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Ask HN: Review my start-up: Customized Graphics

customizedgraphics.com

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Re: Ask HN: Review my start-up: Customized Graphics

#11

Post by jbenz »

callmeed wrote: post #4

First off, I think your concept is brilliant and there's a lot of potential. To me, this is one of those markets that should be targeted at women/moms (see the recent HN post on Ravelry). My wife and her friends were actually just talking about this very need yesterday ... they were looking for ways to put tree/bird designs on their wall. That being said, here's where I think you can improve the execution: 1. Make th…

Thanks so much for the detailed feedback!

1. Good advice.

2. Thanks. Yes, we've had a lot of conversations about what the priority should be on the home page. We decided that selling products was 1, customization was 2, and the ability to set up storefronts was 3. We could do a better job of balancing this out.

3. People can certainly save their designs. You can save it as private or public. If you save it as public, you can decide whether or not you'd like to earn a royalty from the sales. You can also comment on each other's designs and send fellow users messages.

4. We have this: http://www.customizedgraphics.com/shop/Wall_Lettering/Quotes..., but of course it has only started filling out.

5. Absolutely, a lot of testing is needed. Thanks again.

Re: Ask HN: Review my start-up: Customized Graphics

#12

Post by jbenz »

sp4rki wrote: post #5

Hi, love the idea. Although I do like the design as a whole, I do agree that the colors should be more "neutral". Also the site is a little on the busy side and I think it would benefit from some more whitespace and less "this is ALL we do!!" in the homepage. Oh and btw, I'm on Firefox 3.5 on Leopard and you ve got some nastiness going on on the footer. http://img80.imageshack.us/img80/7223/picture12h.png

Thanks! Yeah, at Customized Graphics you can do a TON of stuff. So it's tough to balance exactly how much to say on the front page. I think the overall feedback seems to be: tone it down. We can probably think of a way to say what we want and be less busy.

And snap. This is what I love about HN. Thanks so much for going to the trouble of posting the screenshot online. You didn't have to go out of your way, but you did because you're awesome. Cheers.

Re: Ask HN: Review my start-up: Customized Graphics

#15

Post by jbenz »

DirtyAndy wrote: post #9

Firstly great site and great idea. But you are not (hopefully) posting here to get your butt kissed but for some constructive criticism and ideas, so here goes: 1. The site is a little busy and lacks a real call to action. "Start Designing" kind of disappears 2. I think you need two sites. One for the business market and one for the consumer market. These could both have the same backend etc, but probably need sepera…

Great feedback.

1. We're always thinking about this issue. Good point.

2. That's a really interesting idea. You're right, we are trying to satisfy both business and consumer markets. The nice part of having one site is that you have one domain. All the links you get from users and other sources help your SEO a lot, and you sacrifice some of that if you're splitting your user base. But the point is still a good one.

3. Yes, it's important to us that "Design Your Own" means both "Design from scratch" and "Personalize one of our cool existing designs". We try to make personalization easy and immediate by taking you right to the design center when you click on an item. I think we need a lot more designs that say "Your Text Here" or "Your Logo Here".

The blank canvas is a problem. We are going to implement an overlay that says "Add Text, Add Art, or Upload Your Image."

Thanks again!

Re: Ask HN: Review my start-up: Customized Graphics

#16

Post by jbenz »

timmaah wrote: post #14

The total width and height of what you are buying is not clear at all.

Yes, we are adding a (w) and (h) into the dimensions. Which brings up a question. We discussed this a lot. Should it be:

a) 5 in (w) x 10 in (h)

b) 5 W x 10 H inches or

c) W: 5 in x H: 10 in ?

Re: Ask HN: Review my start-up: Customized Graphics

#17

Post by jbenz »

amohr wrote: post #8

I love it - I have been looking for exactly this service for a while now. I have a bunch of ideas for these types of items that have never really gotten off the ground due to the overhead. I opened a store front ( http://www.customizedgraphics.com/alexophile ) and the main thing I would suggest is having more categories. Work tends to get buried and poorly organized when there's too few categories. The use of tags on…

Awesome! Our shop categories are evolving as we speak. Thanks for building a storefront. I hope you continue to add cool designs!

Re: Ask HN: Review my start-up: Customized Graphics

#18

Post by jbenz »

joez wrote: post #7

Great domain name. A few ideas: You should run a contest for the coolest design. Winner gets cash and free print(s). You'll get some really cool designs that way. The rotate feature should show what degree it's at. I can just see scenarios where this is useful. Two quick ones is if you accidentally rotate something you have to eyeball it back to level or if you like to align multiple words at a slant. Directional key…

Contests. Yes, there will be contests, and of course we'll feature different designs and designers on the home page. It is absolutely crucial to our success that people be able to earn decent money from their storefronts. The more this happens, the more word spreads. We plan on featuring our users' designs in print ads in places like US Weekly, Martha Stewart Living, etc. Maybe we'll make it a design contest to see who is featured in these ads.

Thanks for the rotate feedback. It's always a balance between giving users too many features and not enough.

Moving objects with directional keys is a must. Good call.

Exporting art is an interesting idea. There's a lot more you can do with this art beyond stickers and banners. We could even offer to export your design as an Ecard. Lots to think about.

Re: Ask HN: Review my start-up: Customized Graphics

#19

Post by jbenz »

mitko wrote: post #6

Please add support for foreign language characters. I tried to make a design using Cyrillic characters but they didn't came out properly. There could be a market for your service among the many bilingual and emigrant people in USA.

Yes, this would be a terrific feature. We'll add it to our list. Thanks!

Re: Ask HN: Review my start-up: Customized Graphics

#20

Post by timmaah »

jbenz wrote: post #16
timmaah wrote: post #14

The total width and height of what you are buying is not clear at all.

Yes, we are adding a (w) and (h) into the dimensions. Which brings up a question. We discussed this a lot. Should it be: a) 5 in (w) x 10 in (h) b) 5 W x 10 H inches or c) W: 5 in x H: 10 in ?

Well looking at it more, it does seem some of the designs have in the editor "Material Area".. is that only if you have a background?

I would stick with the format the editor uses..

5 x 10 in

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