HN, Please Review My Startup: Stormweight.com

http://www.stormweight.com/?p=ovHBEi

by jbr • 17 years ago

10 46 17 years ago

jbr21• 17 years ago

Hi! I've been working on this full time for the past three months and nights and weekends for three months before that, so your comments and honest criticism are deeply appreciated.

We'll be giving away five premium accounts the people with the highest rated comments on this thread. Thanks for being an awesome community, HN!

sarvesh2• 17 years ago

You should consider redesigning the landing page. There is way too much information crammed into one page. Also a screencast the application in action will help. The tour page http://www.stormweight.com/pages/tour asks me to signup I would rather see it action before I signup. You might also want to rethink about the color scheme.

The macbook screenshot is showing off the laptop more than your application.

jbr21• 17 years ago

Thanks for the reply! We're working on a screencast today, and /pages/tour is exactly where we plan to put it.

I'm not a designer, so I'm particularly interested in feedback about the colors. Are they too dark? We want to look professional without looking enterprise-ey; all of our competitors are mind-numbingly enterprise-oriented and look like Microsoft did their design. We were also hoping the macbook would polarize our audience (hackers and small companies).

FreeRadical• 17 years ago

please don't use so much capitalisation, for example "Deep Email Integration" as it makes the site appear cold

try and summarise what the purpose of the site in 20-30 words on the home page to de-clutter...more detail can be added in a FAQ type section

sarvesh2• 17 years ago

Reading your text is particularly hard with your choice of background color, you need more contrast there. The landing page shouldn't make people scroll to read about your product.

It isn't about whether it looks like Microsoft designed it not but what works effectively. There are a lot of companies that have created a product that doesn't look like it is enterprise oriented in the area you are working on example, http://www.pivotaltracker.com/. I personally don't think the macbook image would in anyway convince me, hacker & small company, to use your product. I am more interested in your product not somebody else's. Hope that helps.

ZachS2• 17 years ago

It's an interesting idea, the first thing I noticed was that the design doesn't look very modern or professional, it gives a bad first impression.

The outer glow on the logo is kinda tacky. I can tell you've invested a lot of time into this, so investing in a really talented designer/brander might be something to look into.

Your mac screenshot image covers up half of the learn more and sign up buttons. It's an easy fix, give this selector ( body.brochure.new_index #landing.box #screenshot a )position: relative and give em a z-index:1000 or something.

Also, you have a lot of serif fonts, maybe you should consider making your menu and header text sans serif?

raffi• 17 years ago

I have to second this. I do not have an eye for design and I know this. It's just my weakness. Having a good designer on board is an absolute must. If you want a suggestion, try http://www.monfx.com/ | http://www.mdolon.com/ -- he is here on Hacker News and he designed http://www.feedbackarmy.com and http://www.afterthedeadline.com for me.

christonog• 17 years ago

I know monji personally through entrepreneur meet ups and he's great. Also worked on a YC funded start up way back when as well.

jbr21• 17 years ago

Thanks!

position: relative is now fixed on the screenshot. Sign up and learn more buttons are now clickable.

lrm242• 17 years ago

The Learn More and Signup buttons don't seem to be working for me.

jbr21• 17 years ago

The comment by ZachS pointed this out and a fix has been deployed. It should be working now. Please let me know if it's not.

Mongoose• 17 years ago

Why does everyone and they're extended family call themselves "rockstar" now?

ZachS2• 17 years ago

It must have something to do with Guitar Hero and Rock Band.

jbr21• 17 years ago

We were looking for a way of saying "startup" without excluding non-tech small businesses that didn't consider themselves "startups." Changed to "small."

ericb• 17 years ago

I'd kill the "Rockstar" term in your copy. "Rockstar" is now a has-been...

jbr21• 17 years ago

Changed it to "small teams" -- we were trying to say "not big companies"

samg• 17 years ago

Your pricing plan page is especially difficult to read, let alone trying to compare the 3 different plans. Take a look at 37Signals' or even Apple's.

I click on the screenshot on the about page to see it larger, but it's the same (small) size.

Overall, it looks like you've got an interesting service but the whole thing could use an aesthetic retooling. The font is hard to read, and I almost get a medieval RPG feel from the icons and nav bar.

ghshephard4• 17 years ago

Love the concept - Like the Design a bit - big, blocky - easy to read, but the layout needs a bit of work to make it more concise.

A little too much information to digest immediately - brain was fried on landing and didn't know where to turn.

I created a test project, and the first thing I noticed is I couldn't add name@shephard.org, but could add name@mailinator.com - weird.

For a brainstorm app targeted at the enterprise, or small work groups, I should NOT be exposed to Featured Lists or Open Membership Lists - I'd yank that - makes no sense for this class of App.

It _feels_ like a professional application - easy to get into, easy to start using. I like the way that it interacts with the user. VERY smooth - I like the way closing a Help Window opens up more space on the screen to work.

I wasn't sure what "adding users" to the list actually did - Send them an Email? Invite them? Anything? That needs to be more clear somewhow - It apparently sends out an invitation.

jbr21• 17 years ago

Thanks for the comments! Adding member allows them to interact with your list. Try adding jacob@stormweight.com or jbr and I'll come play with you to show you how group interaction can work.

ghshephard4• 17 years ago

When modifying a list, you can't get back to the list by clicking on "Dashboard --> LIST", you have to find the "BACK" button on the left. Letting me always get back to a list with the "DASHBOARD" is a good idea.

jbr21• 17 years ago

Good point. We'll make it so the dashboard lets you go back.

ghshephard4• 17 years ago

THere is definite weirdness when trying to add people to the list. I've been trying to invite people by entering their email address - but I keep getting "user xxxx@foo.com not found" - How can an Email address not be found? I was able to enter a few addresses, but not others. It's almost like the acceptance criteria has changed in the last 10 minutes.

ghshephard4• 17 years ago

Yes - definite weirdness - BTW - I have to click on "View Source" to copy text off your pages, which throws me off, but, "You now can invite people to lists by email address, even if they're not members of Stormweight. When they sign up for an account with the email address you invited, they will be privy to the lists from which you sent the invitation."

But, I'm unable to do this _any more_ (could for a few) no matter how many times I try. Bug?

jbr21• 17 years ago

The bug was that you ran into our free account limit and we didn't give you the proper messaging. Our pricing model only gives free accounts five members per list. I've upgraded your account to an unlimited beta account in thanks for finding this bug.

e1ven2• 17 years ago

Please don't label yourself as a YC reject.

I know it's frustrating not to join the program, but we're interested in you for who you are- Defining yourself by has turned has turned you down just makes you look a little desperate.

One post that I agree with is http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=550351

Your product looks great, and I wish you all the best with it.

jbr21• 17 years ago

Thanks! Changed the title.

jmathai3• 17 years ago

This is a great tool. I've used Google Docs in the past to collaborate with others on an idea. It's not real time and there are often conflicts.

The interface is great (while some design work might help). Seemingly trivial things like the search for an idea as I'm typing one is brilliant and keeps dups from showing up. I haven't done this in a collaborative manner just yet but am inviting a friend now.

This is a great service for free. I would consider paying for it if it really does help make the brainstorming and collaboration of an idea easier. The cost would have to be nominal though, since other methods still work even though they're might not be as effective.

Additionally, it would be nice to invite someone by email address in addition to a username. I have to email or IM my friend to sign up and then wait to get his username and then add him. Would be great if I could enter an email address and it would ask them to sign up and automatically add them to the idea.

Not sure I love the name though.

jbr21• 17 years ago

Try inviting jbr to your list and I'll come interact with you to show you live updating features.

jmathai3• 17 years ago

That's really sweet :).

An IRC style chat on the left column would be a nice addition. Nothing fancy, just a way to message / chat about the ideas. It could even be auto-update message board for the idea.

jbr21• 17 years ago

You can invite people by email address and Stormweight will send them an invite. When they sign up, they'll go straight to your list.

jmathai3• 17 years ago

Not sure why I didn't see that it explicitly said email address. Awesome.

I can also see value in a mobile version of this app.

phicou• 17 years ago

My coworker and I were just (10 minutes ago) talking about the need for a site like this, so I'm giving the idea a big thumbs-up! We might try it out and offer additional suggestions as we use it.

As others have said, it could use a different design. Specifically, the fonts look kind of strange (letters don't have a consistent height) in my browser (Firefox 3.0 on Linux). Also you might want to streamline the javascript, as it looks like it caused firefox to use a lot more CPU.

jbr21• 17 years ago

The js is certainly processor-intensive; the client polls every 2 seconds for updates. Search is also done in the client, which can get kinda slow. We'll look into optimizing that code a bit more, but we are trying for "rich client," which involves a bit of client-side processor tradeoff. I'm hoping that the newest wave of JS engines (sunspider, v8, whatever's in FF3.5) will also increase the adoption of rich web clients.

e1ven2• 17 years ago

The site looks really nice!

It's a bit Strange not being able to select the text on the page- I can see from a quick look at the source that it's not all just pre-rendered images, so I'm a bit confused ;)

The idea sounds really fun, but a bit hard to understand at first. Adding a live demo page might help people understand what's going on. I know you have free signup, but it would be easier to play with a demo account before deciding if people want to join

I do like the way panels appear and dissapear as needed.Show/hide advanced options. I have a bit of flicker on FF3.5/Linux, but it's not distracting.

A demo page might alleviate the need for you founders to personally come and play with people's lists.

Good luck with the site!

jbr21• 17 years ago

Demo is a good idea. Check out http://www.stormweight.com/lists/hn-demo -- a public list I just made (open access).

gierach2• 17 years ago

My coworker gave me admin access to his ideas list, and I promptly deleted one of his ideas, just to see if I could. I was surprised that it just "went away", but I'm glad notification of the event (along with the idea itself) was emailed off to him. It would be nice if my ideas, that get junked by someone else, (or all junked ideas) went into some sort of trash bin associated with the list (and maybe only the person who creates the idea gets to purge it forever).

Edit: excellent work overall!

jbr21• 17 years ago

We're actually just marking them as deleted (acts_as_paranoid rails plugin) so we can later add an "archive" that lets you pull things out of the trash bin. We haven't figured out the UI for that yet, so it's in just an unranked idea in our product development stormweight list for now.

ableal2• 17 years ago

Two ideas, sort of corporate-customer oriented:

- Output to email.

- Host-it-yourself package.

Established mid/large-sized companies are very leery of sensitive data outside the intranet, and used to e-mail for discussions. They know e-mail sucks badly for that, but it's like keyboards - you're not going to switch layout for each task.

Frankly, I have the perception that internal web apps are for the peons to fill in the little fiddly input form fields (looking at you, HN comment box) - at the top you have emails with thousands of (mostly unread) lines quoted, plus attached presentations and spreadsheets.

Make a web app where everybody can reap results via email, even if only a few bother fiddling with the controls in the browser, and it might be a winner. Might.

jbr21• 17 years ago

We've looked at doing a host-it-yourself version a la github FI (http://fi.github.com/) or the google search appliance. Although the pricing that tier allows is quite cushy, (http://fi.github.com/pricing.html), the company they used to wrap up the installer is dauntingly priced for our bootstrapped budget (http://bitrock.com/). So that'll probably happen after we get the SaaS version off the ground.

ableal2• 17 years ago

Didn't know those existed, thanks for the links. Sounds like you're doing it right. Two 'cheaper' ideas:

- A VM with minimal customization (use existing LDAP, etc.)

- Your install in a common server is exactly like some other popular intranet package (a wiki or PHP-BB ?), and can copy its initial settings from there ...

Good luck.

jbr21• 17 years ago

We do have output to email; you can email new ideas and attachments in to your lists and receive customizable updates by email.

HN, Please Review My Startup: Stormweight.com

Related Stories