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Ask HN: Redesign after HN critique (instant "coming soon" pages app)

10 points by weirdcat ↗ HN
Hi everyone,

Last Thursday I asked HN for a review of my web app for creating instant "coming soon" pages. The response was great -- you guys really, really didn't like it (and deservedly so). :)

* Here's the original thread: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2123228

* This is how it looked before: http://soonhere.com/original.html

* Here's how it looks now: http://soonhere.com

It's obviously still a work in progress (there are still some issues, especially with IE, the interface needs polishing, there's no help etc.) but the main functionality is there.

Some stats:

* The original thread got 5 upvotes and 5 comments (not counting mine);

* The site got 150 visitors on Thursday and 30 on Friday (40% from the US, 20% from the UK -- half of that from London -- and 4% from Canada);

* Of those, 5 visitors created an account (1 or 2 with email addresses that looked real).

I'd like to thank nudge, komlenic, SHOwnsYou (I used your first instinct idea after all), pacifika and dlsay for their comments in the original thread.

Now -- before I spend more time on this instead of other projects I have lined up, I'd like to find out if the concept actually is viable. Since a considerable part of its target market hangs out on HN, I'd expect at least a few signups (the first attempt failed miserably here). If anyone signs up and activates any of the paid plans by the end of January, I'll upgrade them to a higher plan for free [1]. Plus, I pledge to describe in detail how it went if the thing actually goes off. :)

[1] (the upgrade from the 'pro' plan is a yet-to-be-named uberplan with image backgrounds, css override and other stuff -- if there's any interest in the site, it will be introduced in February; the pro plan itself is going to get updated as well)

So, what do you think about it after the makeover?

23 comments

[ 0.23 ms ] story [ 51.8 ms ] thread
jawns
$9/mo. for a handful of "coming soon" pages?

I'm sorry, but anyone who knows the actual value of such a service is going to roll their eyes ... and anyone who doesn't know that they're being ripped off will one day get tipped off, and they'll likely warn everyone they know not to patronize you. I can't see this being a sustainable business.

revorad
If you look at the plan details, $9 per month is for up to 10 pages. For people who have a lot of domains, $9 might be well worth it.
europa
It is not very costly if you compare it with the likes of http://unbounce.com (they charge 25/month, they have lot of other features , but still this is less expensive). Addition of a free plan with cap on number of monthly visits could be a nice option and might increase signups and later conversion to paid plans.
maguay
You've got a much nicer design now, and the live editor is rather nifty. However, I really can't see many people using it, especially not at $9. It doesn't take much HTML skill at all to make a single page like that, and then there's tons of CMS based solutions like that such as WooThemes' new free Placeholder theme and the dozens of similar free "Coming Soon" themes and plugins for WordPress sites.
guynamedloren
Wow, this is one of the coolest projects I've seen recently on HN. I'm not sure why it didn't garner much attention, but I think the concept is clever and the implementation is great. Here are some random thoughts:

- I knew the purpose immediately upon page load

- extremely easy to use

- controls are very intuitive and fun to play with

- preset colors are appealing and easy to adjust

- email field and message field are ridiculously simple to add/remove and look fantastic

- only usability issue: text does not center properly and I'm not sure why the text fields for the welcome message are re-sizeable (running Chrome browser)

From a developer's perspective, it really seems like you put a lot of thought into the user interface. A user who is not tech savvy would probably have a painless time maneuvering about your site and understanding the product, which is definitely one of the most difficult things to accomplish when building a web app for non-technical demographic. That being said, I just re-read your description and it looks like you may be targeting the hacker crowd, which I think is a mistake. Any decent developer (or designer) can hack together a "coming soon" page without very much effort. Also, I don't think this warrants a $9/mo pricetag, regardless of the target demographic. Perhaps you should toy with the freemium model and see how that works out.

Keep up the good work!

weirdcat
Thanks! I noticed the resizable textareas in Chrome as well; it's on my bug list. I'll look into the centering thing -- I wasn't able to replicate it so far (Chrome on a mac).

About me targeting hackers -- I simply assumed, that a lot of people in need of hosted coming soon pages peruse HN. I know I do. :)

Re. freemium -- there is a free version (no emails, one page) tucked below the paid plans, 37 Signals style. I'll think about exposing it more -- I wouldn't want to add email to the free plan, because it involves more user support and is used only by serious users, which should afford $9 anyway.

sga
The redesign is much better than the original! The proposition is clear and I like being able to interact with it.

That said I don't think there is sufficient value yet to compel people to fork over cash, given that your target audience is likely able to throw up a static page with an email form rather quickly. Or perhaps the value prop. does exist and I just don't see it, in which case I'd suggest that you focus on making the value prop. more clear.

I would find the service more compelling if you provided some analytics re. visitor information (where/when they came from, bounce rate, etc.). And/or if you were able to aid in the promotion of the "coming soon" page (not sure how ... maybe advertise coming soon pages within the network of coming soon pages .... or profile the coming soon pages and then the launched service i.e. early seo help).

weirdcat
Yeah, I thought of that. Nice thing is that "soon here" is a brand easily expandable into anything startup related.
mootothemax
Great design, but too pricey for the target audience: I can buy a "coming soon" design from ThemeForest for $5. If you could compete at that price and include hosting, it'd be a no-brainer to go with you :)
weirdcat
I actually do include hosting; if possible, I'd rather not walmartize the thing and be a "cheap no-brainer" though.
revorad
The homepage looks great, but you need to provide a lot more details on the pricing page. An FAQ list might be a good idea.
SHOwnsYou
Now that you've built in the live editor, there are just a few more steps that I would do.

1: Create a free option. 1 page, include email optin, limited to 2-500 views/month 2: If you're not hosting these pages and allowing them to be called from your server via js, start doing that 3: Advertise the free option along with the other two. Tons of research has shown that given 3 options, users will tend toward the middle option, even if it paid and there is a free option available 4: Include more info. Build a new page for the "Plans and Pricing" include the "Go Back" link, but also include more info on how it's hosted, how easy it is to use the service, and any other relevant details

weirdcat
Thanks everyone! Looks like this time I did a bit better. :)

To address some issues raised:

1. Hosting is included; the user has to set the domain's CNAME to sites.soonhere.com. The page is also accessible via http://soonhere.com/site/whatever.com, so it's easy to set up a framed redirect if needed. I'll create a downloadable index.html for this purpose if it's an option people would use.

2. There are some additional data collected with visitors' emails (referrer, search engine keywords, country). You can export it to csv (everything) or plain txt (emails only).

I added this info to the plans page; will add more details and polish it later.

One question -- did those of you that said it's too expensive thought it was hosted or not hosted?

rcavezza
Don't add a free option. My assumption is that most people that sign up will only want 1 coming soon page. Business wise - a freemium model probably won't work very well, but you may want to test this assumption.
komlenic
Excellent redesign! You really incorporated the feedback well and I definitely found this much more intuitive. Pretty great UI.

Personally, I'd consider moving the text about the free option (that comes up when you click see plans/pricing) to be a little more prominent, but this kind of thing really comes down to how you want to approach monetizing. If it were me I'd be doing everything I could to encourage people to be aware of and use the free service - I think as it sits you're going to get a lot of "ok neat" reactions, but perhaps not a lot of people actually using the service (even the free version). I'd hate to see your work languish... why not do everything you can to just get people using it?

I think the idea of paying for the email form etc is sound, but as other have noted, the price may or may not be right. That's something you'll have to determine.

ashraful
Hey, great site. I was planning on working on a similar product, and I was wondering if you would consider partnering up.

Please email me if you are interested. My email address is in my profile.

maushu
Try using a

   text-shadow: 0 0 1px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.01);
for the text. It makes the text prettier in some browsers, like chrome, by faking anti-aliasing.

Example: http://www.graphnode.com/stuff/text-shadow.png

weirdcat
Ha, looks neat! And with a little hacking it might work in other browsers as well. Isn't the shadow black though? It would mean that in my case it needs to be dynamically adjusted to the font color chosen by the user (probably by generating a fresh css snippet and applying it to the page). I'll definitely give it a try later -- these jagged edges in Windows made me cringe. :) Thanks a lot!
maushu
Changing the color should not be needed (since the alpha is 0.01). Feel free to use other colors though.
damoncali
Not having seen it before, I was confused when I landed on the page. I wasn't expecting an editor, just an intro page. I would put a traditional landing page up with a heavily emphasized "try it live" section.

edit: corrected ipad autocorrects. I don't thing a panting page is appropriate at all.

maushu
I think this works better, I don't think a traditional landing page would work here.
sandipagr
Our ideas seems to have some similarity.

http://shapea.com

Let me know if you would like to chat. Email on my profile.