Feedback is a vital part of the design process, though getting it in an interactive and constructive manner to put to use in the next revision can be a tricky process. But, for a web designer, asking for feedback in most cases can become tedious as you can’t do everything from within a PDF attached to an email.
There’re plenty of web apps which can actually make the task of gathering feedback for web and other design works simpler and swifter. Bounce is a web app focused on collecting and sharing comments on web apps and websites. Let’s take a look.
Overview
Bounce is a simple little app designed to add feedback to any web page making the sharing of ideas and thoughts between people easier. With the help of this web app, creative professionals can concentrate on creating great looking designs while leaving the tossing of feedback and comments to Bounce.
Overview
Bounce is free to use and to top it off, no registration is required. I wish all web apps were this simple to use.
Dashboard
Well, as Bounce is such a simple app, there’s actually no dashboard. You can start using the app right from the homepage itself without having to look around, press buttons or click links. The design is minimalistic with great color choices and perfectly designed and placed instructional images.
About Bounce
If you’d like to learn more about the app in general, click on the i icon just above the Grab Screenshot button. You will be taken to a well written and presented page that informs you of all that there is to the web app.
Getting Started
Just input the the URL of the webpage that needs a feedback and hit the grab screenshot button. Another gorgeously designed status page is displayed when the screenshot for the link submitted is being processed. The bouncing ball is a neat idea from the Bounce design team to add more eye candy while keeping users engaged at the same time.
Processing Page
Adding Feedback
Once the process is complete, the screenshot of the webpage is displayed. Bounce captures the entire page of the link submitted. All of the Bounce app controls are at the top of the screenshot.
Screenshot Time
The first step in adding a feedback is to enter your name so that the comments are labelled in your name. Then go to the specific portion of the screenshot where you’d like to leave your feedback then click and drag the mouse to select the section. Now you’ll have a numbered translucent box with a comment space. Add your comment and click OK. That is all you have to do to give your valuable suggestion and feedback.
Adding a Feedback
If you have more thoughts, repeat the same steps, and since all the comments are numbered sequentially, the designer will know the order of priority too. To see all the comments, just hover over the boxes and the notes attached to it will appear.
Sharing Options
You can add a name to the screenshot and click Save to get a public URL that can be distributed to people you want feedback from. There’s no limit to the number of persons who can add feedback using this URL. Options to tweet the link directly to Facebook and Twitter are readily available too.
Sharing Options
Going a Step Further: Notable
Bounce has a sister app named Notable, which allows you and your feedback team to collaborate while commenting. If you click the link at the top, you’ll be taken to the Notable app page which already has your screenshot ready. Once you sign up there, you can start working on the same screenshot immediately, without having to repeat the entire process.
Notable Sign Up
If you’d like to take a deeper look at ZURB’s app, Notable, check out our review, Easy Website Feedback with Notable. Our review of Notable might not cover new features that might’ve been added so if you’d like a refreshed review, please let us know in the comments.
Final Thoughts
One potential problem with Bounce is the way the URL for sharing is generated. Whenever additional people add a new comment they’ll get a new URL. Although the previous notes stay intact, this is a huge bummer if you have to email back and forth with updated links carrying additional comments. Conversely, this might be a helpful feature for keeping everyone’s comments separate.
Another small issue is the privacy of comments, which are visible to everyone who has the public URL. As a designer, you can’t keep the comments to yourself and this could be a welcome addition to such a great app. Although, the reasoning behind this may be to drive Bounce users over to the more advanced and feature rich Notable app.
Bounce is a dead simple and super sexy app that doesn’t have learning curve (does it even have one?) like you might find with other apps. This makes it a killer go-to tool for design and development teams to get contextual feedback on their projects from anywhere. Beyond designers and developers though, it’s a fantastic way for less techie people to quickly make notes on any website for anyone.