Squarespace Product Review
They call it square for a reason. While this is a nice wizzy wig (WYSIWYG) and saves time on development it’s not for everyone. They have aligned there product in a way to be extremely profitable. Hopefully this leads to the development of a nicer user experience and expanded feature set without the added cost to the consumer.
Features
You can only host one website under whichever package you choose. This can get pretty pricey for some considering hosting companies (squarespace is not a hosting company) allow you to host many sites and Word Press is free.
They are pretty much genius in the way they have their product array priced. You just need that one more thing, and BAM $10 or so more dollars a month. Kudos for stealing our hearts and our dollars.
DIVS, DIVS and more DIVS. How I love thee. Squarespace does a pretty good job with their modularization. But it would be nice to have a little more control inside the construction them. I ran into this when trying to create my rounded corners. You have to leave the template dynamic and flexible to stretch for content. There is no way (that I found within my Advanced account type) to add a DIV or construct in such a way that I could have rounded corners both at the top and bottom, and stretch in the middle. (sadface)
Usability and Functionality
While the preview function is nice, it is not correct in the displaying image galleries. If you attempt to open the published URL in another window to see the correct preview, the system logs you out without letting you know it did so. Meanwhile you are working away in the other window only to realize some time later that you are actually logged out and have lost work. (!@#$!) While you are prompted to log back in, it doesn’t happen soon enough. (ding)
Service
Squarespace does an excellent job with their resource center and development blog. I posted a question and got a response within the hour. Talk about on the ball. But…the manual/area I was directed to was not valid for my account type and therefor void. It also was based on an earlier version of Squarespace which made trying to figure out what they were talking about more difficult. It would be great if they could tag the manual and help posts with the version in which is was made for and the account type it is applicable for.
Grade Card (Grades given on a scale of 1-10, 10 being superior)
- Usability_____________________ 7
- Features_____________________ 7
- Functionality________________ 8
- Service______________________ 8.5
- Overall User Experience____ 7
Thanks for all your help Squarespace. I had fun getting to know you, and will recommend you to the right people when they come along. Keep up the good work.
***Please Note: I am not a developer, I do not dream in code. I’m a problem solver, a designer and an exceptional organizer of information.
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Tagged product review, usability
Nov 16, 2008
A. Casalena
Hey Chelsea,
Thanks for the positive review! A number of comments:
1) “Squarespace is not a hosting company / wordpress is free” — This is sort of untrue. Squarespace is a hosting company in the sense that we’re full service. The back-end of Squarespace is a very sophisticated, cached and redundant architecture that would cost you $10k+/mo to replicate at a place like Rackspace if you were trying to create the equivalent. As for WordPress being free — the software is, but your hosting and the time you use to set it up is not. Squarespace is about saving time, and ultimately money — which is why we combine the hosting, upgrades, patches, etc. and deliver it to you ad-free so those become things you no longer have to worry about.
2) We do indeed price on features — depending on various site roles we’ve bucketed things out. Most personal sites can be run extremely comfortably on the $14/month plan.
3) “I ran into this when trying to create my rounded corners.” We actually include these wrapper divs in the default XHTML for your sidebar and other common places to round corners — there’s no need to insert them manually. Perhaps there’s another area you were looking to add them?
4) “If you attempt to open the published URL in another window to see the correct preview, the system logs you out without letting you know it did so. ” That’s actually not true — or at least if it is true it’s a bug
If you have a minute and could give us reproducible steps let us know. Keep in mind if you switch domains while clicking around — you’ll get logged out due to cookies not being kept. The only function that should log you out is the logout button.
5) Glad support was positive
We aim for under 10 minutes during the day. Working on that still! If something in the manual was outdated, we likely updated it after your contact.
Thanks again!
Nov 18, 2008
admin
Thanks for feeding back. Please see my response.
1)Hosting companies allow you to host more than one website under an account. I would not categorize Squarespace as a hosting company. Nor do you want to be, you are different.
2)Yes they can. But you are limited in design to a single layout.
3)I still have not found this feature. Nor have I been able to create this. (Again, not a programmer)
4)This problem DOES exist. I’m not making it up. I was able to replicate it.
• I’m using Firefox 3.0
• I have the URL open in one window to preview it. I log in in another window.
• Make changes. Preview them using the preview button within squarespace. However this does NOT work for the galleries.
• I reload the page in the window in which the URL is open in that is “live” if you will.
• It then reloads the page and displays it as if I was logged in on this page as well.
Therefor I am unable to preview the gallery unless I log out.
I really love this product, I wish it were more affordable (as I have multiple websites) and I would use it myself. Again by far the most amazing customer service and tremendous job on staying on top of your public image.
Chelsea
Nov 20, 2008
admin
If customer service had a category I would give Squarespace a 10.