What are your competitors, and how do you differ? I find small screens like iOS and Android (assuming most users use a mobile phone-like device) are hard to do any significant work on - how does this influence your instruction flow & corresponding UX?
Launch HN: Py (YC S17) – Learn to Code on the Go
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Re: Launch HN: Py (YC S17) – Learn to Code on the Go
#12I really don't like the name. Since you expanded on your languages that you are going to teach it doesn't really make sense to use Py since nearly every Python project uses the phrase to say its in Python. Also, you are going to have people that are looking for PyPy and finding your App and getting confused.
Actually, we've found the name Py doesn't confuse users. Most associate it with the number Pi, giving it an academic feel.
Don't you think you're doing yourself a disservice by being difficult to search for?
Re: Launch HN: Py (YC S17) – Learn to Code on the Go
#13What are your competitors, and how do you differ? I find small screens like iOS and Android (assuming most users use a mobile phone-like device) are hard to do any significant work on - how does this influence your instruction flow & corresponding UX?
Few of our competitors are mobile focused. Most people don't have hours to sit in front of a computer, but waste a lot of time commuting, standing in line, etc. Py is designed to utilize this time.
Great question about UX. It's hard to type on a phone, so we use a customized keyboard and group things into reusable elements.
Re: Launch HN: Py (YC S17) – Learn to Code on the Go
#14Earlier quoted context omitted.
Actually, we've found the name Py doesn't confuse users. Most associate it with the number Pi, giving it an academic feel.
Don't you think you're doing yourself a disservice by being difficult to search for?
They're the very first google result for "py" for me right now.
Re: Launch HN: Py (YC S17) – Learn to Code on the Go
#15Earlier quoted context omitted.
But you do provide courses to people for money, right?
Currently, all of our courses are actually free! We will be releasing a new version of Py on iOS within the next day or two that will contain a premium subscription that unlocks access to new premium content we're rolling out.
Sooo....sounds like you're about to become a school that takes money? Are you worried about regulation now?
Re: Launch HN: Py (YC S17) – Learn to Code on the Go
#16Congrats and love what you're doing.
Do you mind if we start sharing this with the customer side at http://turtle.ai/? We have many non-tech customers and we teach them best practices for product management and working with developers -- a lot of your course content would be really useful for them as well.
> We think personalizing content is key. We customize the content that users see and make it game-like to encourage people to spend more time on concepts they’re struggling with.
Would it ever be possible for organizations to pre-define some content / content suggestions for their users? For example, we would want non-tech customers to get certain content and more technical customers to get different content. For freelancers, we'd want the content to be more product management / project management / communications focused.
Let me know if you have any plans to partner with companies who want to outsource some of the education of their customers. We think education is critical to our success or the success of any companies in our space (freelancer marketplace). If we can outsource the education component to a trusted partner, we would love to (and would pay for custom content or to supply our own content).
Re: Launch HN: Py (YC S17) – Learn to Code on the Go
#17Congrats and love what you're doing. Do you mind if we start sharing this with the customer side at http://turtle.ai/ ? We have many non-tech customers and we teach them best practices for product management and working with developers -- a lot of your course content would be really useful for them as well. > We think personalizing content is key. We customize the content that users see and make it game-like to encou…
Anyone is always allowed to use our app! We've found it very effective in leveling up engineering skills as well as taking people from 0 to coder.
hmu at contact@py-app.com
Re: Launch HN: Py (YC S17) – Learn to Code on the Go
#18I really don't like the name. Since you expanded on your languages that you are going to teach it doesn't really make sense to use Py since nearly every Python project uses the phrase to say its in Python. Also, you are going to have people that are looking for PyPy and finding your App and getting confused.
Actually, we've found the name Py doesn't confuse users. Most associate it with the number Pi, giving it an academic feel.
For what it's worth, I assumed this would be an app focused on teaching Python.
Re: Launch HN: Py (YC S17) – Learn to Code on the Go
#19I really don't like the name. Since you expanded on your languages that you are going to teach it doesn't really make sense to use Py since nearly every Python project uses the phrase to say its in Python. Also, you are going to have people that are looking for PyPy and finding your App and getting confused.
Agreed
Yes, but I'm going to wager that y'all are programmers already. Seeing as that's likely who reads these. For people learning, they'd be less picky or even knowledgeable on such relations. I actually like the name. Besides, git means a disliked person and that's a thing. Words are created and shifted all the time. From what I can tell Py is already popular enough, it's the 4th hit for me on Google, that alone is reason enough to not change the name.
Re: Launch HN: Py (YC S17) – Learn to Code on the Go
#20Congrats! Great ratings at App Store, seems promising. Although, you are not exactly on Android already, are you? We also believe that interactivity is super important I agree with this premisse and I can't learn through videos. But I am glad with codecademy/freeCodeCamp style (lesson on the left, browse coding on the right). And after the initial steps, following tutorials online to build my own things on a real dev…
Thanks for the comment! So we just launched our Android version today: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.py (it's still in alpha and there are a number of issues we've noticed that working around the clock to resolve ASAP) RE personalization: At the end of each chapter, users answer quizzes. We motivate people to review wrong answers through a star system: a user will earn 3 stars if they answer 100%…
You're right about keeping Android version out of landing page. Downloaded it now and a few things dont work:
- in screens with "run" I can't edit the code or see the output after hitting "run". I believe I was supposed to do both.
- one screen in the middle of the JS intro course is blank
- at the courses I went through, the last screen's "continue" is faded out, unclickable and I can't conclude the course.
In a week or so I will try again, I still believe I will enjoy it. Good luck!