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Similar: http://robohash.org/ and http://gravatar.com/ (using the identicon feature)
I prefer robohash by far.
While they're pretty cool looking, the cartoon-y feel doesn't necessarily work with every site design.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Aren't you competing with Gravatar, which is free and fairly popular?
yes. but i'm only planning to charge what is needed to cover the costs. if those are reasonable then i think some people would be willing to pay for something a bit more attractive. if not, well, at least i tried. (i'm not adverse to making money from this, if it becomes wildly popular, but it's not my main motivation. i did the ground work years ago and then posted a link to my notes in the thread on the robots appr…
I thought I'd let you know that you have "DEBUG = True in your Django settings file"[1], which reveals your various routes. This might be unintentional.
Some ideas:
Landing page:
- Add at least a quick blurb / product explanation to give first-time-visitors a quick, visual idea of what the product is (maybe even an alice/bob style demo conversation).
- Have more descriptive action choices "ready? start now for free" and "Learn more" instead of just "about/configure". About pages are somewhat ambiguous and can sometimes just be about the company / the people behind it instead of the product explanation, you're basically giving first time users nothing and hoping curiosity prevents them from bouncing. I'd say give them at least a bit of a hook to get them to venture further.
About page:
- Enlarge and really highlight the alice/bob chat box -- this is the main function and selling point of your app and is the first/only time it's visible, and it's kind of tiny.
- Cleanup the available styles example a bit -- it seems like you're showing every possible style available which when placed all together next to each other looks downright busy. I would pick maybe 3 or 4 icons that showcase the important variations available (size, cell-margin, color variation, etc.) and showcase only those, maybe with alice/bob style examples to show what they would look like in the flow of a conversation versus directly next to each other.
Configure page:
- Change the phrase "New users receive a free credit to evaluate the site" to something like "Try the service out for free" or "Evaluate the service for free" Explaining the whole credit thing on the sign-up page is way too much for someone just looking to test the waters in my opinion.
- Simplify or better organize the small print section, maybe separate out into sub-sections: explanation of how billing works, what you can expect from particl as a service, etc. At this stage in the signup process, you haven't necessarily sold the customer yet, don't lose them with scary large blocks of confusing text, especially if it's unnecessary. I'd either make it digestible or move it to a more appropriate section of the site and link to it.
General ideas for the business model -- I frankly don't see people footing a monthly bill for -just- visually attractive default user icons. I think for this to work, you have to add something else into the mix, here's what I've thought of:
- Solve the color-blind / accessibility issue and highlight that feature
- Offer a turnkey service for site owners to drop in to their own server, maybe even a complete commenting solution if possible.
- Offer a hosted complete commenting solution similar to disqus but with a premium and minimalist design.
- Offer tiers of service based on number of registered users, so sites start out with your service because it's free, and stick with it because it works, it's already in place, has good design, and is affordable.
- This is a bit hokie, but maybe offer a way to hash something more meaningful than a username, like say have a "personality quiz" that generates a badge for you based on your answers to questions.
- Have the user icons form a photo mosaic of something - maybe the site's logo?. I realize this would be difficult due to the simplistic color palette most logos have, but you might be able to come up with something for this.
- Sell directly to the avatar-holder. I think there is a bit of cognitive dissonance between people who won't upload a photo to their account where they feel obligated to the community to put something there and want to customize their online persona, but don't want to reveal their identity to the internet. I think you could capitalize on this by offering a way for people to assuage their "guilt" over not contributing by maybe offering a service where you could donate to a cause, and in exchange get an exclusive avatar that has to do with the cause they've contributed. This would let people 1) feel less guilty about not "joining" in on the community 2) make their online interactions more personalized safely 3) spread awareness for a cause they care about 4) give those who care about it a little badge of honor. Maybe combine this idea with the mosaic idea and let people have a "piece" of whatever image represents whatever charity.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
oh, that's a very good point. thanks. first thought is that relying less on variations in hue and using more variations in intensity would help. hmmm. going to experiment. thanks again.
You might have meant this by "intensity", but you're going to want to vary lightness, not saturation. They should be distinguishable in grayscale.
For everyone else: there's a color model that is occasionally used in computer vision called Hue Saturation Intensity, which pretty much describes the theory of color that andrewcooke and bornon5 are talking about.
I'm not colorblind, but the color pattern looks very similar to all "If you're colorblind, you can't see the difference" images out there.. Of course, I could be wrong, but if I were you, I'd have a colorblind person test this.
oh, that's a very good point. thanks. first thought is that relying less on variations in hue and using more variations in intensity would help. hmmm. going to experiment. thanks again.
There are different types of colorblindness. The worst being the one where you are totally unable to discern colors. Hue and Value alone won't solve the problem.
For example, at first I didn't see the difference between "Alice" and "Bob" on your about page. I had to look closely to see it. And I'm only mildly color-blind.
Well, I don't see how this can be useful. Human brains are terrible in remembering faces, but not in remembering colors. Actually, comparing the icons (to find out if they are the same or not) is quite hard. Have you tried it?
it's not intended to replace photographs. in fact, one thing i would hope to do in the future is allow people to upload photographs. instead, it's meant to replace the auto-generated images that already exist that use IP addresses (like on stack-overflow, for example). those are really ugly; mine are much nicer (and more flexible). while i was developing this approach i tried lots of ideas. it's actually quite hard t…
This is a matter of personal preference. The more people you ask, the more opinions you will get. I could chip in mine, but that would serve no purpose.
You could see statements like these as a form of libel/defamation. While the statements are not necessarily false, they may cast a negative light on whomever is generating these images (in this case, gravatar.com).
I would try to avoid these statements, and simply go ahead with your project. And let the people decide for themselves which one they prefer.
If you make such a service, I think you should put some research into what kind of thing the brain is good at recognizing. For example I think brains are almost hardwired for facial recognition (it is sort of a miracle that we can tell people apart so easily - try it with people of other ethnicity to get a feel for the problem). Not so much for abstract art I suspect.