ryan's dashboard

It's a fraking full screen toggle button guy. It's not some deep philosophical question. There is nothing 'paradigm shifting' about it. It's painfully obvious why they should have this feature. Why should I care how they prioritize feature requests? That's their problem not mine. Not to mention that any developer could implement this feature very easily. They already have the feature on their own site... It's clear they want the traffic and they're willing to piss off a few users to get it. – thelastminute, on June 10, 2008 04:40

This was the first "rub" (as in "there's the..."), i found (immediately) in this otherwise very cool application.

Rashmi - one other thing ... accessibility. We as web developers should aim to make the experience of using our apps as seamless as possible for ALL users.

Thanks for your responsiveness.

Alright thelastminute, I'm giving you one more try just because I find your stubborn refusal to accept the value of inquiry amusing. There are at least two good reasons for her to ask the value of a feature request:

1. Asking questions like "why" and "how" is how the boring and obvious ideas become the interesting and paradigm-shifting.

2. Determining priorities in a situation of limited resources. If you have 10 requests, all of which seem urgent to the people who want them, all of which have obvious value, it's helpful to present a case for each request. All of the obvious reasons for a full-screen button presented above might not be enough to make this a higher priority than cool new feature x that the developers are working. However, all those reasons plus unexpected value y might make it the top priority.

Assuming they're willing to give up the extra traffic they get from the click throughs for full-screen, I'm sure they'll get around to adding this feature. In the meantime, I don't see the point in berating people who are trying to help you. – ryan, on June 10, 2008 03:52

You don't have to assume anything! People are telling you they want a really simple feature. That's it! It's not rocket science.

It's just one simple button that toggles full screen mode. You don't need to conduct a focus groups about it.

One thing I have learnt about products is "never assume" that you know what's on people's minds. And its also very helpful to hear people articulate the why in their own words. Once in a while, it turns out that we can build something even more appropriate once we understand the why, rather just the what.

Thanks for sharing.

She wasn't asking for details about a feature request. She was asking "why this is so important"... It's perfectly obvious to anyone who has ever tried to use the embed feature why it's important to have a full screen mode...

Oh my god, yes ... full screen button in embedded player!

My audience is very much a novice one. The primary advantage of slideshare for me is so that they don't have to deal with a second interface - i.e. powerpoint - or even navigate away from a page. Having them go to a site that looks nothing like the interface they were just in - and in fact has a whole going on - will confuse the hell out of them.

I realize you're probably reluctant to make the player too self-contained, as you want to drive people to your site. That's fair - we can only complain so much about a free service. However, there's no argument that the feature would be invaluable for your users.

I don't understand thelastminute's frustration over your wanting more details about a functionality request, but surely you can't pretend to not understand why we'd want such a thing.