This is probably the best landing landing page for any product I've seen in a while, if not ever. I immediately had a good idea of what the product does, how it works and how easy it is to use. All without having to read too much text or watch a video.
Show HN: Propeller - Create native mobile apps, just drag and drop
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Re: Show HN: Propeller - Create native mobile apps, just drag and drop
#12Hey HN, we're really excited to announce Propeller. It's the absolute best tool for non-technical folks to build mobile apps for themselves or their businesses. All of the other "app builder" tools are limited to prototyping UI or generate really subpar webview-based experiences. We're going to change that by letting you build fast, native apps and will store the data you care about. Would love to hear your thoughts!
The email sign-up doesn't work on IE 8 :-(
Re: Show HN: Propeller - Create native mobile apps, just drag and drop
#13I love the short effective intro copy and animation. To nitpick a bit though, the font-size animation on your h2 heading is a bit clunky in Chrome, since Webkit rounds font-size values to the nearest integer. I would suggest animating on -webkit-transform: scale(...) instead, starting with scale(1) and animating down to scale(0.66ish). Then the animation will be nice and smooth, and the text will still render nicely (since you're not going above scale(1)).
Also, a minor correction in your demo: "parking break" should be "parking brake".
EDIT: I'm realizing that jQuery's animate() method doesn't work natively on CSS3 transform properties[1][2], so this would probably require some additional tweaking that may or may not be worth it. Anyway, something to think about at least!
[1] http://stackoverflow.com/questions/5029035/how-do-we-add-css...
[2] http://stackoverflow.com/questions/5462275/animate-element-t...
Re: Show HN: Propeller - Create native mobile apps, just drag and drop
#14How it is native, yet instantly shows any changes you make to all of your users?
Re: Show HN: Propeller - Create native mobile apps, just drag and drop
#15The landing page IMO is missing a few important pieces of information:
- this will not be free post-beta but there's no mention of pricing at all
- the text says 'native' but not which OSes and if the apps can be deployed through the various App Stores
- the rationale for limiting the on-page demo is fine but shouldn't prevent you from linking to a full-feature demo on a secondary page.
Good luck!
Re: Show HN: Propeller - Create native mobile apps, just drag and drop
#16Hey HN, we're really excited to announce Propeller. It's the absolute best tool for non-technical folks to build mobile apps for themselves or their businesses. All of the other "app builder" tools are limited to prototyping UI or generate really subpar webview-based experiences. We're going to change that by letting you build fast, native apps and will store the data you care about. Would love to hear your thoughts!
Well done! I signed up for your beta.
I am on the verge of paying $99 for Appsify.me. They have a web based builder tool and claim to generate code for XCode to compile while allowing apps to be extended in ObjC a needed.
Any thoughts on Appsify.me? Are you taking a similar approach?
Re: Show HN: Propeller - Create native mobile apps, just drag and drop
#17Very neat! Congrats on launching!
One thing you might try: in the demo, dragging items is missing a bit of "pop"; this is slightly intangible, but it doesn't quite feel like you are picking up something and putting it down.
Not sure if it's this way in the actual app, but you might check out the way that Trello slightly tilts cards when you pick them up, and drops a bit more shadow.
Obviously that's minor: the product as a whole seems solid.
Re: Show HN: Propeller - Create native mobile apps, just drag and drop
#18Very neat! Congrats on launching! One thing you might try: in the demo, dragging items is missing a bit of "pop"; this is slightly intangible, but it doesn't quite feel like you are picking up something and putting it down. Not sure if it's this way in the actual app, but you might check out the way that Trello slightly tilts cards when you pick them up, and drops a bit more shadow. Obviously that's minor: the produc…
I definitely know what you mean, Trello has a really nice effect. Right now we're using vanilla HTML5 drag-and-drop, so that experience is basically controlled by the browser, but we're working on customizing it.
Re: Show HN: Propeller - Create native mobile apps, just drag and drop
#19This is probably the best landing landing page for any product I've seen in a while, if not ever. I immediately had a good idea of what the product does, how it works and how easy it is to use. All without having to read too much text or watch a video.
The signup page is indeed Very Good, and I didn't even realize that I could actually drag and drop things until I read this comment and went back. So, for that, thanks!
If any of the propellor guys are lurking, I signed up and have need to use this very soon. Please launch quickly! If it's worth anything, I'm barry.melton@gmail, and am happy to help however I can.
Re: Show HN: Propeller - Create native mobile apps, just drag and drop
#20I love the short effective intro copy and animation. To nitpick a bit though, the font-size animation on your h2 heading is a bit clunky in Chrome, since Webkit rounds font-size values to the nearest integer. I would suggest animating on -webkit-transform: scale(...) instead, starting with scale(1) and animating down to scale(0.66ish). Then the animation will be nice and smooth, and the text will still render nicely…
Ah yeah, using CSS3 would be a lot smoother, We'll definitely tweak it. Thanks for the info, really appreciate it!