I love Skype. Such an easy to use and useful application, and I like the brand too. I also like good usability in an application – something I advise on in my work and look out for in everything I use.
I noticed one feature in particular on Skype recently that stood out. It was during a conference call – if you make a lot of conference calls you will be no stranger to the problem of identifying who’s speaking at any time, especially on long distance calls where the quality suffers.
Well, Skype solves this by displaying the people on the call in a list and graphically showing you who’s currently talking. Even if more than one person is speaking at the same time, it still works because it displays much like a graphic equalizer on an 80s stereo – so you can almost attribute every sound on the call to a user.
This is such a good feature, because it allows you to concentrate more on the discussion rather than straining to listen to every word. Of course, there are lots of other things I like about Skype – maybe I’ll write about them soon too, but if you use Skype what’s your favourite feature?
Considering my line of work (web consultancy) I haven’t been using Skype as much as I should really, but that’s largely because my clients don’t use it. I would say that my favourite feature is the fact that if you use the video feature, it really does feel as though you’re in a virtual meeting. I’ve used it with designers, and they can display their ideas on the screen as we talk. Invaluable and saves the time to email attachments, check them over, and then reply. Nice article!
Mark Reply:
March 19th, 2010 at 4:34 pm
Good point – that’s also a great benefit. You can also share parts of your screen during a call, so you could also show on-screen designs too, or even present work.