Getting Feedback with Influence

Have you ever asked for feedback from your peers about a design or presentation, but quickly gotten way too many comments back?

In fact, sometimes people even start picking out and commenting on aspects of your design that you didn't even ask about to begin with. To solve this problem, the developers at Zurb have launched a new app called Influence.

Influence is the mother-app to Reel, a presentation app that Website Magazine wrote about in September. Reel is great for making a quick presentation; however, Influence is better for sharing that presentation and getting back the exact feedback that you were looking for.

When starting to add content to Influence, the first thing a user must decide is what device they want their content to be seen on, either a computer, phone or a tablet. Just because phone is chosen, doesn't mean that you won't be able to view the presentation on a computer. However, all of the content will appear as if it is on a phone screen.

The next step is, of course, to upload the content that you will eventually send out to your peers. Slides can be made up of JPG, PNG, GIF, PPT, PPTX or PDF files. Once the content is uploaded, users can choose what type of feedback they wish to receive from their peers. Options include thumbs up/down ratings - with the option to allow people to comment and explain why they liked or disliked the slide, the ability to allow annotations, ask for final comments, and allow voters to keep their feedback anonymous. There is also a feature called presenter mode, which will be rolling out in the app within the next few weeks. This feature will enable users to control what others can see on their screen when viewing the presentation.

After the content is uploaded and the feedback settings are optimized, users can save, publish and share their presentation with others. Then users can review comments, ratings, views and notes through a sorting option on the presentation report.

Currently the app is in private release, but those that are interested can try it for free by signing up for the service at Zurb. Check out our (brief) presenentation to see how Influence works!