Ask HN: Can I help you be more awesome today? (No strings.) • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: Can I help you be more awesome today? (No strings.)

#81

Post by gmichnikov » Fri, Oct 14, 2011, 6:17 PM UTC

philjackson wrote: post #33

akmiller wrote: post #26

We just recently launched our first application at http://teamloopapp.com . It's intended audience is to help manage the communication of any type of sports teams. I'm most interested in feedback on the homepage and if it explains enough of what we do and the signup process through creating your first team. Any thoughts would be appreciated greatly!

I might be able to offer some criticism, if I may: * The screenshot on the right is possibly pointless as it doesn't actually show me anything (it's too small and texty). * The blurbs are good; I get a good picture of what the app is about. Though I would scale up in size everything in the blue stripe. * I would try to cut down the amount of text in the feature boxes.

As someone casually considering signing up for the free version, I would be interested in seeing a screenshot or two of what using the app looks like for the coach and for individual users.

Also, you just got feedback on a sports team management app for coaches from Phil Jackson!

Re: Ask HN: Can I help you be more awesome today? (No strings.)

#82

Post by bprater » Fri, Oct 14, 2011, 6:19 PM UTC

brockf wrote: post #23

I'd love if you could try a quick install of http://www.heroframework.com (open source) and tell us (a) how did the install go and (b) do you know what to do next to build your website with the product? :)

Cool framework. I have a project coming up next week that it might work well for -- I was going to go Wordpress, but I really do like the idea of using a CodeIgnitor-based system.

BTW, here's my bit of helpful -- I noticed this page wasn't rendering quite right: http://www.heroframework.com/user_guide/developers/reference...

Re: Ask HN: Can I help you be more awesome today? (No strings.)

#83

Post by jholman » Fri, Oct 14, 2011, 6:34 PM UTC

pfui wrote: post #43

Do you think there's still a market for feed readers? I've built one (not public yet) with two somewhat distinct features: 1. you get a river of news with the ability to perform complex search queries against your feeds; and 2. it provides relevance sorting of articles based on your reading history. I've found that search, when accompanied by tagging, provides a reasonable alternative to the folder-based feed managem…

If _money_ is the issue, http://aws.amazon.com/free/ could get you started without spending money on hosting or bandwidth.

But the difference between free and $20/month for a linode should be dwarfed by the other costs, namely your time. But then again, time is only as expensive as your next best alternative usage: if you're learning enough by "wasting" time, it's probably a win!

Re: Ask HN: Can I help you be more awesome today? (No strings.)

#84

Post by stuartk » Fri, Oct 14, 2011, 6:35 PM UTC

mattgreenrocks wrote: post #40

stuartk wrote: post #8

Thanks Mike! Would you be able to give me some feedback on a product idea I'm working on? Its a platform for video tutorials where the student gives their response for a lesson via video also. The first use case that comes to mind is guitar teachers. Students can post video responses to lessons and be corrected/ advised. The teacher would pay for the platform and perhaps charge th students through the site, or even o…

I would use this...especially if you can get some talented teachers interested in it. Good UX and interaction features will be key to convince people to move past Youtube. Also, the idea reminds me a bit of guitarmasterclass, but that is more a repository of videos than a back-and-forth learning place.

Thanks for the comments Matt. Having at least one person say 'I would use this' is a nice boost!

I wasn't going to have it exclusively for guitar, but musical instrument lessons are an ideal fit for video feedback. I'm sure there are other niches too where video is the ideal medium for this.

I've had the domain lessonboss.com for a while, and I was going to use that for this.

Perhaps I could have the feedback videos viewable by all, and allow peer review/feedback. It would take the pressure off the teacher to feedback, especially in larger class sizes.

And I'm still undecided about the revenue model, whether to charge the teacher, students or both. Moving more towards free for teacher, charge the students, take a percentage. It would be difficult to have a free option due to the cost of hosting video.

Re: Ask HN: Can I help you be more awesome today? (No strings.)

#85

Post by mikegreenberg » Fri, Oct 14, 2011, 6:38 PM UTC

novitaOnCT2 wrote: post #22

Hi,thanks for your offer! Can you go to http://www.codemaps.org/e/Lucene and play around with the diagrams and explorations? Its the prototype for the system we are building to help open source developers explore the source code online. We'd love to hear your thoughts and feedback! :)

I can see this tool being very useful from a functional point of view. However, the UI is sluggish and there are some unexpected reactions that the SW makes to my interactions with it. I don't believe anything is wrong at this point because I'm certain there will be some training required to understand what the software is trying to relate to me. But from playing with it for 5-10 minutes, I feel that the learning curve is slightly steep, but not unexpected or unrealistic given the value this offers. (IMHO)

- Interactions like mouseover on objects (which, I assume, give an overview of the connections without activating it) creates a cluttered/confusing look. Maybe while showing this overview, you fade out all irrelevant objects and markup?

- Doubleclick on objects should indicate that it's thinking or doing something. There's no feedback to know I properly activated an object with my intended interaction.

- I'm not sure if it's my computer or the UI, but it's extremely sluggish. I'm not sure I'd be satisfied with this experience in a finished product. I know it's a prototype, but still want to mention this.

- I might not be the best test subject as I'm not a Java programmer.... or even much of a programmer for that matter. I know this is helpful for someone, but I don't understand how it can be helpful for me. This might be important to be aware of.

I hope some of these thoughts help. Overall, I get the impression it's cool. (I'm just not sure why.)

Re: Ask HN: Can I help you be more awesome today? (No strings.)

#86

Post by stuartk » Fri, Oct 14, 2011, 6:40 PM UTC

mikegreenberg wrote: post #31

stuartk wrote: post #8

Thanks Mike! Would you be able to give me some feedback on a product idea I'm working on? Its a platform for video tutorials where the student gives their response for a lesson via video also. The first use case that comes to mind is guitar teachers. Students can post video responses to lessons and be corrected/ advised. The teacher would pay for the platform and perhaps charge th students through the site, or even o…

I think it's a really good idea if you made it easy enough to record and reply. The majority of your value will be based around those specific interactions. (Video hosting is pretty much solved.) I would focus a lot of your effort on the UI/UX end of it. If you're green on UI/UX, read: http://designingfortheweb.co.uk/book/ . Alternatively, hire someone who rocks. Additionally, I'm not certain online music teachers wo…

Thanks Mike, that's helped me see where I need to focus my attention.

I was looking at direct webcam recording, but was going to add that later. But given your comments I think that is a must now, to enable quick and seamless video comments and feedback.

Regarding music teachers paying, I mentioned in the other thread to Matt that I may be thinking more towards making it free for teachers, charging students per course, and taking a percentage.

Re mockups, I am creating html mocks, but I'll look at the quick prototyping mockups so I can pitch to various music schools.

Thanks for the advice, you are a true gent!

Re: Ask HN: Can I help you be more awesome today? (No strings.)

#87

Post by jholman » Fri, Oct 14, 2011, 6:42 PM UTC

jreposa wrote: post #56

Is this easy to use? Your goal is to open a new savings account. http://www.mybanktracker.com/savings We just launched our new style of rate tables, but we need more testing. It would be great to have your opinion.

Clicked on link out of curiosity. Immediately lost interest upon discovering it's US-only.

Re: Ask HN: Can I help you be more awesome today? (No strings.)

#88

Post by novitaOnCT2 » Fri, Oct 14, 2011, 6:45 PM UTC

dougbarrett wrote: post #78

novitaOnCT2 wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think its not user-friendly. Its not really clear how it works. Maybe you can make it easier for people to browse latest discussions, etc. Also may be make it easier to post discussions and comments, since the point of the site is to connect and have community discussions.

The "apps" page was the homepage previously. I'll try to cut down on the faqs on the homepage, and try to make it more visual. What do you mean make it easier to post discussions and comments? Should I allow them to post comments, and on the next page have them sign-in/sign-up HN style?

When I see this page http://www.dcmntr.com/app-profile/dcmntr , it gave me the impression that the Discussions table is something like a forum, and people can comment. But i didn't see an editor box or something for people to post comments..

Re: Ask HN: Can I help you be more awesome today? (No strings.)

#89

Post by snikolic » Fri, Oct 14, 2011, 6:47 PM UTC

aberkowitz wrote: post #74

snikolic wrote: post #27

Mike, this is an awesome gesture. I just filled out your survey. If you have a few spare moments, I'd love UI feedback on http://flock.fm (no big deal if you're overwhelmed with requests and don't have time)

I have been using flock.fm for the past week, and I really like it. You should consider moving the search box from the "custom" stream tab to be prominently be featured on the homepage. Additionally, it should be more clear that tags are actually streams. As a feature request, it would be great if I could add songs to a queue, instead of having to listen to them immediately.

We'll build proper search functionality (and display it prominently) soon.

As for the tags/streams metaphors...it's good to know that this is the problem we've suspected it is. We have some ideas on how to fix it. Just need to make more hours in the day. :-)

I've heard the queue feature request a few times, and we're mocking up some ideas to scratch that itch.

Thanks for the feedback! Glad you're enjoying the site!

Re: Ask HN: Can I help you be more awesome today? (No strings.)

#90

Post by snikolic » Fri, Oct 14, 2011, 6:48 PM UTC

nasmorn wrote: post #28

ido wrote: post #6

Can you think of a way to improve my game's[1] interface, taking into account that it has to work on both mobile devices and PCs? Also, if you find any bugs I'd love to hear about it! [1] http://cardinalquest.com/free_edition/

The messages when you get items flash by much too quick.

Agreed.