What SquareSpace is getting wrong!

Now before I go into what they are doing wrong, I want to talk about what they do right. First off I love that there is no way to download the CMS and use it on another server. Why? Because they take care of all the software patches and security updates behind the scenes. Stuff just works. I want to focus on content, not some security patch. They also respond very quickly to Twitter questions and their support tickets. The site looks very modern with very little work. Posting updates is at least as easy as it is on Word Press. In many cases it is even easier because no one has to worry if they installed something wrong. I have to use a hack to get images to work on this site. Never could figure out what setting is wrong, but the internal image upload has never worked. It’s part of the reason I wanted Squarespace to work. This Word Press isn’t working as well as I would like. I wanted to replace it. I wanted Squarespace to be that replacement.

Squarespace

Squarespace

Now For The Negative
So here I am trying out Squarespace. I am trying to figure out their really horrid interface so I can explain it to my client. So far it is driving me nuts! It is nowhere near intuitive. I feel like I need to take a week of classes to figure out what the heck they mean on these tutorials. No wonder this place is only being used by the hardest core geeks. You have to be a super nerd to even fight through this freakin mess! Unless Squarespace improves quickly I predict they will go under in a few years. This is as intuitive as brain surgery!

Not Intuitive at all!
There is a spot where it said to edit site name. I clicked on the link and it just kept refreshing the page. Why would it do that? Why not send me to the page where I can edit the site name instead? Why else would someone click on that? Just an idea SquareSpace folks. Make it work like people would guess it would work. Now I figured out how to get this to work eventually, but that is my problem with Squarespace. It is not at all intuitive. There is a major learning curve to their system. Most will get frustrated before they get that far and just keep putting up with Word Press.

Video Tutorials Good. No Full Screen bad!
So I go to watch the video tutorial they have available. I love video tutorials and find them to be the best method of showing people something like this. So they earn points for having those available. Problem is they don’t let me watch it full screen! I have a feeling they are using Vimeo to host their video. I use Vimeo as well so I know Vimeo has a square button to the bottom right that let’s me watch the video in full screen mode. For some reason SquareSpace has that blocked. Why would they do that? I tried watching the video. It looks like I could learn a ton from it if I could see what is going on better. Without going fullscreen things were too small and I found it only left me more frustrated.

Support Ticket?
Although they do respond very quickly to the support tickets, they sometimes fall into the tech support trap of coming off like a bot. . On my first question I thought it was a bot! Either that or their support is outsourced to India and the person was just giving me what the book told him was the standard answer. It was almost as if my question was ignored. A very quick phone call could have solved this. They don’t have phone support.

What Could Save Squarespace
Phone support. Plain and simple. Their CMS is great once you get the hang of it, but most will get frustrated with the learning curve and go back to putting up with the evil they are used to (Word Press). Charge $60 a week for phone support. I would pay that without hesitation. I understand good phone support is expensive for a start up like theirs, so charge extra. The customers that are serious will pay it.

Serious Design Still Goes To The Pros
Just as with Word Press, if you are really serious about your site you will want to hire a pro designer. Just like with Word Press you can get a site that looks ok without one. In fact, as far as design goes it is pretty much even. That is why Support is where Squarespace can beat them. If only they had phone support.

Please take my money Squarespace…I beg you! Let me pay for phone support!