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Ask HN: please review my site - Marrily.com

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Re: Ask HN: please review my site - Marrily.com

#31

Post by malyk »

First thing I noticed was that it was hard to find the sign up button. I tried clicking on the title "Sign Up" then clicked on the 30 day trial button, then saw two more things that said sign up and finally got to the sign up form. I was confused. It took me all of 10 seconds to figure out, but i'm not sure a regular user would be so successful.

I like the visual design of the site. Looks nice. However I the titles of the various sections seem to blend together. There's nothing to separate the "Your Guests" "Your Vendors" and "What to do next" headings on my main page. They run together a bit Some vertical barrier or more whitespace between them would help (though there is little horizontal space to spare)

It's a little unclear how to get back to the dashboard page. I can click on the marrily logo and get there, but i think a more explicit menu item would be helpful

If I click on the vendors menu item then the guests menu item turns to contacts and stays as contacts until i click on the marrily logo and go back to my dashboard where it turns back to guests.

oh no, work calls. Looks like a great start to me.

Re: Ask HN: please review my site - Marrily.com

#32

Post by sr3d »

bdickason wrote: post #23
bdickason wrote: post #17

I'm getting married in a month so I'll try this out :) The planning process has been a nightmare, to say the least. We relied on google docs for 99% of it.

Initial feedback - Once I register, I see a dashboard that doesn't guide me anywhere. Even the 'what to do next' in the bottom left doesn't give me any REASON to do any of these things. Instead of "Update your Event Settings" How about - "Add your caterer?" or "Enter your first menu item." something more actionable than 'update x/y.' At least one of these should be up at the top when you first login. Like this: Do th…

Thanks for the feedback on the dashboard. Based on your comment, the dashboard is probably not very clear about what you should proceed next. I'm thinking about converting the static suggestion list (yes, it's just a static list at the moment... blushed :">) into a checklist to help guide user around the app, and users can check things off (e.g. Setup Food Options, Enter Venue Address, etc.) as they use with the application more.

Last question, can I contact you via email for more feedback on this? I'd really appreciate it.

Re: Ask HN: please review my site - Marrily.com

#33

Post by mortenjorck »

Kilimanjaro wrote: post #25

You got a really nice domain. I like what I see. Clean execution. It doesn't matter if it works right away, you can improve over time, customer feedback will lead your way. My verdict: two thumbs up!

Also, in a year or two, you'll thank yourself for not registering that name as a bandwagon-hopping .ly domain.

Re: Ask HN: please review my site - Marrily.com

#34

Post by mqmouse »

I think your app suffers from the same problem my startup app has, which is the empty canvas problem. So basically your app seems to allude to a lot of power and functionality, which is paradoxically a little intimidating for a new user. Basically, where do I start? You have a lot of choices in the "what do to next" section.

What happens a lot of the time is the user says:

Wow! what a cool application! Seems powerful! I'll deal with this when I can properly think about it!

...and then promptly never visits your site again.

Somebody from Skype told me that they had the same problem and their solution was to funnel all users into a 5 step program. I would suggest that you "onboard" your users by forcing them into a N-Step workflow where at the end of it, it doesn't look like an empty canvas but a starting point to contribute more.

Edit: Like step 1 should be "Invite your SO". Encourage them to collaborate and plan together :)

Re: Ask HN: please review my site - Marrily.com

#35

Post by pbhjpbhj »

Kilimanjaro wrote: post #29
Kilimanjaro wrote: post #25

You got a really nice domain. I like what I see. Clean execution. It doesn't matter if it works right away, you can improve over time, customer feedback will lead your way. My verdict: two thumbs up!

Hmm, signing up I noticed a lot of flash objects (ad-blocked) representing some text. Can you make it a jpg or does it serve a different purpose? Remember, hackers don't like flash. Edit: oh gawd, they're everywhere! no no no, please change them to jpgs as soon as you can! With ad/flash/block your site looks weird.

It's sIFR, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sifr - I'd probably go with Google's webfonts if you really want to lock down the font used, http://code.google.com/webfonts. TBH I don't think it matters so much in your design.

Re: Ask HN: please review my site - Marrily.com

#36

Post by DirtyAndy »

sr3d wrote: post #21
DirtyAndy wrote: post #14

Nice site. Still a bit to do but looks nice, easy enough to use etc. You asked for thoughts on pricing. Unless you can get write-ups in wedding magazines (in my experience they should give you a wedding magazine when you buy the engagement ring because that is the first thing the girl buys after the proposal!) then you are going to struggle to get people to part with money without some level of trial, but 7 days migh…

Regarding the pricing, I'm planning to have it around $12/month. Basically once you stop paying, you can still access the app but cannot make any changes to your event planning. Regarding the timezone setting, since user can set up reminders in Marrily to get notified (via email and through their phone), it's critical to know their timezone so that the application can send out the notifications at the right time. The…

Personally I don't think the vendor management part is that useful. Tracking expenses yes, but getting more detailed than that is probably unnecessary. Another thing to track is deposits!

Re pricing make sure you make that clear to users, but things like seating plans are normally done right at the end so it is a good tie in for you to get the recurring income (and the month they forget to cancel whilst on honeymoon) but personally I would still prefer a fixed price part.

Re: Ask HN: please review my site - Marrily.com

#37

Post by sr3d »

Kilimanjaro wrote: post #29
Kilimanjaro wrote: post #25

You got a really nice domain. I like what I see. Clean execution. It doesn't matter if it works right away, you can improve over time, customer feedback will lead your way. My verdict: two thumbs up!

Hmm, signing up I noticed a lot of flash objects (ad-blocked) representing some text. Can you make it a jpg or does it serve a different purpose? Remember, hackers don't like flash. Edit: oh gawd, they're everywhere! no no no, please change them to jpgs as soon as you can! With ad/flash/block your site looks weird.

I'll rip out the sIFR headings to make the site more anti-flash-friendly. I don't use AdBlock or Flashblock so I didn't test the site out without Flash. Thanks for the good catch!

Re: Ask HN: please review my site - Marrily.com

#39

Post by rbritton »

talbina wrote: post #12

OP, you should have a "slideshow" to show the features on your front page, visually. Notice that your photographs on your front page right now do not convey any meaning? Don't fall for this trap, people don't care about pretty pictures. Check out http://waveaccounting.com/ to see what I mean by a slideshow showing the features. You have photographs in your About section also which do not convey any meaning http://mar…

I think there needs to be some sort of middle ground. Brides are a very unique set of users and quite a bit different from the average user set of any given site. They will picture themselves in your pictures if possible, and pretty pictures absolutely do sell to them, so keep that in mind with the photos you choose. However, as parent has noted, your front page should show something of what the product does.

My opinion here stems from substantial interaction with brides, especially pre-wedding. I do a lot of wedding photography.

Re: Ask HN: please review my site - Marrily.com

#40

Post by sr3d »

desigooner wrote: post #11
desigooner wrote: post #10

Upon registration, the page (create event i believe) is too wordy. At first, I did not realize that I had to select the date of the wedding to move forward to anything. I clicked on the links up top but all of them kept reloading the page (the css seemed broken for an instance or 2). IMO, clearer and much shorter, to-the-point instructions are necessary. A small walk-through or a quickstart guide directing the users…

Also, is there any contact-import planned? Either from services like Facebook or Gmail or something like a .csv/.xls upload. Any particular benefit on using Flash for the titles on the dashboard?

Yes, you can import contact from a CSV (no XLS yet) file and Marrily will take an educated guess at the file structure (this feature is inspired by 37Signals's Highrise) to help you import the contacts. I'm planning to implement the import feature from external sources (Facebook, Gmail, and other services) in phase 2 of the Marrily (after the app is officially launched)

The link to the CSV import is: http://marrily.com/app/contacts/import_csv

There's a button to import contact: http://cl.ly/4bd949e2d09fdc9b4b22. My guess is that the button is not visible enough. I'll move it down to the same level as the big "Add New Contact" button.

Regarding the Flash for the titles, I wanted to spice up the page with a different font, so it was just strictly for cosmetic reason. Based on the feedback so far, I decided to rip out the sIFR to make it more friendly.

Thanks for your feedback!

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