vm depot publishing experience flow -...

VM Depot Publishing Experience Flow

Choosing Windows Live, the user is brought to the standard Live login screen. There is no indication this is related to the VM Depot.

Choosing Windows Live, the user is brought to the standard Live login screen. There is no indication this is related to the VM Depot.

The user is prompted to select the Google account they want to use to login in the VM Depot.

The user chooses whether to grant access to their Google account information.

The user chooses whether to grant access to their Yahoo account information.

This includes fields for blog, Twitter, and Facebook URLS despite the fact that none of this information being available to customers on the VM Depot. The user can now publish an image by filling out

the following information fields and agreeing to the VM Depot’s terms of use. There is no indication that an application must be reviewed by a marketplace moderator before it is made available on the VM Depot.

The user must fill out basic account information.

Clicking the “Publish” button in the top navigation will prompt the user to sign in using one of three methods. There is no indication about they type of account that the user is being asked to sign in to.

Azure Marketplace Publishing Experience Flow Clicking the “Publish” button on the right side of

the top navigation starts the publishing process.

The user is brought to a page with value propositions about publishing on the Azure Marketplace, links to publishing resources. The “Get Started” button continues to publishing process.

The user must sign in to access the Azure Marketplace publishing portal. The user is brought to the standard

Live login screen. There is no indication this is related to publishing on the Azure Marketplace.

The user can now start the process of publishing an application by clicking the “Add Dataset” button. This is confusing labeling because it allows the user to add an application or a dataset.

Clicking the “New Publishing Portal” link will bring the user to an updated version of the publishing portal.

A wizard walks the user through the process of entering the optional and required information to publish a product on the Azure Marketplace.

Required information must be entered before an application’s registration is reviewed. Once approved, it is published to the Azure Marketplace.

The new publishing portal has more robust features and a polished visual appearance, but it is not directly linked to from the Azure Marketplace. Clicking “+New” starts the application publishing process.

This publishing portal only has an option to publish an application to the Azure Store despite the fact that the user navigated to the portal from the Azure Marketplace. It is unclear if this portal publishes an application to both the Azure Marketplace and Store or just one of those sites.

A wizard walks the user through the process of entering the optional and required information to publish their product.

Before their product is published through this portal, a user must create a new seller profile. This profile must be submitted for approval. This is not a required step on the old publishing portal.

Required information must be entered before an application’s registration is reviewed. The required information for this portal is not the same as for old portal. Once approved, it is published to the Azure Marketplace.

Azure Store Publishing Experience Flow

Once on the new publishing portal, the user is guided through the same process described in the previous slide.

The management portal lets users manage their services and applications as well as purchase new ones, but has no information about publishing an application or links to the publishing portal. There is also no link to the usage and billing portal.

The usage and billing portal lets users manage their financial information and subscriptions, but has no information about publishing an application or links to the publishing portal. The “Portal” button links to the management portal.

This publishing guide on GitHub walks the user through the publishing process and also provides a link to the new publishing portal. No mention is made of the old publishing portal. It is also unclear how GitHub is related to either Microsoft or the Azure Store.

Ultimately, it proves impossible to publish an application on the Azure Store through the user’s Azure Store account.

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There is a link to information about publishing an application on the Azure Store, but it is displayed well below the fold, which makes it difficult to find.

This page contains general information about the value of publishing on the Azure Store and some basic information about the process. There are no links to start the publishing process. The only way to proceed is to go to the FAQ linked to in the final tab of information. This is the only way to reach this FAQ as it is not included in the universal navigation. Additionally, the “Request Information” call-to-action button should link to a prepopulated email addressed to the Azure Store Partner Partners, but it is broken.

There is a “Publishing Portal” link in the information for the question “What is the Publishing Portal”. However, it links to information about the publishing portal on Github, not the publishing portal itself.

There is no clear indication of where to start the process of publishing an application on the Azure Store. The two most likely options are the “My Account” and “Add-ons”.pages.

The user is brought to a login screen for Windows Azure and signs in with the Windows Live ID.

The user is brought to a login screen for Windows Azure and signs in with the Windows Live ID. Their account email address is auto-filled.

The user must specify whether this is an organizational or personal account. This distinction is made no where else on the Azure sites.The user is prompted to enter their

account email address to proceed.

The user can either login to the management portal or the usage and billing portal. There is no indication if either will allow the user to publish an application.

Pinpoint Publishing Experience Flow Part 1

There is nothing that mentions publishing on the Pinpoint homepage in either the content or site navigation. The best option to find publishing information is the “Partner Center” link in the top navigation.

The Partner Center has marketing information about listing through Pinpoint. The “Get Listed” link starts the publishing process.

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To list on Pinpoint, users must be a member of the Microsoft Partner Network, and there is a link to join the MPN. Join the MPN is not a requirement to publish on any of the other Azure sites.

Joining the MPN involves three steps, and the site guides the user through the process. The first step for the user to login using their Windows Live ID.

Despite the previous page telling the user they need to use their Windows Live ID, there are four login options: Windows Live ID, Microsoft Corporate Domain account, Microsoft Partner Domain account, or a Federation Organization account. If the user chooses the Windows Live ID option, they are not asked for their login credentials and automatically logged in as a guest.

The next step is for the user to enter information about themselves and their business.

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The user must enter account manager profile information.

The user must enter information about their business.

The user must accept the MPN legal agreement. This is actually the third step in the overall process, but it is included in the same wizard used to complete the second step.

The user has completed the sign up process for the MPN, but next steps are unclear. There is no link back to Pinpoint or to the next step in the publishing process.

Navigating back to the “Get Listed” page on the Pinpoint site, the user clicks on the “Step 2: Get Listed” link.

The user is instructed to sign in to the Pinpoint dashboard and given some basic information about the features of the dashboard.

There is a first time Pinpoint new user sign up registration form that asks for basic information about the user and their business.

On the dashboard, the only available option is to edit the information that the user just entered. It is only back on the “Get Listed” page that it mentions that it will take roughly three days for the MPN data to migrate to the user’s Pinpoint account. Until that time, publishing an application or service is not possible.

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Until data is migrated from the MPN to Pinpoint by Microsoft, a user cannot publish an application or service.

Pinpoint Publishing Experience Flow Part 2

The directions for this step are disjointed because of the large amount of white space separating the directions from each product detail field.

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This is the only time during the publishing process that informs the user that their application will be reviewed by the desired marketplace’s managing business group for applicability before it is published.

There is only one option available to users for both of these steps. The other options are unavailable until the user creates a new business located in a different region or that supports a different language.

The user must choose the language for their application or service.

The user must choose the region where their application or service is offered.

The user chooses the marketplace that they want their offering published and details what industries, business needs, and Microsoft applications their product or service relates to.

Once the user’s Pinpoint account syncs with the MPN account, they can publish an application or service to the marketplace through the Pinpoint dashboard.

On the Pinpoint dashboard, the user can choose to create a new business or list an application or service on the marketplace.

Clicking on the “New” button in the “Apps + Services” tab will start the publishing process.

Despite reporting that 20 words or 200 characters are required for the application or professional service description, the user cannot advance until the description is at least 200 characters long regardless of the word count.

The user enters details about their application and service. Only the application or service name, description, and price are required.

The majority of product information is not required. The minimum level of product detail required by the publishing process is not sufficient for a user to evaluate an application or service.

The user is brought back to the dashboard where their application for publishing is listed as “Pending Approval”.

The user can publish their application or service to one additional marketplace in addition to publishing it on Pinpoint. The four additional marketplaces are Microsoft Dynamics Marketplace, Microsoft Office 365 Marketplace, Microsoft System Center Marketplace, and Microsoft Windows Server Marketplace. This is the only way to publish applications or services to these marketplaces.

AWS Marketplace Publishing Experience Flow Part 1

The user starts the publishing process by clicking on the “Sell on AWS Marketplace” link in the top right corner of the AWS Marketplace.

A confirmation email is also sent to the email address the user provided during the registration process that details the next steps in the publishing process.

The user is brought to an informational page about selling on the AWS Marketplace. There are links to more detailed information about the publishing process as well as a link to start the publishing process by completing the seller registration form.

The user must provide detailed information about their business and product. Financial details are requested but not required.

The user reviews the information they entered, changing it as necessary, and submits their registration.

A confirmation screen confirms that the user has submitted their seller registration and details the next steps in the process. There are links to more detailed information about selling on the AWS Marketplace.

This set of pages provides information about publishing on the AWS Marketplace and the how the publishing process works.

Note: Amazon has not approved my fake product application so I do not have access to the rest of the publishing process at this time.

• Support phone number• Support website• Production support

information: name, email, and phone number

• Business contact: name, email, and phone number.

• Description• Offering logo• Short description• Categories• Sample Images• Price• Eula• Connection string• Tables/views

• Image Name• URL of the VHD file to

publish • Regions • Platform

Product Information Required for Publishing Marketplace Comparison

• Privacy policy link• Terms of use• Description of service

plan• Logo• Product description• Support URL• Integration contact

name, phone number, and email

• Pricing• Fulfillment service

provider

• Language• Region• Listing type• Related business need(s)• Microsoft “Works With”

products and technology• Related industries• Listing description• Price

• Product description• Product highlights• Pricing information• Support information• Product resources• Usage instructions• Refund policy• End-user license

agreement

Old Publishing Portal New Publishing Portal

Note: Amazon has not approved my fake product application so I do not have access to the rest of the publishing process at this time to get the exact information required by the publishing process.

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• There are four separate processes for publishing applications to the Microsoft marketplaces.

• The required information to publish an application is inconsistent between each of the publishing processes.

• The Windows Azure Marketplace links to the outdated version of the publishing portal instead of the new version.

• It is almost impossible to find the publishing portal on the Windows Azure Store.

• Pinpoint makes news users to wait up to three days for their Microsoft Partner Network account to sync with their Pinpoint account before they can publish an application or service. The AWS Marketplace also forces new users to wait up to two days, but this is to review the seller registration form to ensure the organization’s credibility.

Key findings:

VM Depot Product Information Presentation

• Image Name• URL of the VHD file to publish • Regions • Platform

• Image Name• URL of the VHD file to publish • Regions • Platform

The VM Depot requires very little information about a product be provided during the publishing process. This makes it possible for products to be published without a description and other information a user would need to evaluate a product.

Even if all of a publisher fills out all the optional product details during the publication process, the VM Depot presents insufficient information in the product listing and detail page for users to effectively evaluate products.

Minimal information inhibits product evaluation

MininetonUbuntu is an example of an application published and available on the VM Depot that has neither a logo or a product description.

Items displayed in red are not present on the page

• Support phone number• Support website• Production support information:

name, email, and phone number



Azure Marketplace Old Publishing Portal Product Information Presentation

The old publishing portal for the Azure Marketplace requires a robust amount of product details in order for an application to be published. Very little of this detail is used in the product’s listing on the search results page and only slightly more is included on the product’s detail page. The product information that is made available to the user is poorly presented and formatted, which undermines its effectiveness.

For example, only the support website is made available on the product detail page despite the publishing process requiring the publisher to provide more detailed support information.

Product information not presented effectively

• Support phone number• Support website• Production support information:

name, email, and phone number




• Privacy policy link• Terms of use• Description of service plan• Logo• Product description• Support URL• Integration contact name,

phone number, and email• Pricing• Fulfillment service provider

Azure Marketplace New Publishing Portal Product Information Presentation

The new publishing portal does not require the publisher to choose industry categories related to their product. This is information is used by the Azure Marketplace to filter search results. Of the four available filtering options, category is the most useful for users to narrow search results to applications relevant to their needs. By not requiring this information, the new publishing portal reduces the effectiveness of the Azure Marketplace’s filtering options.

Required product information does not support site information architecture




Azure Store New Publishing Portal Product Information Presentation





Products listing on the Azure Store’s search results page does not provide any product information and only displays the product’s name and logo. The product information on the product detail page is minimal. This lack of information makes it very difficult to evaluate a product’s usefulness and applicability to their needs.

The sprawling layout of detail pages on the Azure Store make it very difficult for users to quickly scan the page to find key product information.

Minimal information inhibits product evaluation


Pinpoint Product Information Presentation

Pinpoint has the best presentation of product information of all of the Microsoft marketplaces. However, very little product information is required during the publishing process. Key product information that is not required includes support information, set up and deployment information, and version number. This inhibits the standardization of product detail pages across the Pinpoint Marketplace.

Each application is reviewed for quality prior to publication to Pinpoint. Many low-quality applications can be improved by requiring more detailed product information be included in each application.

Required product information does not guarantee quality of presentation





“Respond – Citizen Services Platform” includes all the information required by the publishing application, but is much less robust than other product detail pages. It provides minimal product documentation, support information, no company logo, and no images of the product.


Pinpoint Product Information Presentation

The AWS Marketplace presents the most important product information in abbreviated form on the product listing page. Rich, detailed information is

Appropriate level of detail for each stage of evaluation

• Product description• Product highlights• Pricing information• Support information• Product resources• Usage instructions• Refund policy• End-user license agreement

• Product description• Product highlights• Pricing information• Support information• Product resources• Usage instructions• Refund policy• End-user license agreement


Note: Amazon has not approved my fake product application so I do not have access to the rest of the publishing process at this time.

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• The Microsoft Marketplaces do not present detailed product information in their product listings that lets users effectively evaluate products from the search results page.

• Information in the product detail page on the AWS Marketplace builds on the information provided in the product listing on the search results page.

• The level of detailed product information fluctuates across product detail pages within the Azure Marketplace, VM Depot, and Pinpoint Marketplace.

• Information about the technical requirements of a product is not required for any of the Microsoft Marketplaces except the VM Depot. Support information is not required for the VM Depot.

• Key product information is captured poorly during the publishing process on the Microsoft sites, which later inhibits user evaluation of products on the marketplaces.

Key findings:

vm depot publishing experience flow -...

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