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The wisdom of her Her Geekness
Thanks so to Anne-Marie Concepcion's various postings! The "Screen-Share with Your Clients" - was great - what an awesome tip!
free solutions just as good?
spamjim, thanks for the comment about KISS. Normally I'm in agreement ... but as I said in the article, the free solutions just never worked easily/reliably for me and my clients.
For a while, a few years ago, I tried to get Bosco's Screen Sharing to work (http://www.componentx.com/ScreenShare/) ... a great product created and supported by a wonderful, independent developer. And ... it was free. Still is.
But it required just enough tinkering with my local network (couldn't handle shared IP addresses) that I had to pay to have the developer call me on the phone and walk me through it. Then the next time I had to restart the router, all was lost and I had to restart again. I also found the lag time in pushing JPEGs of my screen just unacceptable for all but the least interactive meetings.
Market penetration for HTML may be 100% but I found my client's patience was at about 2% while they sat there waiting for their screen to refresh every few seconds. ;-)
You should try Brio ... it really is dead simple, and free. Let me know what you think.
AM
pricing and recording
Lajoie, thanks for the comments. I've had nothing but misery trying to get either WebEx or GoToMeeting to work in a mixed-platform set-up, which was why I was (and am) so happy with platform/network-agnostic Connect. I've hosted via Connect with OS X (Tiger), Windows XP, and Windows XP running in Parallels, no problems; and my clients are a mix of Mac/PC users, again, no problems. But my experience is just anecdotal, YMMV ...
and no, Connect has no pay-as-you-go plans, nor any ability to record the meeting (unless you go with the 5K+ Connect Pro plan). I would love to see both in Connect standard! It does come with a conference call line, but it's not toll-free.
On the other hand, don't forget that Brio -- the beta of the new Connect version I used in my screen shots -- is free! Sure you only get 3 connections, including yourself, but 80% of the time that's all I need.
Free methods may be just as good
These screen sharing services may offer too much (and at the same time, too little) for the average pairing of client and print designer to 'KISS'. 10 years ago, we were using a very simple freeware that could take a screenshot of a desktop and then post it to a web server. The client would be looking at a plain HTML page that auto-refreshed with new revisions as we manually provided the updated screens with a click of a button. While internet bandwidth has improved, today's multiple fps screen sharing is overkill for most folks. You can freely accomplish most of the same tasks in Anne-Marie's article with the technique used 10 years ago. And market penetration for plain HTML is 100%. :)
Pricing, Recording & the Others
I tried WebEx's MeetMeNow (15 day trial - $39) & GoToMeeting (30 day trial-$39). I prefer those longer days because things go wrong on deadline & by the time you do get around to using it, the time is up. I would prefer 30 days in Connect so I can really put the pedal to the medal instead of just kicking the tires.
Pricing is huge for startups especially! I found $39 per month not bad, but they can go as low as $29 per month (GoToMeeting). Right now, I'm going with the money, but I will try out Connect at a later date. However, with both, you must have your own webcam to connect for that service.
WebEx does have a ‘pay-as-you-go’ version with no contracts or commitments. Sometimes you need something on the go and this might be perfect for those one or two meetings. That’s 53¢ per minute, but no one mentioned that about Connect.
With all this change in the weather, this is the perfect way to keep business going & not have to reschedule. My clients did enjoy using GoToMeeting for a makeup class and I was able to record the session and email it to them for playback. This record, playback & e-mail feature is available in WebEx. It saves headaches when you trying to remember what happened during the meeting. No one mentioned this feature or one similar when using Connect.
Were there any problems hosting or joining a meeting using Mac or PC? In GoToMeeting you cannot host a meeting but you can join. According to WebEx, you can host & join using Mac & PC. I have no knowledge of this yet, but if you have used this, please post because my clients are both PC & Mac based. As soon as I get a chance, I will test out Connect. This is an excellent way to keep up with technology and business at the same time. I will definitely try Connect when I get the chance.
Sweet
Thanks for the tip. I just downloaded Acrobat Connect and in 15 minutes I was sharing a screen with a friend. This was very easy.
Re: webcam
Hi Janis!
No, a webcam is not required. In fact, the default setting in Connect/Brio is for the webcam to be turned off. I turned it on to help liven up the screenshots ;-)
It is quite useful though for my remote training, since I often have never met my clients and want them to see what I look like as I'm teaching. If they also have a webcam then I invite them to turn it on too. But if the video feed increases the lag time then I usually pause my image (there's a little control bar underneath it) so it's just my face there, or I just turn it off.
I think with Brio you can also use an avatar instead of a video feed, similar to the ones you might choose for iChat.
AM
Re: Asking the Wrong Question
Hi George, thanks for your well-considered argument, great post!
I agree with much of what you said, but strongly feel that along the continuum of the type of client, type of project, and type of client/designer relationship; there is a sweet spot where Connect (or other screen sharing software) really serves everyone's best interests.
The main point I was making was that if sharing a live view of the same material would help communication with your client, then screen sharing is a great tool, and an option you might want to have at the ready.
AM
webcam
Do you need to have a webcam in order to use this screensharing program? It's a great thing, and I have already tried it out. Thanks so much for all your tips and tricks, and your off-beat sense of humor. Keep up the good work.
Janis Gloystein
Asking the wrong question
"You: Sure. How much bigger? and ... Okay, but do you really want the picture bigger, or do you want me to just scale it up 20 percent?" Those questions are inviting your client to design the page themselves. The better question would be, "What problem are you trying to solve with this change?" In your example, the client has already told you the problem: "We need to see their faces better."
Getting in a debate about how much is "bigger" is frustrating for both of you. Your client is NOT a designer, otherwise they would be building the page themselves. In our office we try to avoid situations where it feels like the client is pushing your hand around; that the only value we bring is the expensive software.
Our approach is to collect all of the client's feedback from a proofing round, then summarize the expectations at the end of the conversation. That is where we offer back cautions and alternative solutions: comments about the amount of text on the page, the white space, and the overall mission of the design project. (It might be that the client's next comment was to cut two full paragraphs from the story--there's your extra space to make the image larger.)
I would not use Connect in a client/designer relationship, partly for the reasons above, but also because our clients usually have whole teams of people who review proofs and make comments. They often don't have the time to watch me solve a design problem while we talk.
It seems like Connect would be most beneficial in a team creative situation, where all parties involved are on the creative side of the project, and are developing ideas together, but from different physical locations. That's the appeal to me, and I could see it being quite useful for collaborative design projects.