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Member since: Jul 2016Deals bought: 216
5 stars
5 stars
Posted: Jul 10, 2024

There are some missing features and others that need improvement, but it seems like they listen to suggestions and might fix them

I have been testing Fable and overall it's very good. The user interface, in general, is good, perhaps a bit confusing in some parts and with room for improvement, but it can already be used comfortably.

However, in this review, I believe it is important to focus my attention on some important missing features.

1.- "Undo" function. This is a basic feature that doesn't exist. If you make a mistake, or change some text, you will never be able to click on "Undo" to go back and recover what you incorrectly modified.

2.- There are missing options to enhance the experience for people with visual impairments. The most important missing feature is probably very easy to include but it's not there. It's about simultaneous text+audio. Currently, if you input text, the text is displayed, but if you upload an audio file, the audio plays but the text disappears. There should be an option to choose: text only, audio only, or text+audio. Audiovisual guides are essential for people with visual impairments. I have inquired about this feature, and the development team acknowledges that it doesn't exist. They mention the possibility of including a video alongside the text, but again, that feature is incomplete as there is no option to activate video autoplay. If that option existed, undoubtedly it would be a great help in creating authentic audiovisual guides because we could include a video that contains "audio only." In my opinion, this is a priority, at least to include the option for video autoplay, so that Fable can be user-friendly for people with visual impairments.

3.- Within the editor, the content editor often malfunctions. For example, in a form where I see an email address, if I click on the element, it allows me to type in a fake email address, but then it doesn't show up there or replace the original one. It simply doesn't work sometimes, while other times it does. This is strange and should be fixed.

Additional suggestions:

1.- In the editor, there should be the possibility to add text boxes with additional explanations anywhere in the demonstration window. It could be used for clarifying notes or to increase the level of information.

2.- Not as important, but it would be nice to be able to choose whether a clicking sound plays when clicking on a demo button or not.

3.- Keyboard navigation. This feature doesn't exist but would be useful. For example, moving forward and backward in the demonstration using arrow keys is really useful and quick.

4.- The text editor within the text box could be more versatile and include common options like font types, colors, or lists.

5.- The text editor could also allow for the inclusion of animated gifs from a URL to make the demonstration more fun and engaging.

6.- The text editor could also enable the inclusion of images from a URL to avoid consuming storage capacity in our account.

7.- In the text editor, there could perhaps be an HTML code editor or at least the option to include an iframe. This would allow embedding other apps like surveys or contests, paperform forms, and others, or even videos with automatic playback.

Finally, I must mention other options/features that should be improved. In the "Annotation Style" section, you can modify default colors and button texts. However, there should be the possibility to create multiple "Annotation Styles" for different types of use. For example, it's convenient to have a different window and button style for one type of demonstration and a completely different style for another type of demonstration. This allows for saving different branding styles that should be selectable in the Branding section of the editor. Additional note about "Annotation Style." The color of the arrow or triangular icon pointing to where the window text is located should be changeable. By default, it's dark gray and in a demonstration with a black background, it's very difficult to see clearly, especially for people with visual impairments. I'm sure that adding this wouldn't be too difficult and would greatly help in obtaining a better visual experience.

Despite what has been mentioned, I see the potential of Fable. I have contacted support several times and surprisingly they respond quickly and seem willing to listen to improvement suggestions and promise that everything will work better in the future. I just hope that this is true and that really important features arrive very soon because Fable has great potential to be the most versatile and functional interactive demonstration app on the market.

Founder Team
Vikas_Fable

Vikas_Fable

Jul 10, 2024

Hey Francisco, Thank you for this detailed review. Reviews like this are super helpful for us to improve the product for all of you.

A few points below on the missing items:

1. Undo function
Agree on this. This has been a long pending item. Even we feel the occasional pain of not having the undo function. We will definitely be picking this up soon.

2. Text + media support (audio + video)
We had taken this decision consciously of showing either audio + video or text. When we did an A/B test with our set of users, we saw diversion of attention when both text + media was shown. So we made extra effort to manage this case where only media or text would be shown. But your pointers on accessibility aspect is something we haven’t considered yet. We will make this behaviour controllable from your end.

3. Lead form issues in the editor
On the editor, the lead form is not functional by design as it is the editor of the form. So far it’s a garbage in garbage out kind of a behaviour. But of course we should have been clear about this via UX. We will take a note of this for improvement. Having said that, the lead form is fully functional in preview / embed / live mode of the demo.

A few points on Additional suggestions:

1. Additional note on demo
This is an interesting use case. Would you mind pinging us on any of our channels - we’d like to know more about this.

2. Keyboard navigation
This is under development and will be out very soon.

3. More editing options of text
We will add this item in our backlog.

4. Embed image / gif / videos from url
We will add this item in our backlog.

5. Arbitrary iframe embed
This is something we are not sure about as Fable does a lot of spatial management of annotation for different screen & sizes. Adding Arbitrary embed would likely mess with our managements. We also receive analytics events from embed frames. So far we support loom / youtube / vimeo embed. In future we will add support of different forms that are used in CRMs as well. If you have any embed in mind please let us know, we can check the feasibility of those embeds and let you know.

6. Changing default colors of annotation.
You can change the color of annotation by using the Primary Color option. Also change the style of the buttons.

7. Changing style across annotations
We consciously made this choice after doing an A/B test. Having different styles across annotations creates more work for the creator and confuses buyers as the signifier color becomes non consistent.

8. The arrow color change
Arrow color inherits border color which can be changed from branding > advanced > border color

Hope this helps!

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