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Show HN: myStorify.com - storify your photos

mystorify.com

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Re: Show HN: myStorify.com - storify your photos

#31

Post by blackdanube »

supo wrote: post #18
blackdanube wrote: post #16

Looks pretty great so far, and I really like the pages you're creating. Just a handful of things: 1. I don't like logging in with my Google Account. I can see that you're using my Google pictures so you're going to need that. I don't like it anyway. 2. I completely don't understand the graph at the left hand side of your pages. Perhaps it's number of photos (but then that info appears twice, right?). Or is it text wr…

Wow terrific feedback, definitely appreciated! 1) Login with Google is just a way to make it simpler for us for an MVP (and as you note we need the photos as we don't have a direct photo upload in this product just yet). 2) The graph is a reflection of intensity of the story (basically the more photos you take, the more interesting stuff is going on around you) and it gives you a time context for how things went. We…

2) I see, but that still means that the data is shown twice, doesn't it? Once in the little bar-graphy-thingy to the right and once in the name placement.

3) Both structural and cosmetic would be nice. I know that at the moment the graph is for navigation only, but why not make it another tool to tell an aspect of my story? Don't worry about it at the moment, that's something for the roadmap.

4) Wow, yeah, that is confusing. Why don't you start out with an empty map widget (without the location marker) or just a link that says "add a location" or something of that sort.

5) Yes, it is, and that's why it's important to let the user enter them. That you add them automatically is nice, but not always perfect, as you can see on one of your demos, http://mystorify.com/a/BjYb08qE. The first and the last fields are obviously not what you'd want there. Also, again the question, why not allow it as a tool to complement my story?

6) Exactly. =) Start out with a good automatic timeline, but let me edit it anyway. What if I have highly inhomogenous events? Perhaps, I don't know, two vacations to the same place. That would probably show up as a month or even a year display, but a gapped timeline would be better in that case.

Re: Show HN: myStorify.com - storify your photos

#32

Post by blackdanube »

supo wrote: post #4
rshlo wrote: post #2

Looks great, but just a quick one: don't charge $5 for premium product, it just doesn't like premium. Either give all features for free for launch period or charge more.

Hi, thanks for the feedback. In fact, the free account has all the features of premium, except the possibility to directly upload photos which we haven't implemented yet. Just trying the waters here with a concept that we wanted to get out ASAP, to see what people think of this kind of story visualization :-) We definitely need to spend more time with the pricing.

There are also other things you could monetize that would make it easier for people to open their wallets.

Customization is probably a good thing, i.e. the subdomain and own-domain thing.

Physical stuff is always good, so I'd love to pay for an automatically created photobook/photobook-ready-PDF (I hate to do them in the crummy software supplied by the printer). Or, go one step further even and allow direct upload to Lulu. Basically a Make-your-own-coffee-table-book.

In any case, you might want to think about specifically targeting power users from the start, instead of going for the freemium market.

Re: Show HN: myStorify.com - storify your photos

#33

Post by lohnicky »

bhntr3 wrote: post #30

This is not "storifying" because the output is not a story. It's metadata and visualization attached to an album. I make the distinction because story is important. I'd suggest reading http://www.amazon.com/Wired-Story-Writers-Science-Sentence/d... if you haven't already. A storified album will only be a story if the user curates the album that way. There is a kernel of story in the demo but there will not be in ever…

Thanks for the insight. You are right that our primary target right now is traveling, because it is the best place to start. It is the easiest use case for which we can automate the process (based on photo metadata).

According to our study about sharing memories between FRIENDS and archiving memories, it comes up that the important parts of the story are who attended the events, what happened a what were the most important events and other related stuff (where, weather etc).

We tried to visualize what happened and the importance of the events (if you take a lot of pictures in a short time it is sure that it there was something interesting) in the chart to create the visual aid not textual to better understand the story. Yes I agree it is not enough clear what the chart is, we have to make definitely some improvements here.

WHY and other story related stuff are a bit tricky for us. We have to consider the usability point of view, how much time the user wants to spend in the creation process. Is it 5, 10, 40min? Other point of view is the target audience. Is it me, the author, to recall the memories? Is it my friends to share the story? Is it a public "blog" for all the people I don't know? You friends already know a lot information so you can trade for simplicity. We tried to solve the WHY issue with the description field to the event, but you are right that it should lead the user to input the information in a way that he creates the "real" story.

Thanks for the book tip, I'll definitely read it.

Re: Show HN: myStorify.com - storify your photos

#34

Post by lohnicky »

blackdanube wrote: post #32
supo wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hi, thanks for the feedback. In fact, the free account has all the features of premium, except the possibility to directly upload photos which we haven't implemented yet. Just trying the waters here with a concept that we wanted to get out ASAP, to see what people think of this kind of story visualization :-) We definitely need to spend more time with the pricing.

There are also other things you could monetize that would make it easier for people to open their wallets. Customization is probably a good thing, i.e. the subdomain and own-domain thing. Physical stuff is always good, so I'd love to pay for an automatically created photobook/photobook-ready-PDF (I hate to do them in the crummy software supplied by the printer). Or, go one step further even and allow direct upload to…

Thanks for the idea. Yes we have it on the road-map with our poster app http://47posters.com . Our problem now is that we have more products that we want to integrate, but now we have to focus on one. And also we have to make clear who to target. More users here suggested to target more focused audience with premium account (backpackers etc).

Re: Show HN: myStorify.com - storify your photos

#35

Post by lohnicky »

weisser wrote: post #29

First off, I think we need a more interesting way of compiling photos-especially focusing on trips-so this is a very interesting idea. Two things: 1. I feel like collaborative album creation is one of the most compelling features you offer yet it is premium only. Would all collaborators need premium accounts or just the one setting up the shared album? Regardless, this is a very important feature which allows people…

Yes, that is exactly our point with the collaborative album creation.

1. The issue is related to the way how the photos come to us. If it is via free account where we don't allow direct upload to our app, it gets a bit complicated with the collaboration. So our current intention is to allow collaboration only for premium accounts. However, we have to think a bit more about the prices and the target audience. We welcome new ides.

2. Yes, we get it.

Re: Show HN: myStorify.com - storify your photos

#36

Post by whyhellothere »

supo wrote: post #20
whyhellothere wrote: post #17

I was really impressed by your app. I have travelled a lot in the past and this would have been great for keeping people up to date (especially facebookless elderly relatives). With this in mind, I think you should do away with the free option and up your premium price. Edit: younger backpackers go travelling for long periods of time, their parents would think nothing of shelling out $5 /month to be kept in the loop!

Thanks :) Do you think that a free 1 month trial + only premium afterwards would work better in this case than a freemium model? We figured that there could be a large segment of casual day-trip travelers who like to share a story in a more optimized interface than on facebook. Probably many of these will not pay, but could serve for spreading the word through the freemium model and make the marketing easier.

I don't claim any specialist knowledge re:pricing (so bare that in mind while weighing up my response).

I'm not sure about the 1 month trial thing (I think your demo is strong enough that people will understand what your apps about). I get that you want people using it, then when they can't live without hit them up for some money, but you may be cutting your market in half as i'm sure there are a lot of people who travel for 2 weeks who would use your app for that period of time.

As for day-trippers, won't they just use facebook or flickr? I thought your app was better for proper journeys as you can include elements other than photos (google maps etc).

One last thought: My older relatives always used to make physical scrap books of their travels (with photos / tickets / maps etc) in them. A possible extra/alternative source of income could be to sell the physical version of their online "story" (again not necessarily for them to keep, but to give to other relatives)

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