Interview with Alex Reed, Customer Care Director at morePaths.com

We called on the phone Alex Reed to ask about morePaths.com and how the company is working through its roadmap since 2009.

Alex answers about strategy, new Apps and plan for the future.

Interview on the phone between myself and Alex Reed, CCD at morePaths.com

LC: Alex , your company is relatively new, what was the idea behind the creation of this group?

AR: Well, at the beginning we were just few, I mean, you could literally count us with one hand (he smiles, n.d.a.), but the idea at the base was simple, bring expertise from the professional world into apps so that people could start from that and build something better. 

LC: so, this is the reason you create an app to design world map infographics?

AR: exactly, world maps are extremely useful to present information in a slideshow or a newsletter for example. I am an heavy users myself, when I prepare executive summaries to share with people across the world. WorldMapPlus was the first app developed with the idea that you shouldn't spend you time on formatting but on adding valuable content. Today if a need to add information on a map, I just take my iPad, add some colours to the map and use the image in my presentations. Everything can happen in 5 minutes maximum and it looks professional.

LC: I heard you more than one time referring to the word "Professional", what does it mean for you exactly?

AR: publishing and presenting always require a very demanding high level of precision. Today, there are thousand of softwares that help you putting your ideas in a document or a presentation but what those softwares do not teach you is the precision that is required. When you had to present to a Chief Executive Officer or any executive management, the slides need to be perfect, clean, with the right font, with the right number of spaces between the paragraphs and rich in information. To answer to your question, for me, "professional" means matching that standard, push to have something clean and clear that anybody can point at that and say, "I got the message".

LC: so presentations are the main goal of the company?

AR: no only, I would say, presentation are the first steps to present your ideas to an audience and we want to support that, but at morePaths.com we believe there is more to that. So few months ago we started developing solutions that will take some parallel roads.

LC: Could you be more specific?

AR: no today, but soon, what I can say, is that the new set of Apps will follow the original idea of minimalism and office automation, meaning whether you are with a Mac, with an iPad or with iPhone, you will be able to work, edit, create the content you want, seamless.

LC: coming back to presentations and publishing, I would say you deployed many similar apps in this area...

AR: (he smiles, n.d.a.) indeed, but each app is unique. We create our apps having in mind the user learning curve of the interface. When you have a new software , you have to learn how to use the menus, the functionalities, etc. Our apps are different. Each app is developed with different functionalities that address a specific niche but, the user interface is very very similar. You add you content and than when you decide to manage your project, or to publish it, everything looks the same through all of them.

LC: It must be difficult to maintain an homogeneous interface though all the softwares...

AR: it is, but also allows us to design something that is at the same time minimalist and easy to learn. If it works for all the apps, it means, it is simple and that is what we are searching for.

LC: Let's talk about your latest app, JustPerfect, was there a need for a new presentation app for iPad?

AR: well, the short answer is YES. Let me explain. Tablets nowadays are becoming the preferred device for people who need to travel for work. You are a sales manager and you want to contact your customers directly at their premises and propose a sales pitch. Or maybe you are a project manager that has been asked to create a slide deck while being in a airport lounge or a train. In all those cases, the standard tools for presentations are simply not enough. Coming back to what I was describing before as "professional", a perfect presentation has a perfect balance of space and text on the pages and does not "attack" the audience with colours or images that might be confusing or obscuring the message. JustPerfect answers just that; so whether you are on a train, a plane or an airport lounge , your slide will look precise and clean all the time.

LC: how did you manage to go around this issue?

AR: we started asking to experts in the field, which formats, which page structure they would use to present a specific topic and we implement those ideas, knowledge in JustPerfect. It is like you are creating a slide deck with hundreds of managers that support you and give you advice.

LC: but isn't just templates a bit constraining?

AR: templates are the start, to show a path we believe is the closest to what you want to communicate. But it is not all. A user can modify and save a new version as his own template, can add items on the existing templates or just start with a blank page. More, a user can actually do all these things in one single project, meaning ,all the content will be preserved and he can choose whether to present a version based on standard templates or his own.

LC:  Alex, one last question about privacy, is it something that your company takes into consideration while developing apps?

AR: Yes, absolutely, I remember that our fist version of WorldMapPlus was so "basic" and limited in functionality and user interface but even at that time it had an option to encrypt the exporting file. Today all our apps have embedded by default an encryption functionality that allows the user to send sensitive content in emails even when they are using a public network. The user can add their own password, so only if the recipient of the email knows it, can read the content. In addition to that, we do not require the user to register or provide any e-mails or login to access the totality of the app functionalities. The users can join us on twitter, wordpress.com or Facebook but we do not want to store their details in our servers, not even for statistical purpose only.  

LC: Alex, I would like to thank you for your time, it was very informative and hopefully we will be able to have another interview in 6 months time.

AR: Thank you Luise, with pleasure. 

Luise Charts

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