october 2007 satisfaction survey results

[comhasse]

This is not red hot news, but i just got a chance to look at the Revit Customer Council's satisfaction survey results. There was an option for "open text feedback" this time whereof two pages of samples (out of some 11'000 text responses) are displayed in the survey results. If the choice of samples shown is any indication of what the factory's focus will be in the future, i'd be rather pleased. The examples of critical responses include:

- need for better rendering engine
- user interface improvements
- site tool improvements

From the thread about the last survey I gather that we're not allowed to share the actual document here. To participate in the surveys and obtain the results one can sign up at revitcc (http://revitcc.com/projects/j100996408/open.cfm?code=%257%3FB%26GI%5C%20%0A&sc=YWR1OGE%3D&pturl=&job=MTAwOTk2NDA4&em=V0VC&ntsh=cx9kff5scf) .

[iandidesign]

I find it noteworthy that 70% of the respondents come from small or medium sized firms. I would prefer to see the 10-99 Company Size category broken down to see how many of the 30% in this group come from firms between 10 and 20 people. It would be interesting to know how Autodesk will react to this revelation, increase marketing efforts aimed at large firms, or concentrate more on the needs of smaller organizations. I generally favor the latter as I feel that features aimed at boutique firms that concentrate on custom work benefit all users whereas features more specific to huge practices do not. (I recognize that as a gross overgeneralization.)

Another thing of note from the survey is no mention of PDF support, presumably because they did not ask the question. Autodesk clearly has a huge bias against PDF, which is a disservice to Revit users. DWF may indeed be better for many uses but the preponderance of material formatted as PDF and it's ubiquity as an exchange medium makes support for the format an absolute requirement.