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Ask HN: I made an app that makes people happy, how do I let them know about it?

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Re: Ask HN: I made an app that makes people happy, how do I let them know about it?

#21

Post by momotomo »

Tiles.ice.org? I have nothing constructive to add except thank you for bringing back this concept. A few years ago I went back to ice.org to find out it had turned int a wasteland and was completely gutted.

Genuinely shocked to see this resurrected, can't wait to get into this again. Chewed up many a friday night during university. =)

Edit: one thing, any plan for a standard login / google account support or the likes? Kind of a shame that you can't register without facebook or twitter.

Re: Ask HN: I made an app that makes people happy, how do I let them know about it?

#22

Post by evilchelu »

pacifika wrote: post #16

If you can reconstruct the boards from timelapsed states (either every time a block is finished or even better as it is drawn over time) you could generate youtube videos and have a youtube channel and reach a main stream audience? People like videos.

Nice idea. Will definitely look into automating this.

Re: Ask HN: I made an app that makes people happy, how do I let them know about it?

#23

Post by petervandijck »

I tried to use the sandbox on the site, but didn't manage to draw anything. I think you should focus on the UI first (make it easier), next promote. If you promote a UI that's hard to use, a lot of people are just going to leave.

Ask a friend/family/anyone to try to use it, and observe them. Don't speak.

Re: Ask HN: I made an app that makes people happy, how do I let them know about it?

#25

Post by felix0702 »

Finding right target audiences is always the most important thing to do first. However, this another direction might help at the beginning. Basically drawing itself does not create a purpose. It is the purpose which drives to draw. So one approach is to ask artists to draw for charity events. I am sure collaborative drawing for charity can create very inspiring drawings and also get more attentions to your application. Wish you the best.

Re: Ask HN: I made an app that makes people happy, how do I let them know about it?

#26

Post by evilchelu »

petervandijck wrote: post #23

I tried to use the sandbox on the site, but didn't manage to draw anything. I think you should focus on the UI first (make it easier), next promote. If you promote a UI that's hard to use, a lot of people are just going to leave. Ask a friend/family/anyone to try to use it, and observe them. Don't speak.

Thanks for the feedback.

We already did the user testing with 3 people. It was painful to watch, sigh. But that was two iterations away and we learned a lot since. Or so we thought.

Were you expecting to actually draw something while being on the site? This seems to be a common gotcha and thing we don't explain well yet.

Maybe we should make it clear that tzigla is not actually an editor. Or maybe we should just plug one in.

Re: Ask HN: I made an app that makes people happy, how do I let them know about it?

#27

Post by john-n »

Hi, nice idea. Had a few issues with usability however.

- Think you need to simplify the site, its a bit too cluttered to be easily approachable.

- Maybe i just missed it but on first arrival maybe have a simple 3 step instructions as to what the site is/users do. Using the word drawing so much gave me the impression there was a simple flash/canvas drawing tool. Perhaps make it clearer that you download the file then upload the new version.

- Would like non-social logins (some people like to be able to make a throw-away login).

- Also...on logout page "FIREFOX SUCKS ASS!" (guessing some unmoved place holder) seems a bit "odd".

Keep it up chap. :)

Re: Ask HN: I made an app that makes people happy, how do I let them know about it?

#28

Post by evilchelu »

momotomo wrote: post #21

Tiles.ice.org? I have nothing constructive to add except thank you for bringing back this concept. A few years ago I went back to ice.org to find out it had turned int a wasteland and was completely gutted. Genuinely shocked to see this resurrected, can't wait to get into this again. Chewed up many a friday night during university. =) Edit: one thing, any plan for a standard login / google account support or the like…

I hope you have a low threshold for this addiction and you'll get the bug again.

Sorry, tzigla auth is not gonna happen. We can add other providers tho if people really hate both twitter and facebook.

ps: in the meantime, you could sign up with with: http://www.wayofthepixel.net/pixelation/index.php

We have custom one click integration with them, they're our lovely shiny delicous first users.

Re: Ask HN: I made an app that makes people happy, how do I let them know about it?

#29

Post by petervandijck »

evilchelu wrote: post #26
petervandijck wrote: post #23

I tried to use the sandbox on the site, but didn't manage to draw anything. I think you should focus on the UI first (make it easier), next promote. If you promote a UI that's hard to use, a lot of people are just going to leave. Ask a friend/family/anyone to try to use it, and observe them. Don't speak.

Thanks for the feedback. We already did the user testing with 3 people. It was painful to watch, sigh. But that was two iterations away and we learned a lot since. Or so we thought. Were you expecting to actually draw something while being on the site? This seems to be a common gotcha and thing we don't explain well yet. Maybe we should make it clear that tzigla is not actually an editor. Or maybe we should just plug…

yes, was expecting that :)

Re: Ask HN: I made an app that makes people happy, how do I let them know about it?

#30

Post by evilchelu »

john-n wrote: post #27

Hi, nice idea. Had a few issues with usability however. - Think you need to simplify the site, its a bit too cluttered to be easily approachable. - Maybe i just missed it but on first arrival maybe have a simple 3 step instructions as to what the site is/users do. Using the word drawing so much gave me the impression there was a simple flash/canvas drawing tool. Perhaps make it clearer that you download the file then…

I'd really love to hear if you have some ideas about uncluttering it. We've iterated lots of versions till we got to this state.

The canvas drawing confusion seems to be quite spread. We'll definitely have to add something about it.

Oh wow, that's but is nasty.

Let me explain why you got that, you'll find it hard to believe, I promise :)

We use an iframe to upload the tiles directly to s3 and s3 redirects back to the site on success. However, in firefox 3.6, if you refresh the page with such an iframe present, it'll reload the last iframe src, even if the src is now about:blank, because you've just reloaded the page. So, in effect it'll hit the "tile just uploaded" page again. Which is a completely stupid thing to do.

Therefore, when we receive one of the s3 uploads, we also redirect to a page which expresses how we feel.

You might ask yourself why you saw it at sign out. Because we're idiots and the code that remembers the last page you saw to be able to redirect correctly after sign in/sign out remembers this request.

So, I'm guessing that you uploaded a tile, then hit signout immediately, amirighte?

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