I R Blogging

ClutterMe

This site was pointed out to me by a comment when I reviewed Pagii by Mark who actually works for ClutterMe. You’re off to a good start when you come to me for a review

At first glance, ClutterMe looks like a a really simple site. It features webpage building tools as well as the ability to add friends, comments, etc. However, It gives me more of an impression of a site one of your friends might make in their spare time more than a big company site. This has both flaws and benefits. Flaws being that people may not take it as seriously, but the benefit that those who stick to it will likely stay because they feel like part of it.

Now as far as the interface goes, this is where I’m having problems. Unlike other sides that have seperate pages to input information, you put everything down directly on the site you’re editing. This is a good and bad because everything is click-drag-done with this site, but that’s as far as everything is going. I’m finding it hard to come up with anything more than a blocky site. Their widgets are few and I’m finding them to work into a layout. For example the ‘about’ widget allows you to hover over to focus on it, but it doesn’t seem to want to work unless I click once first. But clicking once also changes it to the ‘add info’ mode where you can input information (thus expanding it so you can add info) and it makes it hard to position correctly on the page.

The site also has some nice features though that I have to mention. First off is instant text. Simply click anywhere on your site and start typing and it will appear. This is great because there is no need to add a text block or anything and position it, just type. This feature is good for adding titles or maybe quick links (yes, it seems HTML does work in this feature, yay!) Also since you’re constantly in Edit mode, you might not be seeing the site exactly as it will be seen, so you can click the Edit button in the top right and the site will switch from Edit to Non-Edit mode so you can see it as it is. This is nice because in addition to that the site saves as you’re working, so switching doesn’t require a lot of load time.

The best feature however BY FAR is being able to write on people’s sites. Yahoo’s Mash seems to be trying to do this, but ClutterMe does it better. Click anywhere on a ClutterMe site and start typing. When you’re finished your profile pick will show up with the comment written beside it. I love this idea, using the entire site as a wall, they did a good job on this and need to be commended.

What I’d like to see improved:

• Change the info widgets. If 1 click is used to access the panel (to move) then require a double click to edit the content. Chances are I’m going to be moving it more than editing it, so I don’t need it to display every time.
• Add a widget for a text area. Yes, I can just click and type but if I want to add in some code longer than a link (say adsense for example) it’s easier to be able to see exactly what I’m putting in and be able to click through my text in there after.
• Layering would be nice. When I add a new widget/image it goes to the top left corner. If I have anything else already there, I have to move it so that I can get to the newly added widget, This makes it a real pain if I want to give the site some depth.

Those are really the only problems I have with it, because I see a lot of potential in this site. And yes, I’m a sucker for the little guys and can see myself sticking to the site if it makes improvements (which from what they’re saying, they’re working on it). ClutterMe is one of a few sites that seem to be developing that are using both the ’social networking’ platform and the classic ability to modify a site (without using a predefined template) together. I’m going to watch this site over the next few months to see how it plays out and will most likely do a follow-up review, so keep an eye out for that.