Show HN: Chalkboard, a better way to plan/spec software projects

by hajrice • 16 years ago

28 26 16 years ago

hajrice8• 16 years ago

It’s a relatively scrappy MVP and there are a definitely going to be bugs and kinks. The user interface definitely needs improvement. Regardless, we’re just getting started and have gotten great amounts of feedback and now want to see what Hacker News will think.

Chalkboard is a project my partner Abi and I started several months ago. Chalkboard is a collaborative tool for laying out software features, user stories, and screens in a way that is organized and communicative. Abi worked in web consulting with remote teams and wanted a tool that let him easily define project requirements with clients then hand the project off to designers/developers.

Chalkboard lets you quickly define software features / user stories and then create step-by-step user flows for them. User flows are linked up to application screens that you specify and can upload mockups for.

A lot of people have suggested we integrate/tie into Balsamiq. We have been talking about this since day one but have hesitated reaching out to them until we are 100% sure that this app can become a useful product.

bdclimber14• 16 years ago

I checked it out, seems to be a decent MVP. I wouldn't focus on basamiq integration yet. Seems to be too early. There's few easy tools for mapping out agile software specs and it looks like this could be the answer. Others seem to be too tightly tied to a certain process and this looks very flexible.

hajrice8• 16 years ago

Thanks for the positive feedback and endorsement..after working a couple months on Chalkboad, its really nice to see people appreciating it.

davidcann• 16 years ago

A new structured way to plan apps sounds good, but what makes your site unique and impressive?

My first impression is that it's a flow chart in the form of an outline. The outline looks like something I could just as easily type into any text editor. Why not make it a visual flow chart?

abinoda• 16 years ago

David, that's a great question.

We actually started out by displaying user flows as flow charts... we quickly realized that flow charts are an inefficient way to display a comprehensive batch of sequential user actions and application flows. It IS easier to type outlines in a text editor than mess around with flow charts.

We transferred that realization to this web app.

Our user actions are linked to application screens, which gives you a good overview of how your user interacts with your application.

mitko• 16 years ago

Before I clicked the link the title seemed like an article which would argue why a real chalkboard is better than computers for planning.

dhimes• 16 years ago

Yes, the "Show HN" is essential in the title.

jw84• 16 years ago

1. It would be awesome if you incorporate transitions between the single page design elements instead of jumping back up then back down.

2. On my 13" the screenshots are too big, then I have the chat widget overlaying on top.

hajrice8• 16 years ago

Sorry about that! Regarding switching elements, there should be a TOP button located at the top right of each element. We'll get this fixed as soon as the HN burst stops, I'm very sorry, Jerry.

thenotself2• 16 years ago

It's hard to review the app without bias when I immediately had to scroll to the bottom to see if 37signals created this product. So much of the website, sales pitch, and product sensibility has been inspired by 37signal that there is some serious brand confusion. It makes me wonder how well you know your own product, or how unique it is.

After registering, I see the value. 10 years ago, I used to have to plan websites by mocking up each page, printing them out, and taping them all up onto a giant wall with post-it notes explaining what the user can do on each page. This was the only way that management could really visualize and understand what changes we were making. This allows you to do that without the wall, and the collaboration is a nice addition. It's also a great way to look back and see how a project came to light. I often jot down these sorts of notes when planning a web app.

I recommend you reconsider being so inspired by 37signals that it's hard to tell your site apart from theirs. I think I'm being kind in how I'm describing this to you. It's very confusing for any user who is familiar with 37signals and it makes your product less trustworthy.

thenotself2• 16 years ago

One other note: it emails me about every change or addition I make to a project. There appears to be no way to opt out of this. By creating a page with 10 user actions, I'd get 11 different emails from you. Please add a way to opt out, and consider instead sending a digest of all changes made daily.

hajrice8• 16 years ago

Great idea. We'll add that to our next release(should be implemented in a matter of a couple hours). I'll disable the email notifications for now.

hajrice8• 16 years ago

Hey. Thanks for the feedback. The website is horrible...and while we had many variations of the design which looked nothing like this, we went with this design. We're not really trying to sell the product yet, our billing isn't working well so we're not charging anyone until we get that fixed.

The design of this website isn't really that cool, it's more (like you said) a standard SaaS website, as we're still validating our assumptions regarding our solution to the problem with an MVP.

clyfe• 16 years ago

I think 37 inspiration is a good thing it ultimately leeds to a good product with familiar feel. There is no trademark on layout or "less is more" is it? That is like saying we can't do gui apps based on the window metaphor because MS.

PS.

I was struck by the same feeling. The layout, the -hq suffix, the big sign-up button, the scroll, the minimalism, the friendly phrase, and not to mention "the product" (collaboration), AND THE PRICING (149$) :) worth building on other's market study.

carols10cents• 16 years ago

I just crashed it. Signed up for an account with the same username as on here, then tried to create a new project as directed and on submission of that form I got a rails error page. The url was http://chalkboardhq.com/projects/31. Please let me know if there is additional information that would be helpful...

ETA: Sorry, I didn't read the error message. It's a 404, not a 500. Reproducible every time I try to create a project.

dabeeeenster• 16 years ago

Me too

ximeng• 16 years ago

Created a test account and test project, and got redirected to http://chalkboardhq.com/projects/37 :

The page you were looking for doesn't exist.

Void_• 16 years ago

You should make that "Create my account" button bigger, I almost missed it.

josh_cutler2• 16 years ago

I'm also having issues with hitting the Rails 404 page after submitting the Create a Project form

hajrice8• 16 years ago

Hi Josh. I'm very sorry about this bug happening. I'm working hard to fix it asap.

josh_cutler2• 16 years ago

No worries, I'm looking forward to checking it out. Watching your videos I immediately thought that it would be cool if I could export the flows my team created into cucumber stories...

shawnbaden• 16 years ago

I find the dark red text on red background (like what's used on http://chalkboardhq.com/pricing) very hard to read. You might consider changing that.

hajrice8• 16 years ago

UPDATE: There seems to be a bug in with creating a project. I and my my partner are working on it right now. We're very very sorry about this bug. An update will arrive when we fix it.

stefanobernardi• 15 years ago

I'm a bit late to the party, but was just wondering how can you justify such a price. Why don't you have a 1 project plan?

Show HN: Chalkboard, a better way to plan/spec software projects

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