Hi frens,
Last week I had a chance to chat with Craft’s staff of Customer Experience. I would like to share with you, too.
I knew Craft because MacStories picked it as Best New App, and later learned how Craft used Mac Catalyst to build its great Mac app.
At that time, Evernote ruined itself by rewriting v10 with React Native. Everyone was finding alternatives. I tried Roam Research, Obsidian, Notion, etc. but no one delivered great mobile apps (they were all webviews). Craft was the only one cared deeply about mobile apps, and the latest Craft v3 enabled me to combine webpage publishing and side project management.
However, there’s still room for improvement. Firstly, the initial learning curve for Craft is still a bit steep. While the overall mobile UX of Craft is much better than Notion in my opinion, it takes time to learn the unique UX logic of Craft. Some are reasonable, but some probably aren’t. Say, try to look for undo/redo buttons? It’s not as intuitive as other apps by simply putting them on the toolbar above virtual keyboard (inputAccessoryView) or visible area while editing.
Secondly, marketing should be improved as well given its maturing software quality. I shared two perspectives: translation and templates.
Translation for Traditional Chinese is half-cooked and doesn’t live up to its software quality. It reminds me of 1Password in its early days, and I devoted myself for improving it through community translation project on Crowdin.
Most users and influencers flocked from Evernote to Notion, and there has been tons of community templates created in Notion. Craft should learn from it to enable local communities.
Would you give Craft a try? I probably should have applied for its affiliate program first ;)
Your friend,
Denken
P.S. Two features lacked in Craft that I missed from Notion: Synced Blocks, Kanban Board templates.