Ask HN: Review my Startup - imVOX

by tibbon • 17 years ago

15 26 17 years ago

tibbon5• 17 years ago

I have an apology to make. I submitted this about a month or two ago, and of course sent it to the people in my company to see the feedback.

Unfortunately, I was still in the process of training them for how to interact with the community at the time and three of them thought it best to come in with shill comments and not identifying themselves as with the company- thinking that this was about promoting the company, not feedback. This was highly embarrassing to me, because I made the poor assumption that everyone understood the proper etiquette on social networking sites. But that wasn't the case.

The thread was (rightfully) locked and removed from the listings, just as I would have done as a community manager if someone was shilling on my site. I'd like to try again and not repeat the same mistakes.

I deeply am sorry for this transgression and they will not be posting here again in such a way.

ashishk• 17 years ago

From a design perspective, I would suggest the use of softer colors. The current blues and greens used look like (cheap) neon lights.

ajcronk• 17 years ago

I am skeptical of using products when it's not clear how they make money.

If you give everything away for free, when will it stop being free? When will the bait and switch occur?

If everything truly is free, how long will you be around?

mattwdelong• 17 years ago

They have a pro version, which costs money.

http://imvox.com/download.php

tibbon5• 17 years ago

Always a legit question that I hope I can answer to the best of my ability.

We are highly interested at this moment in disrupting the market more than anything else. The current market for gaming voice clients is a tad stagnant and we'd like to do better in the long run.

We have a paid Pro version, which is $24.99/year and allows more users to join a server and the creation of more servers. We are adding additional features to the pro account to make it yet more compelling for a larger portion of our gamers. We're considering various virtual goods setups, as well as in-client advertising for the free clients.

While I realize this doesn't present an entire business model , we've got a few other tricks up our sleeves too and think that if we can perfect our software then we'll have a decent chance at making it work.

jswinghammer• 17 years ago

The photo you chose for the home page gives the impression that this site is for something other than what it is. I figured this was a music service of some sort and then I realized it was for communications after reading more.

Vindexus• 17 years ago

I'd change "Unlimited FREE Voice" to "Unlimited FREE Voice Chat". I wasn't sure what the site did right away.

I'd also add a link to the pricing page. I was on the Features page and wanted to know what the pro plan offered by I didn't want to click on the Download link because it said download and had a price on it. I did click it though and it took me to the download page, which is also the pricing page. Maybe separate the two or label it some sort of hybrid?

I do like the design overall. The testimonials on the download page are good for me, because I'm a nerd. If that's your target demographic then awesome, but if not then I'd try to find some testimonials that will appeal to the layman.

icode• 17 years ago

I read every word on your website:

Unlimited FREE Voice Social Networking integration No Subscription Fees Blazing fast servers & superior sound performance Download and Chat No Fees, No Cost, No Worries! Supports: Windows XP, Vista,7 Password secured servers and channels Customizable backgrounds Superior Audio Quality Voice normalization Easy to use, clean interface

And I still wonder: What is it about? Is it something like skype? Im not a skype user so even if it is - I would still not be sure what it is.

geocar• 17 years ago

I didn't read every word on the site, and I had similar comprehension problems.

I think it's some kind of voip conference-room alternative with plans for a darth vader voice changing button.

Maybe it's like gotomeeting but with an audio quality like google chat, and for video games.

Also, this:

http://www.istockphoto.com/stock-photo-8076995-sexy-headphon...

threw me off. The headphones are very confusing.

tonystubblebine2• 17 years ago

Right, I got the feeling that there were some common use cases, especially around gaming. I'd like for those to be spelled out explicitly. The copy is very heavy on features of the product but could use a lot more copy about me, the potential user. What will I use it for? How will my life be better?

hajrice• 17 years ago

No offence, but the site is just ugly, you should redesign it ASAP. Seriously! The product looks pretty interesting though. Doesn't Skype more-less provide these services?

e1ven• 17 years ago

I think it's supposed to be a competitor for Ventrilo, more than Skype. Vent is very popular for online gaming- While the software is free, selling hosting packages for it makes a LOT of money every year.

tibbon5• 17 years ago

Skype is rather similar in some ways and we often look at them as a role model. Skype is much more CPU/memory/bandwidth intensive and lacks some of the gaming-centric functionality that we're integrating. Also, Skype user conferences don't scale over 8-users, which is a barrier for many massive gamers.

I agree on the site. We've got a new 'look' that we have deployed on a landing page and we're hoping to roll out site-wide soon with some additional revisions (http://imvox.com/warcraft_ventrilo_hosting_voice_chat_altern...). Any parts particularly offensive on the current one (or future) that I can pass along to our designer?

samdk• 17 years ago

I like the new site better than the current one, but it still needs work. Some general comments about both:

Width: To accommodate (almost) everything, most designers keep things to a maximum width of 960px. Your site is 1100px wide. On most sites I'd say this is an issue, because unless you specifically want horizontal scrolling it's a bad idea. Since your site is targeted towards gamers, they might all have monitors that wide--I don't know. I'd take a look at your analytics and make sure that's a safe width. I'll note that even if it is ok it feels really wide. Your designer's done a decent job of keeping it under control from what I can see, but recognize that text that stretches across the whole width is not at all readable.

Navigation mouseovers: right now when you mouse over your navigation links, they turn blue and get underlined. The dark blue is hard to see on both sites, and the effect just seems unrelated to anything else on the page. Do one or the other. For the color, I'd go with either the same color as the 'current page' link, or something halfway in between the two. I normally prefer the latter, but you do have to make sure that the difference is enough to be very easily noticeable.

Some comments on the new design, specifically: First, I'd like to say that this is much better in general. It still needs work, but it's much improved.

A few relatively minor about the top section:

The baseline of the text in the logo should probably align with the baseline of the navigation link text. (I'd cut out some of the shadow or make it fade more quickly so it fits there.)

The switch to a serif face for your 'sales pitch' is good--it draws attention to it, and that's what you want. I would recommend getting a little more creative with font choices than Times New Roman though!

The snowflakes don't make much sense to me--I just don't know why they're there. It might look better than with a plain or gradient background anyway, but finding something a little more topical might be a good idea.

I see what you're trying to do with the computer, but right now it's drawing attention away from your software and putting it on the computer. I think just a screenshot of your software could be much better.

The bottom part I think needs some new ideas. It's too same-y (and a bit messy) and my eyes get lost. More visual differentiation would be a good thing.

truebosko• 17 years ago

Agreed. Honestly, your typography in general needs some major work. Hire some freelancer to work one hour and he can do some amazing things (assuming he knows what he is doing). The neon green colours are also painful.

tonystubblebine2• 17 years ago

Having no design chops myself and having taken the tact with my own company of launching half-assed and ugly, I want to push back on the ASAP part of this advice.

Design matters and once you have competitors it becomes a major factor in decisions. But you can and should put some effort into figuring out product/market fit and positioning before you freak out about design. You're probably going to throw away this current design even if it was already good.

We were able to get that product/market fit feedback without good design. And looking back I wish that was the only thing I ever felt ASAP pressure about.

bgriggs1• 17 years ago

I agree about clarity. The headphones image makes me initially think music service with social features, and I felt like I had to interpret all the bullet points just to figure out what it was.

The logo is a little distracting. Am I missing the connection of what the orange circle/triangle mark is supposed to suggest? Plus your eye tends to follow triangles (arrows), and this one is leading to left into nothing.

The screen shot is nice, and the colors and the design of the UI look like much better choices than the dated blues and greens.

FAQ is your best page- clear and focused. The features is too distracted by the right column. Does download need a testimonials column that looks so similar to the two download packages?

I know this has nothing to do with the product itself, but we all know marketing is just as (more?) critical.

warp• 17 years ago

I have no idea what imVOX is from visiting the landing page. Looking at the menu, I don't see any menu option which will explain this to me, so I try FAQ. Based on the first question answered there, I still don't know what imVOX as except that it's like Ventrilo and TeamSpeak. I don't know what those are either, so I'm probably not your target audience.

I think you could be a lot better at telling a story, at guiding people like me through your website in such a way that I leave thinking "wow, that is cool -- but I don't need it", instead of what happens now, where I have no clue what you're doing, will not be telling anyone about your service/product even though I may have friends who would find it useful.

akamaka• 17 years ago

The look and feel of the landing page, the woman's photo, and the GUI screenshot give me the first impression that this is some type of professional audio software (like Audition).

Keep in mind, though, that I'm not in your target audience, which appears to be gamers.

nixarn• 17 years ago

Agree with most other guys here. What is it? I have no clue what this program/service is and I'm not gonna download it and figure it out. Some clarity on the front page is needed without doubt. I think the site looks cool so I don't think a change of color is needed.

lssndrdn• 17 years ago

The website probably needs a redesign for various reasons, but in the meantime you should know that in IE7, the text in the features page is partially hidden by the blocks on the right. It's a serious flaw that severely impairs the respectability of your website (makes it look cheap).

Scott_MacGregor• 17 years ago

1. I like the colors just the way they are, the blues, greens and grays, etc. I also like the female face with the headphones, I hope you own the image because it could be a strong brand image for you. She is very unique with the green eyes, green headphones and tattoos on her fingers and wrists.

2. I wonder, and probably others will wonder what those tattoos say or are, so maybe you could play it up a little and put something about it in your FAQ’s as a marketing angle to set your business off from the competition as hip, cool and unique. Think about what your target market would find memorable about this.

3. Some say they think the site is ugly, interestingly I do not think it is ugly, in fact I like it a lot. The fonts, colors, pics, etc., really seem to work for me. If you are shooting for a big time corporate look like some of Version’s or Sprints pages I think you have come pretty close, an 8.5 out of 10. I agree with some of the suggestions about having a designer look at it and suggest improvements, but if it were my site I would limit those changes to small customer tested iterations in layout vs. color and content.

4. My test of your site was if I were looking for a product of your type, based on this website would I personally trust the download enough to give it a try. My answer based on your website is 98% yes. Meaning if I were a potential customer I would download, set it up and give it a try, yes without a doubt I would. Then providing the product was a better than the competition I would keep it--sale made. So as far as the site goes you could change it, pretty it up with different colors ect., but that might change my personal decision to download, but I am only one person and the site needs to be tested in live commerce still, so do iterate and test.

5. The Features page has a display problem on my big monitor with IE 7.0.5730.11. The four boxes on the right are lined up 50% on top of the text on the left. Also the text in the bottom box is displaying outside the bottom of the box.

A tip: If you’re using an x-y-z style of coding with layers or something similar, sometimes the older non-layer style (x-y) will be more cross browser compatible with less work.

6. If you are not already using banner ads, personally I think the site is good enough to spend banner ad promotion money on right now. If it were my site and ad money I would start a banner ad campaign right now if you think the product is ready to release to the public. Just iterate the site slowly with only very minor changes, and then test the changes on actual click through customers with an A-control site and a B-iterated site setup to see if the changes make any difference in amount of downloads between the two sites.

7. I would make the link to Green Ear more prominent and play it up a lot more. it will add gravitas to the product and possibly increase downloads.

sztanpet• 17 years ago

The client has a few but very important shortcomings like being unable to set what to alert for via text-to-speech, also one cannot set the volume neither of said text nor for anything else. The user-interface seems a bit off to me, with that annoying background and other elements, but I'm a minimalist kind of guy but I do find it usable. Also the feature to "mask" your voice is not at all highly regarded by me, especially if it cannot be disabled globally on my side as it is usually more annoying than funny. The website serves it's purpose but yes, what the others said about instant clarity what the site is about would help.

dstorrs• 17 years ago

Ok, I disagree with most of what you see below.

1) I had no problem understanding what the site is for. It's clearly VOIP for social networking, and the colorscheme and design indicates it's aimed at gamers. Further reading supports that.

2) I'd put this in the category of "attractive, professional looking". You've met the minimum required "attractiveness quotient", now it's time to focus on your core business value and customer acquisition / support.

That said, here are a couple design tweaks I did notice (OSX 10.5.8, FF3.5.7, btw):

1) The footer height is standard on all pages except the home page, where it is substantially taller.

2) On the home page, the "Unlimited free voice" is very visible, but the "Social networking integration" blends in. I would suggest making the latter more dramatic, and possibly changing it to "gaming" or something like that if that really is your primary market.

3) On the FAQ page, the hover color and the selected color for the question links is the same, which is confusing.

And a structure issue:

1) Right now, the FAQ page requires actively clicking on a question to make its text appear. Much better is to have the links jump you down the page; this makes it much more likely that people will read all the FAQs, which gives you better educated customers and fewer customer support issues.

Good luck with it!

Ask HN: Review my Startup - imVOX

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