My old assumption about my “multiple independent but integrated apps” theory was that the apps had to do a ton on their own. I was thinking of it mostly on a technical and individual product level: divide the apps into totally separate packages that don’t really need each other.
This assumption is proving false when I consider the overall suite design on a user level. For example, we have Write.as for writing blog posts and Snap.as for photo hosting — separate apps that work well independently and together. But while this means we can do interesting things on a per-product basis — like photographer profiles exclusive to Snap.as — the separation can be frustrating when you need to use the two together, like when I’m composing a Write.as post and need to insert photos. In that case, I can either switch apps or use the Snap.as browser extension — but this is still too abstract for many users. We need a different level of abstraction.
So I’m working on that now. For example, coming soon to our Classic editor: inline uploads, powered by Snap.as:
Thoughts? Discuss...