CHANGELOG: Nov 10 / New Terms (App → Space, Type → Database), New Space Editor, Actions in Headers in Table View, Phone field

This releases transforms Fibery getting started experience and changes App (Space) creation process.

:sweat_smile: New Terms (App → Space, Type → Database)

After the dense and deep discussion around new Fibery terms, we decided to stick with this:

App → Space
Type → Database

Space was a natural choice, but Type/Database/Table was not. We’ve decided to replace abstract Type term to a more concrete Database term. This decision still has some drawbacks, but we hope it will help people to understand Fibery better.

:baby: New Space Editor

New Space Editor simplifies Spaces setup. Now you see the data and its structure right here, thus cognitive load is lighter. See it in action:

NOTE: Workspace Map with all Spaces and Databases is accessible via left top menu now.

New Relations config

Relations are not an easy concept to grasp, since in Fibery they are the most powerful of all other tools. New Relations config makes relations creation easier, faster and more visual.

2021-11-10 11.42.03

:pager: Phone field

Now you can add Phone field and initiate a call with a single click. Note that this field has no validation, so you can put anything you want here:

:massage_woman: Table View: Actions in Headers (Delete, Hide, Edit)

Now you can Hide columns in Table View, edit fields and delete fields as well right there.

:butterfly: Improvements

  • + New Entity button is added to all Views
  • Receive Slack notifications from multiple Fibery Workspaces
  • Whiteboard re-styling and many small improvements
  • Table View: Comments Count and Files Count columns
  • Few performance improvements here and there

:shrimp: Bug fixes

  • Whiteboard: Entity Tree doesn’t work on whiteboard
  • Whiteboard: Entity Tree configuration is lost
  • Whiteboard: Fix fonts in Badges in Entity Tree
  • It’s impossible to delete relation from User to User
  • Impossible to convert Name from formula to text in some case
  • Mention in inline comment doesn’t work
3 Likes

love it!

I noticed that on top looks like this for new space: New database | + New database
Looks a bit weird, maybe you can either name the button like + Add database or the initial database name to be like “First database” or something

Looks great and is pretty snappy clicking through the tables.

One thing I immediately noticed though is I’m not seeing a horizontal scroll bar, which makes it a little hard to see all the columns when using a standard mouse.

Yeah, I had a horizontal scroll bar, but it was flickering like crazy.

Fixing it already!

1 Like

Most likely there is no way back, but still it would be interesting to know at least top 3 problems with the new terms that bother you.

I don’t think the attitude “i know I’m right” will help anyone. I expected some really good reasons but those 3 are just personal opinions which don’t indicate at all what the broader market feels about this… and based on what competitors do and some of the users here, seems like you’re more like an exception.

Space vs Database - seems that you haven’t read the whole thing, Apps- became spaces, not Database

  1. Space is much more than a Database. It has Views, Folders, Reports, Automations, Documents and Whiteboards. It just does not fit into Database concept.

  2. We didn’t abandon the concept, we just renamed the term. Not sure what you mean here to be honest.

  3. I don’t think it is possible to become Airtable by just renaming things :slight_smile: Maybe Fibery was an Airtable already then?

1 Like

OK, I don’t think I am following your arguments, since essentially Fibery is records and tables connected together, with some fancy fluid UI on top and automations.

We have tons of feedback about Type term and how hard it is to grasp for non-programmers. I think you are a programmer (am I right?) and for you this is a step in the wrong direction. While I feel you, we should make Fibery graspable by non-programmers to succeed. It was not a sudden decision, we were reluctant to make this change for a year, collecting feedback, but finally we made this move.

Let’s see how it change activation and conversion, since essentially this is what we want to improve with new getting started experience and abstract → concrete move.

@mdubakov we are ok with renaming but the new view after clicking on an app is a little bit weird. That is feedback from current users. The question is: why do we have views inside of the app and separate lists, reports, etc? That is confusing people.

1 Like

Can you elaborate on this with more details? What exactly confuses people?

Please, let’s keep things civil

Such a nice person! I’m glad you voluntarily offered to retreat from the discussion a few messages ago, even if it means depriving us of your wisdom and whimsical tone. Maybe just respect what you said you’d do and abstain from the discussion, or offer more constructive arguments and more respectfully delivered. Thanks for everyone involved here.

“You can easily rename Space into Database and it will carry on the same functions and it will be natural for most users”

I’m not sure a space (previously an app) in the mind of the average user is equivalent to a database. Even if you have a point, a database could contain multiple tables line a space does. But a space contains also other things, such as views and documents.

Conflating table and database might seem weird for developers (which I am too), but fibery is not made for developers and for the average user I’m not sure it makes a difference :slight_smile:

2 Likes

Activation and retention figures will provide more useful feedback than individuel user comments, especially from existing customers I guess.

There’s also something to be said about adopting market-existing terminologies, even if they might seem wrong. Fibery doesn’t exist in a vacuum, and several prospective customers will be switching from airtable, notion and Co. Most of them use the term database as a table indeed, of which you can create multiple views.

I don’t think the terminology is a strong differenciator. One of the unique fibery things (especially vs notion and airtable), I feel, is the flexibility in the connexions you might make and the views you can create on information. And the automation. Notion has just recently introduced dynamic swimlane in their kanban view, and even then it’s not as flexible and dynamic as what you have in fibery.

2 Likes

I got a DELETE ME request from the user, so I deleted him/her. Now this conversation has holes :slight_smile:

Notwithstanding the tone of these posts, I think this is the single most important takeaway from this discussion.

I personally find « database » easy to understand and intuitive even if it is not technically correct. But regardless of the name, I think it’s very important to have a step-by-step « guided tour » where new users first create a Space, then a Database, then a few views. They will then immediately grasp the differences between these concepts and names won’t really matter any more.

In this respect, I’m wondering if providing users with templates from the get go could actually be counter-productive: it immediately overloads the menu without explaining beforehand how all this data is structured.

While quantitative data is indeed important to understand what happens, individual feedbacks are invaluable to understand why it happens. I can’t tell you the number of times we misinterpreted data in my previous companies because we didn’t take the time to walk in our users’ shoes.

3 Likes

I have a similar feeling and we are going to experiment with a very basic starting Workspace with just two simple Spaces inside.

2 Likes

I agree with this. For us giving onboarding wizards and splitting more complex stuff into steps, increased our activation by 40%, however our tool is less complex than Fibery. In theory these should help, that’s why they are so popular.

Even if the target market is more techy, they appreciate less thinking and figuring stuff out by themselves.

1 Like

BTW, here is the setup for your review :slight_smile:
I am working on it right now

1 Like