Welcome to our new series of weekly product department updates.

Frontend developer Jerry Shikongo has been hard at work these week on UX/UI for…. Sylo Beta for desktop!

In the name of keeping you informed about all the cool things we have going on here at Sylo H.Q., this will be the first in a weekly series of product updates.

Make sure to subscribe to our Medium channel to catch our next one!

Here in mid-Q2, the team’s most evident priority is the continual testing, design and development of Sylo Beta.

Our UX/UI designers Alice and Greta are going through rigorous usability testing, then feeding on their findings to be addressed by the team.

(By the way — if usability testing is your thing, keep an eye out for a piece we have coming on the blog next week that will detail the process being employed for this task.)

Right now at Sylo, testing is the name of the game according to our Co-Founder and Product Director, Ben.

“Our focus at the moment is user testing, user testing, user testing,” said Sylo Product Director Ben Jordan.

“Thanks so much to everyone we have met and chatted to. We are looking forward to rolling out our next round of changes!”

“We are also making fast progress on Sylo in the browser. Soon you’ll be able to spin up a secure browser session by scanning a QR-Code with your mobile app.”

That’s right, the cat is out of the bag — Sylo Beta is coming to desktop.

Sylo PureScript developer Paul Freeman.

The creation of our desktop edition has been a real collaboration across departments here at Sylo, beginning with the work of PureScript developer Paul Freeman.

“The application emerged out of a need for the backend development team to have a method for rapidly testing changes to the code,” said Paul.

“I requested three days to develop a simple chat application on top of the Sylo protocol that we could run in the browser. At the end of the third day, and with a little help from the rest of the backend team, we demonstrated the first working version of the new browser version of Sylo at our Friday in-house workshop.”

“Since then, we have expanded the application to include nearly all the features included in the mobile application. It’s really exciting getting to see a project I am very passionate about becoming a valuable asset for Sylo.”

Jerry, deep in thought about frontend development.

Sylo Beta for browser is now being worked on in the backend by Paul, and in the frontend by developer Jerry Shikongo.

“This week I added several group creation features and improved the handling of invitations,” said Paul. “I’ve been working in parallel to Jerry — developing the features he needs, so they are ready for him to bring into the Sylo browser app when the UI is completed.”

Jerry’s focus this week has been on UI/UX for images and group creation, and allowing users to send and receive the “all-too-vital images and gifs within conversations.”

Effort has also been on polishing the user experience around creating groups and group member management.

“The Sylo browser version is going to extend the Sylo experience to web for our users who spend more time on desktop than mobile, as we at Sylo do,” said Jerry.

“It’s a great option for users who want to have easy access while in ‘work mode’ anywhere, or who just want more screen real-estate; it makes keeping in contact a breeze.”

Next up, we can’t wait to share with you just how we’ve made the new Sylo for browser a fluid experience for users, but to learn that you’ll have to tune in next week!

—

In the meantime, stay in touch with us on Twitter or Facebook, or learn more about about the Sylo mission here.