Utterli, the microblogging/ rich media sharing platform formerly know Utterz has released an official Adobe AIR desktop client.
The new client includes the ability to view Utterz, including audio and video playback, reply inline and browse groups. Visually it’s pleasing, taking up the new colors from the site for a nice look. But that’s where the positives end, because Utterli tries to be too clever by half, and the user experience lacks as a consequence.
The timeline in the Utterli AIR application adopts a Plurk like horizontal timeline, but instead of including entries, only includes user pics. To view each entry involves having to click on it, so casual browsing is immediately ruled out. The key selling point of Utterli other over platforms is completely ignored in the application: you can leave a text Utter, but you can’t record audio or video from the app, further cripling the use case.
I love Utterli as a service, although I haven’t been using it much lately (nor a number of other services), the combination of video and audio, including the ability to phone in entries via a local number makes Utterli stand out from the crowd. I’ve heard it regularly being mentioned alongside Twitter as a corporate tool (and I’ve mentioned it myself in this context) due to the flexibility the input side offers, and despite strong competition, Utterli has a good chance of going the distance. But they’ve dropped the ball here with the app. I understand the need to offer something on the desktop, but this could be a case where Utterli would have been better holding back till they could offer something better.
