Right on schedule, today I released Wholeweal Software’s first product, EverybodyInn, a Windows application to help bed-and-breakfasts, guesthouses, and small hotels keep track of their guests and reservations.
A lot of software gets written where the programmers went just far enough. They found a solution to the problem at hand, and then stopped there. And this isn’t limited to small one-off programs that people write for their own use; unfortunately, a lot of commercial software seems to be written this way as well.
One of my design goals in developing EverybodyInn was to not write that kind of software. Instead, I gave a lot of thought to each feature of the program, and tried to work out a user interface that lets you use the feature in the easiest and most intuitive way possible, without having to do extra work that doesn’t actually address your problem.
Let me give you an example. In many other reservation management software products, when you create a new reservation for a customer who is new to your hotel, you start by telling the program to create a new reservation. Then, when it asks you to select a customer from its customer list, you have to jump over into a “customer management” module in order to create your new customer’s record. Then you have to jump back to the new reservation in order to select the customer you just created. It’s a lot of extra scurrying around that just distracts you from the thing you sat down in front of the computer to do.
EverybodyInn doesn’t work that way. When you create a new reservation, you have the option of selecting from your previous guests. But if your guest is new, you simply enter their information right there on the reservation form, and EverybodyInn figures out that it’s a new guest and creates the new guest record in the background. If you select a previous guest and then change the address or phone number, EverybodyInn updates the guest information right then and there. It doesn’t break your concentration by forcing you to enter information into several different locations in the program.
It’s little things like this that add up to a more pleasant experience using a software application. To me, it’s part of the craftsmanship of building a software product that I can be proud of.
On the EverybodyInn website, there’s a screenshot tour that covers most of the main features of the program, and a free 30-day trial you can download. If you own or manage a small hotel or inn, try it out, and let me know what you think.
Now that EverybodyInn has shipped, I’ll be planning out new features and improvements for the next version of the program. So if there are features missing that you absolutely can’t live without (or would just be really helpful), let me know!