I really like the design, and the idea is nice. One suggestion I have is making some way to add books from your My Shelf page. I didn't see a way easily, and ended up just going to the browse page. I'm assuming that's probably the flow you want, but you may want to have a plus button or something on the shelf UI that links to the browse page for books.
Ask HN:Review My Updated Side Project - ShelfLuv.com (250 invite codes)
11–20 of 37 posts
Re: Ask HN:Review My Updated Side Project - ShelfLuv.com (250 invite codes)
#12Earlier quoted context omitted.
I have. This is the MVP. Down the line, I imagine people should be able to login using Facebook, Twitter, OpenID, Yahoo, Hotmail, AOL or heaven forbid email.
Non-facebook login seconded. I'd give it a go if it weren't for that.
Can people tell me the order of preference? What alternative is most attractive after that.
Re: Ask HN:Review My Updated Side Project - ShelfLuv.com (250 invite codes)
#13You might also try adjusting the number of books that load at one time from 10 to 12 or something divisible by 4 so that you load complete shelves and don't have half a shelf loaded.
Re: Ask HN:Review My Updated Side Project - ShelfLuv.com (250 invite codes)
#14I like the design and idea. One thing you might think about is letting people put their own amazon referral id (for a cost or something). I recently asked Hacker Newsletter subscribers what books they were reading and had a great response, so I created a page to display the results (http://www.kaledavis.com/2011/03/25/hnl-book-list-vol1.html). Amazon astore's are just not what I was looking for, but something like this would work pretty well.
Re: Ask HN:Review My Updated Side Project - ShelfLuv.com (250 invite codes)
#15I like the layout - the landing page looks pretty good. A few suggestions:
- While I like the script font in your logo, I think it's a little too hard to read. The letterforms of the "u" and "v" are very similar and could use some slight modification to differentiate them. The kerning is also off - the letters are suppost to connect, but the tracking is too wide.
- I think there's too much movement on the home page. There are three sections that animate (the slideshow, press, and recent activity). All that movement distracts from your call to action. Think about what you want a new visitor to focus on when they first see the page. (This is admittedly not as much of a problem for people with smaller monitors, but I can see below the fold)
- Why not make your search bar in the header wider? Longer titles are cut off.
- I'd shorten your overview sentence ("Share what you read with your friends and discover new books?") and maybe set it in a different color or font to help it stand out. I think this is a very important sentence.
Overall it looks great! Good luck!
Re: Ask HN:Review My Updated Side Project - ShelfLuv.com (250 invite codes)
#16Re: Ask HN:Review My Updated Side Project - ShelfLuv.com (250 invite codes)
#17Do you intent to make money of it? If so, how do you plan to do that?
Re: Ask HN:Review My Updated Side Project - ShelfLuv.com (250 invite codes)
#18Earlier quoted context omitted.
Non-facebook login seconded. I'd give it a go if it weren't for that.
Can people tell me the order of preference? What alternative is most attractive after that.
I'd ignore this feedback for now. I'm not saying that these people aren't important, just that you sound like you're solo like me. Stay focused on your product. These folks will eventually come in from the wild once the product is good enough and they realize that you're using fbconnect like they use the power company.
Re: Ask HN:Review My Updated Side Project - ShelfLuv.com (250 invite codes)
#19No one has mentioned it yet, but I think the name is brilliant. Clever and memorable.
You might want to get shelflove.com if your site becomes successful, as I imagine lots of typos and word-of-mouth traffic will mistakenly end up there.
Re: Ask HN:Review My Updated Side Project - ShelfLuv.com (250 invite codes)
#20No one has mentioned it yet, but I think the name is brilliant. Clever and memorable. You might want to get shelflove.com if your site becomes successful, as I imagine lots of typos and word-of-mouth traffic will mistakenly end up there.
I will try to get that if I can afford it