Ask HN: Would you please give me some feedback on my new startup?

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1876587

by Concours • 16 years ago

6 9 16 years ago

news.ycombinator.com

A couple of days ago, I submitted my startup for review http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1855901 but haven't got as much feedback as I expected, I've made some additional improvements and I'm officially launching the product now, it's mobile site creation tool for dynamic sites (mostly for blogs), we help peoples create and monetize mobile versions of their websites in less than 2 minutes.At this point, we don't support static/flash sites but have it on the roadmap.Please take a look and feel free to share your feedback and suggestions here. Thanks

The site url is: http://www.gmbhnews.net and the mobile sites are hosted at http://www.gmbhnews.com

trevelyan• 16 years ago

Blocked in China. FYI.

Concours4• 16 years ago

Lol, thanks for letting me know, I guess I should take this as a compliment, when looking at all the services blocked in china. I have to take a closer look at this.

NginUS• 16 years ago

I will since you said please.

I don't want to give up an email route to my inbox just to see what you can do with my site.

I would, however if I were actively shopping for such a thing.

If for some reason I think I should be browsing the .com version with Firefox, ie from a Google search, it lets me stay stuck there- it tells me the browser's wrong, but there's no way out. If I didn't know any better I'd think you're design was crap & move on.

I was surprised at the entry requiring my participation in policing the site, as the last entry in the TOS states. Are you going to boot me for not clicking the 'flag spam' button? Maybe that's standard & I've just scanned over it until now, but today it seems silly.

I don't know about your market, so site UX is about the best I can do for you.

templaedhel• 16 years ago

The design could use some love, I am no designer but I have a few critiques. -You need some semblance of a grid, right now nothing lines up with anything else.

-You could use some sort of color scheme adjustment, less in your face reds, I feel like if I sign my site up I join "the party"

-The pictures of the phone/ipad etc on the right should have their bottom edge matched up with the bottom of the red bar, not 40px above it.

-The inputs on the left should not have the click here links, what is the purpose of those?

-The quotes would be better off as 1 per row instead of 2, with a few less.

-You don't need all the white space in between the quotes and the copy on the left

-but the copy could use some more whitespace and line spacing.

-The site should have a favicon,

-and perhaps a better title, "mobile tools to mobilz..." doesnt make the most sense.

-The links in the footer are arranged haphazardly, and thats distracting.

-The copyright text needs some bottom padding, so its nor right up on the bottom of the page.

-I'm not sure how or what this does to my site, and that makes me nervous, what do I get when I hit mobilize?

-The logo should be bigger, and the "we help you create mobile" etc text should be smaller

I am trying out the product right now, so I cannot critique that yet, but I am interested in it, so I will. Hopefully you can get something useful out of the above list, because like say I am not a expert in UX.

Concours4• 16 years ago

Thanks for your great feedback, well the color scheme is the best I could find, and from the firsts test I've done, many peoples could find where to click, so I had to add this "click here" , a bit ugly but very usable, I could try it with html5, too bad not all browsers support it, so I'll have to wait. The quotes are also fine (very long story here, but those are the best quotes we could have from our beta testers), the favicon is a good idea, will try something. I already had a smaller text there, and peoples keep asking me what the site does, so I came up with this and nobody ever ask again, I think it's not a good idea to have a bigger logo, it'll just distract from the real goal, user or try the service. I'll use some of the great suggestions on your feedback to improve the product, thanks.

guynamedloren• 16 years ago

Quick thoughts:

- I don't like the color. Red feels like you're screaming at me.

- Something about the form on the left side feels goofy. Have you considered switching the form on the left and the image on the right?

- What's up with your headline? The "W" and "2" are larger than the rest of the letters.

- Logo?

- GMBHnews does not even begin to hint at what your site does, unless I'm missing something. It actually makes me think your site does something completely different (news content provider?) than it actually does.

- Buttons/links in footer are all kinds of messed up.

- The overall design is actually significantly better than many I've come across recently, but could still use some major work.

Hope this helps.

Concours4• 16 years ago

Hey loren and thanks for your great feedback, the "W" issue is fixed now, I've indeed tried to switch both image and form, it looks even goofier, considering that peoples tend to read from the left side to the right (at least most, exceptions: arabic and some others....), I finally decided to stick on it at as it is. Hmm, it's true the logo looks quite conservative, but since the domain issue keeps showing up, I'll change it and the logo as well (when everyone point to the same issue, there must be something wrong with it), I guess it's time for brainstorming. My footer is mostly designed for SEO to point to articles, means for me the lest peoples click on them, the fastest they may convert, I have to agree it's not the best looking but, if it looks realy ordered, it'll be huge, I will try to tweak it somehow.

Thanks for the compliment on the design, I'm not really a designer, so I guess my bog reading's paying out now.

jtchang• 16 years ago

- I agree with others in saying the red is harsh. Only the gradient though. The top part and buttom is good.

- I understand what you are doing...I think. You are trying to optimize my website for mobile. Okay...but how? I don't see a demo (at least easily accessible one). And if I want to find how I have to give up a litany of things: my site name, my url, my RSS feed (I don't even have one), my adsense mobile code, and my e-mail. That's a lot.

- I am not quite sure what GMBH stands for.

Sorry if any of this sounds harsh (not meant to be).

-Jeff

Concours4• 16 years ago

Hello Jeff, here's your rss url: http://returnbooleantrue.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default , glad I could help you discover it.

You don't Have to do anything, you have the choice.

Please make a disclosure that you are not a webdesigner/UI, when you critisize the work of a professional webdesigner and I'm fine with the red.

Sorry if any of this sounds harsh (not meant to be)

Ask HN: Would you please give me some feedback on my new startup?

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