Ask HN: Rate My App (Bingo Card Creator, Now With Extra AJAX)

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=682980

by patio11 • 17 years ago

4 7 17 years ago

news.ycombinator.com

Hideho everybody. I know it is a weeeee bit off the beaten path of the type of applications we usually see here, but I thought I'd see if you guys had any comments on my summer project.

http://staging.bingocardcreator.com

Click on either the "Use Online" or "sign up free" to try the web version.

patio113• 17 years ago

Clickable: http://staging.bingocardcreator.com

What is it: Bingo Card Creator is desktop software (written in Java swing) I wrote three years ago that, well, makes bingo cards. It is mostly used by very non-technical teachers and parents -- something on the order of 1,800 paying customers and about 100k free trials floating around out there.

What is new: While this app was a very good choice for desktopification 3 years ago, these days I thought I have both the skills and the OSS libraries to actually make a fair go of webifying it. So I thought I'd try making a version in Rails.

Feature-wise the desktop version is still superior but I think the ease of use of the web app is fairly compelling. (Your comments are appreciated.) As of the next release of the desktop version it will feature integration with the web app (allowing people to, e.g., save their cards on my server so they can move them between computers, etc). That feature is not demoable today.

Things that I rather like about the web version:

1) Live preview on card editing. (Prototype + Prawn + ImageMagick if you were wondering.)

2) Guest logins, with an "upsell" while you're waiting for cards to print. (Not a feature I would have included normally, but HN has convinced me of the utility.)

3) Copious backend analytics.

4) Time from front page to bingo cards coming out of printer: less than 30 seconds.

N.B. This is not the production system, since I want to do some tighter integration with the rest of my site and a bit of load testing prior to launch. Anything you do will eventually be wiped.

gaford• 17 years ago

I'd suggest less text and more big bright green buttons. It may seem ridiculous, but people just don't read instructions. They'll avoid text like the plague until they aren't sure what they need to do, then frantically scan. Then give up.

I'd also widen the width of the page - fullscreen gives more space for communicating and will help your app feel more professional.

keltecp11• 17 years ago

You should find a UI guy, but I like the concept... a lot

patio113• 17 years ago

Thanks. My UI guy and I are sitting down together on Saturday. "Pretty" has never been my forte, so I pay other people to do it for me.

systemtrigger• 17 years ago

I think you've manifested nicely a good business idea. I tried the web version as well as the Mac download and although I didn't send anything to a printer the Print Preview in each case looked functional. I like how in both versions you: de-dupe the word list, give the user a Cards Per Page option, and make the center square and game title customizable.

One small observation I have about the web version is that in Step 1 the "words you've added" section felt a little redundant. The user already sees a nice preview of the Bingo card as it is being updated. So each word the user adds to the card eventually appears on the screen three times. Since the Bingo card updates lag the "words you've added" updates the resulting user experience is a little confusing. But functionally everything I tried in this step worked, so good job on the word-lists controller - methods new (post) and edit (put) handled my mistakes (e.g., too few words) flawlessly.

Steps 2 and 3 in the web version made sense and the resulting pdf I downloaded looked great. You make a decent case for registering during step 3. At first I didn't understand the line "use 604 bingo activities any time you want to" but I soon realized that's a reference to your library of premade cards, which I tried and thought was a super feature.

When you introduce this web version into the home screen layout, you might want to pump it as the #1 option above the PC and Mac versions. Otherwise it might be too confusing because while the copy on your site is well-written it's pretty verbose. I would want to abstract out some of your sales pitch and whittle down the benefits - although this is maybe personal taste. As you iterate you might try to get the "a picture is worth a thousand words" screenshots higher in the flow. Also you should update those screenshots because the end result today looks significantly better than your images. That may be affecting your conversion.

As I understand you, the sole reason for purchasing a license is to remove the watermark and footnote. I notice however that neither the watermark nor the footnote seeps into the Bingo card. Since people are already using a scissors or a paper cutter to trim the (multiple cards per page) hardcopy it seems trivial for them to also crop away your branding. Assuming it's technically feasible I might inconvenience the nonpayers a bit more by positioning my watermark directly on the cards. But I see you have 1,800 paying customers - so it is me who should be asking you for suggestions.

patio113• 17 years ago

Thanks for the comments.

the "words you've added" section felt a little redundant.

While this is subtle, it is alphabetized to give teachers a quick way to figure out whether they've missed something. The downloadable version doesn't need it because the combo box is alphabetized automatically.

As you iterate you might try to get the "a picture is worth a thousand words" screenshots higher in the flow.

I have A/B tested this one extensively. Having it is better than not but the other text is more important. However, I'll be taking the occasion to do some major copy rewrites, so I might be in a testing mood again soon.

As I understand you, the sole reason for purchasing a license is to remove the watermark and footnote.

You may not have noticed the 15 card print limit in the trial version. That is the overwhelming reason people purchase. The watermark and footnote are actually unique to the web version (implementing them in Java was hellacious so I stopped trying). 15 cards was chosen to segment the market such that parents with blogs would spread the software for free but teachers with classes couldn't get a lesson out of it without paying.

wmblaettler• 17 years ago

I've enjoyed your transparency with sales figures for your downloadable app, I hope you continue the service for this new online version.

I would like to add that some UI polishing would make this quite nice. More prominent call to action pushing the online version, too.

Ask HN: Rate My App (Bingo Card Creator, Now With Extra AJAX)

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