Usability is a major issue with RVSiteBuilder and I hope it can be addressed in the next major release.

This is a point that I find RVSiteBuilder is severely lacking when compared to other commercial (or even free) alternatives currently available. While very feature-rich, RVSiteBuilder fails to deliver mostly because it compromises on quality, choosing instead to offer more features. I regularly get support requests from clients who simply cannot understand the system. Granted, they are not the most web-savvy people, but that is precisely the type of user that any Site Builder normally targets.

RVSiteBuilder needs to be overhauled with usability in mind. For inspiration you may want to check out weebly.com or yola.com, both excellent user-friendly systems, and a great indication of what a good CMS -- particularly one that brands itself as a Site Builder -- should be. RVSiteBuilder should re-invent itself while focusing on its strong points: its multilingual capabilities and easy web panel integration.

Also, you guys really need to rework the Tryout module. I've tried understanding it several times and it still makes no sense to me, nor have I seen any provider properly integrate it into their site. Let me know if I'm wrong, though! :-)

Cheers,

Xav

Xavior, I couldn't agree with you more! I've been using RVsitebuilder for two years and truth be told I'm as frustrated now as I was when I first began. I had hoped that perhaps with more use I would be more at ease but that has not been the case.

While I freely admit that I am not an advanced computer 'geek' I am not a newbie either. Give me new software or a new program and of course there's a learning curve but with use I'll become comfortable with it. This has not been the case with RvSitebuilder.

One of the bigger disappointments is RV's photo gallery. The set-up has got to be the worst I've seen...it just looks plain ugly. Even though I've selected the correct settings, the photo file name shows on the top and the image description is at the bottom. there's no photo slide-show and what is up with the folder icons? There's no changing the order of the pictures other than date ascending/descending. Looking at the forums, users I've been asking for changes to the photo gallery going on three years now and still stuck with the same format.

I checked out the sites you mentioned Xavior, and from what I could see of the demo's that is what RV should be taking a look at. Drag and drop boxes, changing an image size by clicking on the corner, change the layout by simply moving the box. Now that looks user friendly!

Another big disappointment is not being able to easily bring in your own custom designed template. Again users in this forum have been asking for an easy way to do this since 2007 and still nothing.

At this point I've pretty much given up hoping that RV will become more user-friendly and am seriously looking at other website builders. I know it will be a pain to have to switch and begin all over again but at this point my frustration with RV outweighs my hesitation at starting over with something easier to use.

I've only been using RVSiteBuilder with clients for a year and I've already mastered custom designing templates for clients. As a web design company, we use RVSiteBuilder mainly for it's easy to use WYSIWYG editor, easily added pages, search engine optimization, and other features that just aren't as good with other site builders.

I do agree that this isn't really a great Do-It-Yourself system, but if you have someone who knows what they're doing develop the website for you initially, it's really easy to manage after that.