Dropbox’s mobile app makes file sharing on-the-move easy, says Peter Gough, founding partner at ORM London
Developed by Dropbox
Supporting devices: iPad, iPhone, Android, BlackBerry
Dropbox is a cloud-based Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) application that allows anyone to easily share files. It is essentially a folder that can sit on any device – a computer at home, laptop at work, mobile or tablet. When a user saves a document or folder in their Dropbox it ‘syncs’ to all other devices with Dropbox installed for them to access. Dropbox also allows users to share folders with other users so they can all access and add more files to one directory.
Functionality
Dropbox is not a file editor, but a file sharing and viewing tool that allows you to view documents from within the application. As you fire it up, it checks to update the file structure of the Dropbox folder and updates the list view. For the mobile and tablet applications, file documents are kept on the cloud server unless you ‘star’ a document as a ‘favourite’. Starred documents are then downloaded to the device so you can access and view them when you are offline. This single function is extremely useful when you want access to important documents at any time, without having to be connected to the internet.
Photos can be viewed with a simple slide gesture and as a thumbnail to make browsing images simple. You can upload photos or videos to any folder within your Dropbox for instant sharing or storing.
Of course, there are always features that could make it better. For example, an automatic play slideshow feature would be nice to allow the app to run through the images automatically without swiping. In addition, drag-and-drop document management in the tablet application would be helpful.
Another thing that could be improved from a usability perspective would be a better breadcrumb to help with navigation when you are at a deep level. But simple back buttons do let you navigate back through folders.
Design
As a partner in a design company, I could have chosen to review a more aesthetically pleasing, eye-catching application but I chose Dropbox for its pure simplicity and the fact that it does one thing really well – it lets me view documents across all my devices.
A simple registration and login process gets you to the core app functionality very quickly. The user interface for both tablet and smartphone is quite basic. Documents are displayed in a list format with standard file format icons making it easy to navigate around your folders and documents. The tablet version offers an enhanced experience allowing users to easily switch to full screen and zoom into documents to view them in greater detail.
Overall opinion
There is a rumour in our offices that I am a shareholder of Dropbox. Admittedly, I do espouse quite a lot about the benefits of the application and I am a true Dropbox brand advocate – but that is because Dropbox has made my working life much easier.
We’re now in a world where we have multiple communication devices and most of us are out of the office a lot of the time. Dropbox is a great example of a SaaS web service whose potential became exponentially more powerful when the mobile applications were released. Bringing Dropbox to smartphones and tablets means less paperwork is required and you don’t have to lug around a laptop as often.
As a business, we now use Dropbox to share folders for different parts of our business – from the exec team sharing folders that contain management reports and financials, to our design teams creating Dropbox folders for clients to manage their projects. We’ve also noticed our clients have started using it for other business processes, for example distributing media clips.
Concerns have been raised that traditionally consumer-targeted file-sharing solutions such as Dropbox can potentially contribute to data security leaks when used in a business context because of employee negligence. However, if companies give their employees guidelines on what they can share, and with who, I see no reason why organisations shouldn’t benefit from Dropbox and other similar solutions.
