i am FEE

You’ve just got to love this industry. When writing software, there is one golden rule we hold to. Never spend a lot of time and energy writing all the code at once, for you never know what the users really want.

Well I guess that is why for Kerawa.com we are adopting the same strategy: building http://www.kerawa.com through a lot of rapid iterations.

You remember last month we introduced you Kerawa beta: Iteration 1, with a new engine that will make our code more flexible and meet some international standards in software design. We also provided a new user interface, though we haven’t replaced the old one. Luckily enough we didn’t do just that. After all, we are not the only ones using Kerawa. You too are. So your feedback on the first beta iteration was very valuable.

From feedback, we understood that the Kerawa beta interface was ugly. Well not totally ugly. Let’s just say people were expecting more.

What were we thinking? Well for a start, we were thinking about our slow internet lines here in Africa. The interface had to be very lightweight, and kind of text based. The first iteration was lightweight quite alright, but did not quite have that web 2.0 feel to it.

Another reason was craigslist.org, which we believe is the reference for classified ads sites. The site is so plain, and heavily text based. We wanted to create the same text based look. After all craigslist is succeeding right?

However, feedback from one of our supporters said the craigslist interface should have been very cool at the time it was created (1995 if not mistaken), and the users some how got used to it ever after these many years. New sites like Kerawa.com have to follow current trends in web user interfaces.

Well we’ve heard you. We have come up with a new user interface that will (hopefully) be better than the previous, and still lightweight enough (no heavy script effects please !!). From a geek point of view, only the engine and content mattered. But to the every day guy who looks at your work for the first time, aesthetics counts. We hope this new interface will be worth replacing the present kerawa designs found in www.kerawa.com/classic (the classic version) and www.kerawa.com/ads/  (the beta), and function correctly.

Below are screenshots of the various iterations of Kerawa (click to enlarge):

Kerawa classic : still the default homepage.

Kerawa Beta Iteration 1

Beta 2 screenshot a

Beta 2 screenshot b

Beta 2 screenshot c

As it’s our usual style, we will upload it for first appreciations this Sunday. No work is perfect. There might still be some little bugs, some user interface ameliorations, some little goodies… Hey we’re in Beta !! = continuous improvement.

In the meantime, continue kerawising your stuff. You or your friends surely have something to sell or some service to offer, heh ? Just post it on Kerawa.com, the free african ads site.

As a side note, it is somehow a general conception that when creating a start-up, you need time and energy. That said the guys behind Kerawa.com all have regular jobs, but just can’t quit them yet. After all that is where our principal funds for Kerawa come from right now. We nevertheless have realised that even our salaries won’t suffice for all the big things we are planning to do on Kerawa.com. Can we succeed only with our salaries (which also means less time than necessary for our projects), or will we need extra funding? Hmm…

In the meantime, happy easter every one on behalf of the Kerawa.com team.