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Ask HN: Feedback on my new web app please

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Re: Ask HN: Feedback on my new web app please

#4

Post by davidw »

pierrefar wrote: post #3
davidw wrote: post #2

Nice, but I'm not sure how much "legs" it has in terms of being a business .

Thanks! I have ideas about how to monetize it like adding premium features and adding up-sell add-on services. I subscribe to the launch early and launch fast mentality :)

Do those other ones like tinyurl actually bring in money? I'm not very knowledgeable about that 'market'. In any case, getting it out there is a good idea, it looks like it's pretty nice 'as is'.

Re: Ask HN: Feedback on my new web app please

#5

Post by hugh »

Good idea (especially if you can persuade somebody to pay you).

Design suggestion: wording on the left hand side is too verbose. You should think about how to get the idea across more quickly, maybe as a three-step pseudo-cartoon.

On the downside, the stuff about SEO makes it sound like your site's primary purpose is evil, and that's sad.

Re: Ask HN: Feedback on my new web app please

#6

Post by callmeed »

Interesting concept ... I like it. URL shortening is definitely something early tech adopters use a lot (I'm not sure about the average Internet user).

You've definitely spelled out the benefits on the home page–but I'll be totally honest: the website design is pretty bad. Simplify, get rid of that laser beam and handwriting font, and clean up the page.

I think you could do some creative things to get traction ... for example, create a FireFox plugin that cligs the current user's URL and posts it to Twitter, Digg, or WordPress. Anything like that which makes it as easy as possible for people to use the service will help adoption.

As for a business model, be creative as well.

Re: Ask HN: Feedback on my new web app please

#7

Post by felixc »

The idea behind it is one that has an obvious demand, so good for you if you find a way to make money off it.

However, there are a couple of things I don't like about the site design itself:

- The "skip to navigation menu and content" link at the top seems extraneous to me -- I'm not sure of how it looks on lower resolutions, but I can already see those parts of the page.

- Using images for your titles. It's not just an accessibility problem, it's lame. If you browse with a little zoom, compression artifacts are clearly visible, and your "Register FREE" becomes "Register FR."

- The gradient bars are -- to be blunt -- ugly.

Best of luck!

Re: Ask HN: Feedback on my new web app please

#10

Post by Brushfire »

Please don't take this the wrong way -- but you need a designer to go over your site. There are font inconsistencies, weird graphics, and the color scheme doesnt work well in its current implementation. I've been guilty of this as well, but your site would be better without any graphics (just text/css) than with poor graphics.

Some other notes:

- Less Is More. You dont need that much text on the homepage. It would be much better to make it a simple 1. "X", 2. "Y", 3. "Z". Put all the answers to the weird questions in a FAQ.

- Easy to read means Easier to use. You have no need for a 100% width layout, in fact it kind of makes it weird. This is just design opinion, see comment about designer above. 100% can work if it is laid out correctly.

- Thought of using email address as username? Makes logging in and signing up a little easier.

- Passwords. "Your password is valid and has been accepted but a bit weak. You can make it stronger by adding characters like &, *, ! and others." Thats fucking weird man. This isnt a site with secure information, in my opinion, so the password is pretty trivial here. If you want stronger passwords, enforce them, dont remind someone they are being stupid but do nothing about it.

- AJAX / Javascript. Its not just to make things prettier (although that would also be a benefit here). You can do live validation of fields and you dont have to update the whole page if something goes wrong.

- What the hell is the "Skip to navigation menu and content" Link at the very top. Weird. Bad.

- Dont you want to validate their email address before you let them post?

- Make your home page after logging in a list of existing "cligs" with links to create a new one. No need to make me click an extra time to view my existing cligs. Think craigslist style if you need mental picture.

- Your site doesnt validate. Thats bad. see http://validator.w3.org/check?uri=http%3A%2F%2Fcli.gs%2F

- You have a lot of CSS tags that read like "delicious-blogbadge-tall". Is that yours? or stolen? Not accusing, but the naming conventions seems weird for your site.

- How do I close my account? These things need to be obvious, not explained. - How do I delete a 'clig'? These things need to be obvious, not explained. - How do I edit a 'clig'? These things need to be obvious, not explained.

The app itself seems to work pretty well, but the current state of the design is totally nuts and will drive a lot of people away/. As such, most of my comments are UI/Design related.

From a business/strategy standpoint, do not spend time re-creating the wheel. Your competitors (including but not limited to is.gd or tinyurl) make using their sites a lot easier. How can you expand upon their model making it better/faster/easier/different? Different is best, as replication + improvement only gets you so far. Right now your solution is not only replicating them on some level, but it does so in an inferior way. You need an API. You need something that differentiates you.

Keep going! and hire a designer! Good luck.

:)

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