First impressions of

Presented by Kai Turner – 20 December 2011

Splash page

Not Google brandedSchemer has been launched as an independent product, with its own visual identity.

This is a refreshing move for Google– perhaps taking lessons from Wave and Buzz– they are letting Schemer sink or swim on its own merits, without carrying any of the positive (or negative) associations of the Google brand.

Fun & WhimsicalNot being tethered to the Google brand has allowed them to pursue a fun and whimsical art direction, charmingly animated.

There’s not enough original illustration in web design– it’s a trend we’d like to see a lot more of.

Homepage

Simple concept,Well executedNo lengthy introduction, or video tour of the site – after signing in (with your Google account) – it’s immediately apparent what’s going on here:

Tell people what you want to do.

Social graphIt’s fully connected out of the box. Google+ integration is so seamless, it makes you think the whole site is possibly a proof-of-concept for how Google would like 3rd-parties to start using Google+.

And no social website would be complete without some ego service– Schemer has the concept of ‘inspiring’ your peers. Another feather in the cap for all you social media influencers.

Find stuff to do

But – is it useful?Not yet.

The quality of the service depends on the quality of things to do as entered by the budding community.

The ‘schemes’ are not so inspiring at the moment. If the value exchange of inspiring tips for the time invested (or wasted) is not met– interest, and repeat visits, will quickly decline.

A scheme

Simply doneDon’t underestimate the temptation for the designers and developers to over complicate something like this.

They’re not trying to build the semantic web, or create a rewards mechanic using concepts of ‘gamefication’ – it’s an idea that came from the core, personal needs of the team who developed it– and they seem to have maintained the original vision.

Your schemes

It’s a social to-do listYour own view reveals the truth of the matter– it’s just a to-do list.

The social element is certainly not present in most to-do lists. But maybe there’s a reason for that– are to-do lists inherently private?

Something else worth considering is that Google is already managing a number of people’s to-do lists– and it wouldn’t be that big of a leap to set some of them to public or private.

My profile

Feeling inspired?It’s a great conceit– inspire your friends, and get inspired by them.

However, it’s a big promise.

And you can’t exactly tell someone they’ve been inspired, so it immediately rings as being untrue.

A confident service should demonstrate its qualities. The impression it makes is for the audience to decide.

Email notification

The attention landscape

Its core utility is that of a to-do list, albeit a social one.

Is that enough to pry us away from our deeply ingrained tools?

The event planning and management space is both crowded with services and yet notoriously difficult to own.

Facebook’s not doing it well. Twitter’s not doing it at all.

There’s an opportunity for Google to grow in this space.

One glaring omission is the lack of sharing on social networks.

Sharing on Facebook and Twitter is a ‘hygiene factor’ for new services.

This Google-centric view of the world has hindered Google’s other social networks.

However, it does give us another reason to use Google+.

To-doLists

EventPlanning

SocialNetworking

43Things

It’s been done beforeIf Schemer left you with a sense of deja-vu, it could be that you remember 43Things– which has been running since 2004 (although press coverage seems to have dried up circa 2008).

Did 43Things not fully exploit the market? What is Schemer going to bring to the concept that is different?

The Verdict

Watch this spaceThe value of the service will be defined by the early adopter community who will set the tone for Schemer as a service through the content created.

Schemer has an uphill battle.

It will attract a core community (as did Quora or Hunch) – but to truly go mainstream it will need to be adopted as a seamless extension of Google’s other services– Calendar, Reminders, Tasks– and of course, the overall success of Google+.

Follow me on Twitter – @kaigani