Review of Jooners.com

Jooners.com

App Description:

This is not an app per say. It is a website, and according to that website, “Any time you are organizing a group or planning an activity, consider using Jooners! 

On Jooners online sign up sheets you can list jobs, items and time slots for activities. Participants see what is available and what is taken and with a simple click can sign up for the slots that they want. Once signed up, participants are automatically reminded of their commitment and Jooners even creates personalized Thank You Notes on behalf of the event organizer.
Jooners online sign-up sheets help you and your participants get on the same page without a going through hundreds of back and forth emails.”

Price:

There is a basic membership option that is free and a premium membership, which is $5.95 per month. The main difference between the basic and premium memberships is that free users can only create five signups, signups cannot be downloaded to a program such as excel, your email will not notified when someone signups up, volunteers cannot change their commitment, and the users can see who signed up for what. I ultimately decided to go with a premium membership because I felt as though the $6.00 per month was worth the extra features.

Website Component:

There is only a website, but advertises that an app is coming soon.

Screenshots:

Every Field is customizable.

*This is the signup sheet from our Easter party as it would appear to a parent. As you can see, with the premium membership, everything is private.

My Impression of What Parents Think:

The first time I used this website was to help plan our Easter party. I sent the link out on a Wednesday, and the party was completely planned in two days. However, I got a lot of feedback saying that the website had glitches. And I mean a lot of glitches.

Pros:

• The biggest pro is the convenience factor. Before I found this kind of website, organizing class parties and parent-teacher was a nightmare. I would have to send out a list requesting items. Parents would send them back in. Then I would have to make the decision of who got which items. It would make for some very angry mamas because there is really no fair way to decide.
• The website is user friendly and reminds me of creating a spreadsheet in Excel. Every field is customizable.
• You have the option of signing up people on the administrator’s page.
• It can be password protected.
• The support team on Facebook is very quick to respond to questions and help fix any bugs if they can.

Cons:

• This website is incredibly glitchy. I never had problems in the actual creating a signup sheet. However, I got a lot of emails from parents saying that no matter how many times they tried or computer they used, the sign up sheet would not load. It doesn’t matter how easy it is to create a sheet if no one can open it. I had similar problems on my own computer.
• There is no database for parents to search for the signup sheets, meaning you must email or use QR codes to get the word out. This was a problem for the parents that didn't have email.

Overall Impression:

Overall, I love the idea of this website. I initially used it to plan a class party when I was out sick. I realized that the party was only a week away, I was out with the flu, and I needed to get the party planned. Since I wasn’t physically at school, I wasn’t able to send out the notes I usually do. So I emailed out the signup sheet. Some parents were able to sign up no problem, the rest emailed me saying the website wouldn’t load so I had to manually sign them up myself. It is very user friendly and I love that is so much like Excel. However, it doesn’t matter how user friendly the website is, if it does not work the way it was intended. Ultimately, I abandoned this website in favor of another that is very similar in purpose. It was disappointing this one didn’t work as it was more user friendly than the website I switched over to. Maybe the website will work itself out with time.