My Bootstrapped startup webapp would like beta testers and feedback

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4240543

by padseeker • 14 years ago

7 13 14 years ago

news.ycombinator.com

My first attempt at a startup could use some beta testers - http://padseeker.com/accounts/new<p>Would love feedback from fellow hacker news members. Long story short padseeker is like weebly for real estate. It's mainly residential rental properties. It still needs work but I would love to hear from fellow developers what you think. Please make the feedback honest, and if necessary brutal.

27182818284• 14 years ago

It could use design work. Pay a student at the local university or college because even their basic work will help out the landing page you linked me to. It looks kinda fly-by-night right now. I'd even prefer the Twitter Bootstrap over it. :-/

mping• 14 years ago

Agreed. I'm going to be blunt, with a site looking like this, most people won't bother creating an account. Just use bootstrap if you're out of money. Heck, I didnt sign up because of this!

padseeker6• 14 years ago

fair enough - it aint pretty. I need to refine the signup page too.

yiggydyang2• 14 years ago

A short blurb explaining what the website does wouldn't hurt.

yiggydyang2• 14 years ago

Also - upon sign up why not just log the user in and take them to the dashboard instead of requiring them to log in again.

Seems pretty straightforward and I was able to figure it out easily - you sign up, set up buildings, add units, publish a site, and then voila people come to your site and search, request building units for rent or lease or whatever.

However I suspect your average building landlord or property manager might have a harder time figuring it out. Lots of tabs, lots of fields to fill out, and the navigation is a bit clunky.

In summary - I got the crux of the service and it seems pretty solid for an MVP. The design and ux need a lot of work and your landing page should do a better job of summarizing what the web site does.

Cheers

padseeker6• 14 years ago

thank you so much, the is the best quality feedback yet. Yeah, its solid for an MVP. The design needs work.

I'm glad you found it straightforward - that is the most important thing. I agree that the average landlord will have a few issues. It needs lots more help icons/popovers (via bootstrap). Also it makes sense to hide some of the tabs until a user has data in there. The tabs are clunky, something I may be able to improve using bootstrap.

The biggest consensus is the landing page sucks. Not that I am hearing it I would agree - but I think it was a blind spot since I've focused on the code and functionality for so long. I have my list of priorities now, and improving the landing page is now #1.

padseeker6• 14 years ago

That's fair, I would agree - the landing page is lacking. I did use Bootstrap for the dashboard, but I've neglected the landing page. I may have to consider that.

I noticed you picked some of the earlier templates I developed, I either need to improve them or push them out. I really do appreciate the feedback. Thanks for giving it a shot, I will definitely work on the landing page.

youngdev• 14 years ago

Download a template from Themeforest and use that instead of what you have now. Also, you need to describe what is the website about. Add some Header text.

padseeker6• 14 years ago

Are you referring to the landing page or the site templates?

The landing page might work, but for site templates that could be a potential issue even if I pay for a theme. The concern I am selling something, as the prices for themes go up when you resell someone else's work.

padseeker6• 14 years ago

About the text - is this an improvement?

"Build your own website for your rental property business in 10 minutes" Does that sound descriptive enough?

fiatjaf• 14 years ago

the logo is really bad. better to just write in a normal font than to do this.

padseeker6• 14 years ago

ouch

ssmc• 14 years ago

Yeah fix up the look first; grab a template somewhere and modify it from there.

My Bootstrapped startup webapp would like beta testers and feedback

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