Ask HN: Bash on my new webapp?

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3163079

by dholowiski • 15 years ago

2 8 15 years ago

news.ycombinator.com

I just reached what I like to think is MVP last night and I'd really appreciate it if you'd bash on my app for a bit and give me your feedback.

I'm looking specifically for a few things. First - can you figure out what it does? This has been my biggest problem so far as most people can't figure out what it does. Second, would you use, and pay for it?

Right now there is no way to pay for the service, but it would be great if you'd sign up for a trial account and let me know how the process works. I'd like to hear about any usability issues as well, or outright errors. I have tons of extra features planned, but I'm bootstrapping so I'd really like to know if you think this is viable project. Thanks for your help!

dholowiski3• 15 years ago

Clickable: http://onepix.me

bwillard• 15 years ago

Just signed up, couple thoughts:

- I think it is pretty clear what you do, so that is good

- The left right buttons on the homepage weren't working for me

- after signing up its weird to see some red text "You're 33% of the way there...", it makes me think something went wrong.

- its also a little weird that I have to add my e-mail address again to create my first notification, maybe that should be pre-populated with the address I signed up with to save a step when signing up.

- I got 2 e-mails every time (signup, e-mail verification, notification)

But it looks cool, I will give it a try on some of our pages, nice work.

dholowiski3• 15 years ago

Thanks! I'll check in to the duplicate message thing. I'm glad that it was pretty clear what it does. The red text was to guide you through the process of setting up your first notification but obviously it needs some work. The reason it asked for your email address a second time was that you can receive notifications on other email addresses, not just the one you sign up with - but now that you point it out it does seem dumb that you have to add it a second time and makes more sense for me to automatically add your primary address.

iSloth• 15 years ago

"Put the Image in an HTML email and know exactly when the Email is opened."

Do most eMail clients not block images because of this client tracking, gMail and Outlook spring to mind.

dirkdeman• 15 years ago

Just signed up too, and I agree that it looks very good! I'll test drive it for a couple of days to see how it works. I can imagine it's very cool to get notified whenever a new user signs up, but once you get to the point where you have 1000s users every day it could get annoying... I'm not at that point though so I want to know!

dholowiski3• 15 years ago

Yup, you've got it exactly. You probably wouldn't want to put it on a page that got 1000's of visits a day. Thanks.

cschmitt• 15 years ago

I think it is a good idea for non developers, but as a developer I would know how to implement this feature without needing your service. So I would be a little worried about your target audience and really making your webpage speak to those people.

Here's my 2 cents on some things I saw: - Plans and pricing has some css issues - Signup page has three sign up callouts. Maybe put some benefits on that page and remove the duplicate call outs.

OpenAlgorithm• 15 years ago

Personally I would really focus the ability to know when your email has been read, there are many analytics software providers that give you far more detailed statistics than your package will.

While I know there are email trackers and from a commercial point of view you would be using an email marketing provider.

But from a consumer's point of view tracking when a really important email has been sent could be a great idea. I would use it if I was sending an email to someone I hadn't contacted before but respected a lot and placed a high value on being in contact with them.

As a result if I was running the site, I would focus the branding and marketing on the consumer level, simple to use email tracking versus commercially focussed stuff.

Also tip: maybe don't use so much tech mumble on the homepage, tell the user about the results of your technology on the homepage and the details of the technology on a sub-page, otherwise you are just confused if you are coming from a search engine or social media site.

So something like: "copy and paste this one line into your emails and know whether the recipient has read your message".

Looks like a cool idea so keep going.

Ask HN: Bash on my new webapp?

Related Stories