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Rate my app: HootCourse

hootcourse.com

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Re: Rate my app: HootCourse

#11

Post by grogers »

muerdeme wrote: post #5
TheThomas wrote: post #2

The instructors using our tool have been very vocal, and we're absolutely thrilled about that. However, we haven't heard too much from our fellow hackers or our instructor's students. If you've got a minute or two to spare, please let us know what you think.

This looks interesting, but I'm thrilled to hear that you are actually talking to customers first. Listen to them. Nits: 1) I don't like that the 3 sellings points on the splash screen are aligned with 3 unrelated feature images. I was expecting each image to reflect each selling point and got a little confused. 2) The green hills footer bugs the crap out of me on the inner screens. Seeing text peak around a curved f…

The clouds at the top are annoying as well, but significantly less so than the hills.

Re: Rate my app: HootCourse

#12

Post by bdickason »

Seems like a great idea... I really don't want to click the Fbook/Twitter buttons for fear that they'll publish something. A small disclaimer below that said something simple like "(Note: We won't spam your News Feed)" or something along those lines would be great :)

Re: Rate my app: HootCourse

#13

Post by bdickason »

TheThomas wrote: post #6
muerdeme wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This looks interesting, but I'm thrilled to hear that you are actually talking to customers first. Listen to them. Nits: 1) I don't like that the 3 sellings points on the splash screen are aligned with 3 unrelated feature images. I was expecting each image to reflect each selling point and got a little confused. 2) The green hills footer bugs the crap out of me on the inner screens. Seeing text peak around a curved f…

Just out of curiosity, what resolution are you using? I just happen to be using my old laptop today and I could see how the hills could be more distracting than we had anticipated.

I didn't realize that I could scroll through the hills (using a macbook pro at 1440x900) and accidentally hit my scroll wheel.

Re: Rate my app: HootCourse

#14

Post by bdickason »

muerdeme wrote: post #5
TheThomas wrote: post #2

The instructors using our tool have been very vocal, and we're absolutely thrilled about that. However, we haven't heard too much from our fellow hackers or our instructor's students. If you've got a minute or two to spare, please let us know what you think.

This looks interesting, but I'm thrilled to hear that you are actually talking to customers first. Listen to them. Nits: 1) I don't like that the 3 sellings points on the splash screen are aligned with 3 unrelated feature images. I was expecting each image to reflect each selling point and got a little confused. 2) The green hills footer bugs the crap out of me on the inner screens. Seeing text peak around a curved f…

Also a quick point on #1 - the images caught my eye more than the text and the images/text seem to link to different places.

If you want to get all 6 of these points across, I'd suggest letting the text live alone where it is then placing the images in a 3 column layout down below and enlarging them.

Re: Rate my app: HootCourse

#15

Post by rriepe »

jluxenberg wrote: post #10

Impressive web page and neat idea. Would be nice if you included a live demo of a course. It would give me an idea of what else you provide besides the "Hoot!" sidebar.

Good idea. I'll try to think of a way to integrate something like that.

Re: Rate my app: HootCourse

#16

Post by rriepe »

bdickason wrote: post #12

Seems like a great idea... I really don't want to click the Fbook/Twitter buttons for fear that they'll publish something. A small disclaimer below that said something simple like "(Note: We won't spam your News Feed)" or something along those lines would be great :)

They won't. The app does work like a Twitter client when you're inside it though. Still some users missing that, so we're working on something to communicate the process better.

It's actually been interesting to see how hard the new wave of privacy concerns are hitting the apps. We didn't think we would need a privacy policy for a while; but our /privacy got 18 hits without anything existing there, and without it being linked to.

Re: Rate my app: HootCourse

#17

Post by rriepe »

cscotta wrote: post #7
rriepe wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks. As for HootSuite: not really. A couple of users have been confused so far, but that's it. We're using the owl because it's a bird (and we're using Twitter) and because of the associations with wisdom/learning.

You just described several conflicting areas and examples of user confusion. If you stick with this name, tread very carefully.

As far as we can tell, the only users who have been confused are ones who have followed HootSuite short URLs.

Re: Rate my app: HootCourse

#18

Post by tptacek »

rriepe wrote: post #17
cscotta wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You just described several conflicting areas and examples of user confusion. If you stick with this name, tread very carefully.

As far as we can tell, the only users who have been confused are ones who have followed HootSuite short URLs.

He's not pointing out something subjective; he's giving you a heads-up on what the lawyers are going to say to ensure that their case against you comes with a preliminary injunction.

Re: Rate my app: HootCourse

#19

Post by pedalpete »

jpdugan wrote: post #8
rriepe wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks. As for HootSuite: not really. A couple of users have been confused so far, but that's it. We're using the owl because it's a bird (and we're using Twitter) and because of the associations with wisdom/learning.

If you do have trademark problems with HootSuite, you could also consider using an elephant with a couple small birds on it. Elephants have a symbiotic relationship with a kind of bird that rides around on their backs and provides a valuable service (in this case, eating ticks--feel free to leave that part out!). I think this would serve as a good metaphor for using tweets to facilitate the long-term retention of inf…

and an elephant is old, wise and never forgets

Re: Rate my app: HootCourse

#20

Post by pjscott »

jluxenberg wrote: post #10

Impressive web page and neat idea. Would be nice if you included a live demo of a course. It would give me an idea of what else you provide besides the "Hoot!" sidebar.

Seconded. When I was reading the web site, the one thing I really wanted was to see what one of these courses looked like, so I could see at a glance if this really worked or if it was just good intentions and slick anti-aliased graphics.

There's definitely a lot of room for improving how education works, and I applaud the HootCourse guys for taking on something so worthwhile. Good luck.

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