changed from a black color scheme to gray. But I love the edginess of the black, and I'm so glad to see a product out there that isn't afraid to use it! WTG! And since it looks so similar to something I designed of course I'm partial to it.

Second, as a user interface designer we need to figure out how to make using things fun, easy, intuitive, and also look nice. But if it only looks nice and isn't easy or fun - well who wants to use it? And really who wants to use something ugly either? Sometimes it takes several interations to get it right, but I like to see web apps pushing the limits. And blist is a web database application (snooze right?), but wait there's more: it's so cool looking I actually want to use it. It appears (from the screenshot) that it makes using databases easy. DBs are difficult to use, and if these guys have figured out how to make it easy (and fun?!) - well then kudos to them. Techcrunch says "the quality of its user interface will determine its initial success."

Oh and love the logo - it's really cute and friendly. It makes databases seem less scary as well. So hurry up blist - send me an invite to beta!

UPDATE on 2/5/08:

I was invited to Beta and started to play with blist. Overall, I really like the look of the application, but was surprised to see that it's entirely built in flash. Drag and drop works nice, and adding a column is very easy.

Several features don't work (pie graph, clear filter) or are coming soon (dashboard with social networking and popular blists) , but it's in beta so that is understandable. It appears to me the lens isn't working quite right. I can create them and delete them, but I can't edit a lens? Surely this is a bug, because they have to allow users to edit a lens. Apparently if I am in the selected lens I can click the 'lens builder' icon to edit, but it took me a while to find this and it wasn't evident, an edit icon next to the delete icon in the dropdown would be ideal.

Right-click capability is spotty. I would like to see more of it, instead I get a lot of 'about adobe flash player 9' when I right-click. When I right-click on a field I want to be able to add a tag right there (not just copy/paste). Instead I have to click on the title row to get the option to add a tag. And when submiting a tag the icon on the submit button is a down arrow - my mental model says 'download' to me, not submit. Plus they use the up arrow to denote back in another location so the use of arrows is inconsistent and possibly confusing to users.

Clickable areas (buttons) should show the hand pointer to let users know where they can click and where they can't. I see that most unclickable icons/buttons are grayed out - which is great , and the arrow pointer stays that way (with the exception of notes). However, I want to see the hand when I scroll to a clickable spot.

I will look forward to updates.