All companies are creating and distributing more and more content. Content has always been a king, but in the digital economy the king has even sway. Yet a comfort zone myopia is holding creators, making the process convoluted and time consuming, and the sharing of information and data rich content more costly. Let us look at all the grievances that different stakeholders in the process have.
User grievances about the current content creation tools and platforms:
- The biggest pain point of PowerPoint is often its tendency to promote static, linear presentations that are monotonous and fail to engage audiences. Users struggle with creating dynamic, visually compelling slides that effectively communicate complex information, leading to presentations that are either too text-heavy or lack clear messaging. Additionally, the design limitations of PowerPoint can make it challenging for non-designers to produce professional-looking slides, which can diminish the overall impact of the presentation.
- The biggest pain point of Canva is its limitations in customization and scalability for complex design projects. While Canva is user-friendly and great for creating simple, visually appealing designs quickly, it can be restrictive for users who need advanced design features or more control over intricate design elements. Additionally, working within the confines of Canva’s templates often results in designs that feel generic or less unique, which does not fully meet the specific branding or creative needs of a project.
- The biggest pain point of Adobe InDesign is its steep learning curve, especially for beginners or those unfamiliar with professional design software. While InDesign offers powerful tools and advanced features for creating complex layouts and high-quality publications, mastering the software requires significant time and effort. Additionally, InDesign can be resource-intensive, leading to performance issues on less powerful computers, and its intricate interface can be overwhelming for users who need to create simple designs quickly.
User grievances about web content creation:
- The biggest pain point of Figma is its reliance on a stable internet connection, as it is a cloud-based tool. This can lead to performance issues, lag, or even loss of access when working in areas with poor connectivity. Additionally, while Figma is powerful for collaborative design, the complexity of managing design systems and version control in larger projects can become overwhelming. Some users may also find its interface and feature set daunting when transitioning from other design tools, particularly if they are used to working offline.
- The biggest pain of WordPress is the challenge of managing security and updates, especially as the platform is highly targeted by hackers due to its popularity. Users often need to stay vigilant about updating themes, plugins, and the core WordPress software to prevent vulnerabilities. Additionally, the platform can become complex and cumbersome for non-technical users, particularly when dealing with customization beyond basic templates. Performance issues can also arise as sites grow in content and functionality, requiring optimization and sometimes leading to conflicts between plugins and themes.
User grievances about the current formats and template updates:
- The biggest pain of crafting PDF documents is the difficulty in making them easily editable and interactive while maintaining consistent formatting across different devices and platforms. Once a PDF is created, making changes can be cumbersome, often requiring specialized software. Additionally, ensuring that embedded elements like forms, links, and multimedia function correctly is challenging, and the static nature of PDFs limit their interactivity and user engagement. Finally, achieving a balance between file size and quality, especially for media-rich documents, can also be a significant challenge.
- The biggest pain of working and automating Word templates is their inconsistency in formatting and compatibility across different versions of Microsoft Word and operating systems. Even minor changes to the content can sometimes cause the layout to break, leading to misaligned text, images, or other elements. Additionally, customizing templates beyond their basic structure can be challenging for non-expert users, often requiring advanced knowledge of Word’s formatting tools. Another issue is the difficulty in maintaining a uniform design across multiple documents, especially in collaborative environments where multiple people are editing the same template.
User grievances about data rich content creation and distribution:
- The biggest pain point of Power BI is its complexity and steep learning curve, especially for users who are not familiar with data analysis or business intelligence tools. Navigating its extensive features, such as creating advanced visualizations, writing DAX formulas, or managing data models, can be challenging for beginners. Additionally, performance issues can arise when working with large datasets, leading to slow report generation and refresh times. Integration with certain data sources and customizing dashboards to meet specific business needs can also be complex, requiring technical expertise.
- The biggest pain point of Tableau is its high cost, which can be prohibitive for small businesses or individual users. Additionally, while Tableau is powerful for data visualization, it has a steep learning curve, particularly when it comes to mastering advanced features like calculated fields, complex data blending, and custom dashboards. Performance issues can also occur when handling very large datasets or complex calculations, which can slow down the responsiveness of visualizations. Finally, integrating Tableau with certain data sources or automating workflows can require significant technical expertise, adding to the overall complexity.
User Grievances about technical management and maintenance:
- The biggest pain point of updating data is that the update can significantly impact layout and design. Changes in data may necessitate adjustments to the layout to accommodate new or altered visualizations, tables, or charts. This can lead to a need for redesigning sections of the content to ensure that it remains coherent and visually appealing. Frequent updates disrupt design consistency, especially if the updates involve adding or removing elements. Maintaining a unified look while incorporating new data can be challenging. New or updated data might require more space, leading to issues with text and image alignment, or causing overcrowding if the design doesn’t adapt well to the changes. For interactive content, such as dashboards or dynamic reports, updating data can affect functionality and require reprogramming or testing to ensure that interactive elements work correctly with the new data.
- The biggest pain in information distribution is ensuring that the right information reaches the intended audience effectively and efficiently. Distributing information in a timely manner is crucial, but delays can occur due to logistical issues or system inefficiencies. Ensuring that information is distributed in formats that are accessible and usable across various devices and platforms can be difficult. Capturing and retaining the audience’s attention amid information overload requires effective strategies and tools, which can be hard to implement. Managing the technical infrastructure to handle large volumes of data and high traffic can be challenging, leading to potential performance bottlenecks. Setting up and maintaining automated distribution can be complicated, especially when dealing with diverse data sources, formats and systems.
To sum it up, the challenges are numerous. The current approach involves adding more tools that address various aspects of the problem. However, continuously repairing the old system is a financial drain rather than a true solution. The answer lies in the convergence of technologies into new platforms, such as Storied Data. These platforms resolve obstacles, align creation with modern design and functional aesthetics, and eliminate inefficiencies and costs associated with distribution.