Ask HN: Critique my site please

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1607981

by goodwinb • 16 years ago

3 3 16 years ago

news.ycombinator.com

http://www.TestWhetherTheyKnow.com

Audience: HR managers Problem trying to solve: The pain of getting distributed employees trained properly, reading the employee handbook, or legally acknowledging a new policy.

RobIsIT• 16 years ago

1) The pink and green combo doesn't strike my fancy.

2) Your screenshots above the fold are well placed but the scaling on the left most image makes it difficult to read.

3) I don't know what your product is within the first 2 seconds of hitting the page. Clearly explaining in 1 or 2 sentences above the fold what your product is and why it will benefit _me_ will significantly decrease your bounce rates.

4) I like the simple layout of your video demos. They're well conceived with an easy to follow demo. The voiceover is monotone and doesn't engage me. Paying for a voiceover might not be a bad idea. These demos are very powerful and will significantly increase signups.

5) What is the benefit of your product? Without mentioning the competition, what will compel me to spend $10 - $25 with you rather than your competition?

6) I like your "wizard" / step-by-step process of creating a test. Nice stuff. Easy to understand.

7) There is no privacy policy or note about why you're collecting my e-mail address. Also, have you considered integrating open authentication systems from Twitter, Facebook, OpenID, etc? I'd think that integrating the Facebook auth system and asking people if they'd like to post links to their tests there would go a long way.

8) Many managers and HR folks may not immediately see the benefit from your list of 4 "uses". I would work on this language and try very hard to integrate some tangible facts. Being able to say, "We surveyed 100 HR departments who have used our tests. Employees of these companies now retain 98% of the guidelines that they were tested on."

bwh2• 16 years ago

A couple of thoughts:

* I suspect there is a good market for this type of product, particularly if you focus on the liability and reporting benefits.

* The watermelon colors need to be changed. Ideally you pick something fairly neutral so that your customers can add their own branding. Not that you should copy their design, but I would use articulate.com as a source of inspiration.

* Bump up the pricing (assuming that is a total price, not per person) and add a higher range, maybe +100

* Make sure your app can easily produce reports

* The first page of the practice test should be a lot more scannable. Right now it's a big block of text that I don't want to read because it's not relevant to me.

* Add your logo and main navigation to the top of each page.

niyazpk• 16 years ago

A few design suggestions:

(1) The pink doesn't look good for this kind of a website. (2) The shadows in the screenshot are too bold. Bring them down to 15-30% opacity. (3) The three big buttons in the middle of the page are wasting too much space without much apparent gain. Move them to the right and put some text explaining your product clearly (In 2-3 sentences) to the left. This will help visitors understand your product without much scanning. (4) The screenshots do not look very appealing. Again, the pink is hurting my eyes here.

Pricing:

(1) Is this per month price or per survey price? Should be clearly specified. (2) Either way, the price is too low.

Ask HN: Critique my site please

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