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Ask HN: Review my project, fakebuttons.com

7 points by hippo33 ↗ HN
http://www.fakebuttons.com/

The backstory: Last year, I was building a bunch of niche websites. And, I'd think of features I wanted to build. But since I wasn't sure if features I thought were cool were actually cool, I would add fake doors to my site to determine whether or not to fully build out a feature. Since I was building lots of sites, I did this often, and I decided to write some code just for this purpose.

I've now thrown it together quickly on fakebuttons.com so that other developers can test new features before building. It's very bare bones right now but would love any and all feedback. Thanks.

16 comments

[ 3.7 ms ] story [ 36.5 ms ] thread
dumbphone
There was an important question I couldn't find an answer to on the site: What happens when the user clicks the fake button? It wasn't until I clicked on the sign-up buttons for the paid plans that I got it.

Getting users excited enough about something to click a button and then telling them, "Ha, we haven't implemented that feature yet!" isn't good usability in my book - sorry.

hippo33
thanks -- that's good feedback.
ryanfitz
I can't tell what the difference is between the $9.99 plan and the $25.99 plan. If there is a difference, I can't tell from the pricing page.
hippo33
Great catch, Ryan. I haven't fully thought through the pricing.
HoyaSaxa
I will reiterate dumbphone 5's point that you should make it more clear what happens when a user clicks a "fake button." Also, I don't know if the value proposition is there in order to demand such a high price. I would suggest changing the pricing models. Since you can demand more money from sites that make more money, pegging price with the number of page views might be a more appropriate metric. Also, what is email collection?
hippo33
Thanks, HoyaSaxa. I should probably add some sort of demo outside of the logged in area.

Yeah, I'm still working out the pricing. Good idea on pegging it to page views. Email collection is the ability to collect emails when someone clicks on a fake button. A message will popup and say something like "Thanks for your interest -- add your email to be notified when this is ready."

HoyaSaxa
Good luck with this. It is very useful. Email collection seems like a nice feature. Just remember how hard it is to get people to pull out there credit cards.
salman89
Looks good, I would move the content where you talk about what a fake button is higher on the page so it is seen on first load (I know this depends on the resolution of the user). Maybe even include an actual fake button on the front page. Its easier for people to understand what the product does if they can see it in action. In this case, a "demo" is relatively easy to demonstrate.
hippo33
Great idea, Salman89! Sounds like a demo on the front page is in order and would make this more clear.
danielfone
I'll reiterate what others have said, it doesn't give me enough information upfront to look for more.

As a web developer, your hook line "Not sure what features to build?" has my attention. "Add fake buttons to your website to test market demand before you build." has me intrigued. Now I'm looking for "how does this work for me?" and "how does this work for my users?"

In the "Ok, how does this work?" section, it stops before the bit I really want to know. "We'll start measuring user demand for your features." How? I think if you described the experience for users of my site, that would clear things up.

hippo33
yup, good point -- thanks Danielfone!
bakhlawa
Maybe I'm not getting it, but how is this different from putting a button/link on my site that just points to a "Coming Soon" page and using Google Analytics to track clickthroughs? And wait, all this for $9.99/month? I like the pricing table categories: starter, side dish, etc. cute.
damoncali
"Not sure what features to build? Add fake buttons to your website to test market demand before you build." <- some shorter form of this needs to be the BIG h1 tag at the top of the page, not "Fake Buttons". It took a second to figure out what it does - at first glance I thought it was an icon site.
hippo33
Haha -- fair enough Damoncali. Good point.
danoc
I think to should explain it better on the site. I only knew what you were talking about after reading the "What are Fake Buttons?" blurb at the bottom right.