Initial Thoughts on Insights Tool
- Space: As others have noted, the narrow width is an immediate non-starter for me. I tend to work in layouts, meaning that my Bible pane is usually 1/3 to 1/2 of the screen at most. Thus, the real estate on the insights window is too small for serious, sustained usage.
- Redundancy: While redundancy in features/function is nothing new for Logos. I'm immediately asking the question--who is this tool intended for? I already know how to open a Passage Guide, Commentary, or any other versified resource and link it to my bible. I've built multiple custom layouts that apply this knowledge quite effectively. The insights tool seems to have the same functionality but at a fraction of the power/efficiency of the other methods I've named. This tool might impress a first-time Logos user (maybe that's the point), but it becomes unnecessary and disappointing to anyone who has learned the other methods of achieving the same function. The fact that it's being baked in to the "Pro" feature set is puzzling. It's like a camera company designing a new form of AUTO and trying to market it to pro photographers.
- Scrolling: Scrolling with linked resources has never been great because it's very difficult to get the reference box to correspond with the verse in a natural way. Typically, I don't read with my eyes at the very upper limits of a resource panel, but somewhere a few lines down is my sweet spot. Yet, it's been my experience that the reference box likes to pull the reference from the verse at the very top boundary of the window. Therefore, the organic usability of the one-verse-at-a-time insight tool is stymied by the inefficiency of having to constantly adjust (by scrolling up and down) to land on the exact desired reference.
To sum up, in its current stage of development/functionality, the insights tool is something I'll quickly forget about and never use again. It definitely won't keep me paying $10/month for Pro level.
Comments
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Actually I was pretty underwhelmed with the Insights tool. It's nowhere near as useful as just a simple passage guide, which has access to more commentaries, bibles, and other types of resources that available immediately. Frankly I don't get it.
If anything, Insights/AI should be built into some/many of the existing tools behind the scenes, to make them better tools - not give us what might one day be a bunch of additional tools that do the same things as existing tools, only (hopefully) a bit better.
The product is already complicated enough without making more decisions on which tool to use, that much harder. Imagine the view for a new user (and others maybe) - "What do I use for just a simple Bible passage study - Facebook? Passage Guide? Insights? Bible and Commentary QuickStart? Study Bible QuickStart? Basic Bible Study Guide?" - and even more choices I am sure. Overwhelming.
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Don Awalt said:
Actually I was pretty underwhelmed with the Insights tool. It's nowhere near as useful as just a simple passage guide
I agree, especially if a user employs MultipleResources with Bibles. I see little value in this feature.
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What I find interesting is the difference in how the Insights Tool was received on the web app beta vs. the desktop beta. It speaks of how diverse the needs of the various Logos users' needs are.
Orthodox Bishop Alfeyev: "To be a theologian means to have experience of a personal encounter with God through prayer and worship."; Orthodox proverb: "We know where the Church is, we do not know where it is not."
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I suspect it will get little use, and then none. Focus on simpler searching instead.
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GaoLu said:
I suspect it will get little use, and then none. Focus on simpler searching instead.
That may well be true in some denominations but for my denomination it is a major step forward for more casual users. see New Insights Sidebar on the web app - Logos ForumsNew Insights Sidebar on the web app - Logos Forums for some of the reactions when it debuted in a web beta.
Orthodox Bishop Alfeyev: "To be a theologian means to have experience of a personal encounter with God through prayer and worship."; Orthodox proverb: "We know where the Church is, we do not know where it is not."
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