At last, we’ve been able to get our hands on Wunderkit, the big new release from 6Wunderkinder which has just gone into private beta. One of the darlings of the Berlin startup scene, 6WK has been working feverishly on the new software (tutorial video here) for months. SILICON ALLEE was amongst the first to take it for a test drive – so what’s it like?
First things first: As you would expect from a 6WK product, it looks fantastic. The interface is smooth and easy to use. But what exactly does Wunderkit do? Essentially, it’s a social organiser – a “blend of a social network and online working space for the individual.”
Different Workspaces in Wunderkit.
You start with Workspaces –
A view of a Dashboard.
easy to create, they act as a kind of ‘omepage for any project; you can make one for your business, your family, your band, the football team you play for, the trip you’re planning; anything you can think of. You can invite others to join the Workspace, or they can ask to be added, and once in they can start to view and create content straight away.
Within a Workspace, there are three services you can use – Tasks, Notes and Dashboard. They are all pretty self-explanatory; the Wunderkit stream is included on the Dashboard. Many of the standard functions of a social network are included – you can follow others, they can follow you, you can make profiles (both yourself and your that those of your Workspaces) public. You can also find others through Facebook and Twitter.
Wunderkit can be used on the web or an iPhone, with data synched thanks to cloud technology. There are plans to match and exceed the multi-platform support offered on Wunderlist.
Does all this connectivity and collaboration, however, make any difference when it comes to an organisational tool? Some will undoubtedly say they don’t feel the need to use Wunderkit, as it provides nothing new which they don’t already have elsewhere. Questions may also be asked as to how much of a leap forward it is from Wunderlist, and how exactly being more social makes you more productive.
But it is a good-looking, easy-to-use all-in-one tool that, we must remember, is still being developed by the folks at 6WK. And don’t underestimate it’s user-friendly functionality and appearance when it comes to predicting how successful it will be.
It is simple and easy to use; the user is not overwhelmed by the choice of actions they can take. It’s what the marketing blurb describe as an “intuitive user experience”. It will be interesting to see how much I use it over the coming weeks and months. Having only had access to it for a short time, it remains to be seen if Wunderkit takes root in the soil of my digital landscape. For example, while I have so far found myself happily using it to make reminders, I haven’t really taken to the social aspect as yet – the reminders are for myself, why would I want anyone else seeing what I’ve (nearly) forgotten do? This social aspect will become increasingly important, however, as my individual connectivitiy grows – once I and those I know are better established within Wunderkit.
In the meantime, the Notes feature is very useful as a means of adding detail to your reminders. And another big plus for Wunderkit is its cross-device compatibility – that easy-to-use user interface is the same whether you’re on the web app or the iPhone app.
It is important to note, of course, that Wunderkit is not yet a finished product, and will continue to develop and grow as the feedback comes in and new features are rolled out. So with that in mind, we’ll have to give it a little more time before we can tell if 6WK has another winner on its hands.
6Wunderkinder, led by CEO Christian Reber, was founded in August 2010 and has so far proved a big hit – last November, the company announced funding of $4.2 million from Atomico, the London-based investment firm led by Skype co-founder Niklas Zennström. The previous product, Wunderlist, has proved wildly successful. Users will slowly be added to the Wunderkit beta until it goes fully public on February 1.