I would like to share a project I have been working on with you – it's still early in development, so lots of polish is needed, but I would love to get your feedback.
The problem I am trying to solve is that for many entrepreneurs who want to start their own online web application, it is very expensive and time consuming to hire developers to create their initial prototype, and as a result it's difficult to continuously fine tune and improve their ideas. Existing mockup tools are either too high-level (focusing solely on the UI and less about the functionality) or too limited (works only for a very specific type of application). That's why I have created Beta In A Box – it's an online prototyping environment that allows users to start creating their web application by first picking a recipe (a template), and implements the behavior using basic building blocks (similar to how IFTTT works by defining triggers and a sequence of activities)
The hope is that it would be valuable for entrepreneurs who are either uncomfortable with coding or would like to quickly prototype their ideas, to continuously improve their ideas and eventually hire developers to build the final design, once the idea has been validated and an investment to defining an optimized version can be justified.
Please give it a try, and let me know what you think. Thank you and have a great day building apps!
You'll go very far with that one. I haven't clicked the link yet but this is definitely the way forward. Don't sell for less than a billion and please do a version for Android that can be used offline using Cordova.
Thank you -- currently, my main focus is for prototyping web application, as there are already a few big players in the mobile app prototyping space and I would like to learn more about how users prototype applications before venturing into that space -- but it's definitely something I'll consider in the future and thanks for your interest!
Love the idea, but it seems a bit rough around the edges right now. Some thoughts:
* It's unclear from your site what your target audience is. It feels almost like it's targeted more at developers than entrepreneurs. You should make it clearer that it's aimed at nondevelopers, so they don't get scared off.
* Why can't I see the interface without signing up? There aren't even any screenshots that I can find on the site. I want to know whether it's even worth my time to sign up.
* Why isn't there a plan cheaper than $99/month? The 30-day trial is nice but sometimes it takes longer than 30 days to get an idea off the ground. Perhaps a "Bare Bones" or "In Development" tier with only 5 registered users, 1000 calls/month, forum-based support, etc.
* What are calls/month? Would a nondeveloper even know what a "call" would be (seems like their initial though would be support call or something like that...)? Perhaps make this something more easy for a nondeveloper entrepreneur to understand (pageviews)?
* There seems to be a bug on the login/signup page (Chrome 25 on Windows, if that matters). Clicking "Join Us" causes the email field to immediately try to validate - meaning I get a big red alert up there when my attention should be on the pricing/plan information below. If I click the "sign me up" link below, it's apparent I don't even need that form - so why should it be being validated?
Thank you very much for your input! It is very helpful. Yes, the wording right now are not very clear -- being a developer myself, I need to get better at describing the application for non-developers =)
Regarding not being to see the interface without signing up, I am preparing screenshots and a short screencast to use right now. Stay tuned =) I am also working on being able to let users work on their application without signing up at all, similar to how shopping carts application allow users to sign up at the end of the process, but that's longer in the future =)
Thank you for your feedback re: pricing. It's definitely something I'll consider. The current pricing might be a bit pessimistic in terms of the amount of traffic I'll receive and the support I need to provide, and I was thinking it's easier to later reduce the price than to increase if I were to underestimate =)
The calls/month comment is very useful -- a couple other users had also commented on that, and I'll work on clarifying what it is and your suggestion about using pageview is very good.
And thanks on the bug report about the sign up/login page -- I am using an onblur to validate and opening the signup causes the email field to validate -- I'll fix that =)
Thanks for your input! I love HN because of comments like yours!
5 comments
[ 2.5 ms ] story [ 18.0 ms ] threadThe problem I am trying to solve is that for many entrepreneurs who want to start their own online web application, it is very expensive and time consuming to hire developers to create their initial prototype, and as a result it's difficult to continuously fine tune and improve their ideas. Existing mockup tools are either too high-level (focusing solely on the UI and less about the functionality) or too limited (works only for a very specific type of application). That's why I have created Beta In A Box – it's an online prototyping environment that allows users to start creating their web application by first picking a recipe (a template), and implements the behavior using basic building blocks (similar to how IFTTT works by defining triggers and a sequence of activities)
The hope is that it would be valuable for entrepreneurs who are either uncomfortable with coding or would like to quickly prototype their ideas, to continuously improve their ideas and eventually hire developers to build the final design, once the idea has been validated and an investment to defining an optimized version can be justified.
Please give it a try, and let me know what you think. Thank you and have a great day building apps!
* It's unclear from your site what your target audience is. It feels almost like it's targeted more at developers than entrepreneurs. You should make it clearer that it's aimed at nondevelopers, so they don't get scared off.
* Why can't I see the interface without signing up? There aren't even any screenshots that I can find on the site. I want to know whether it's even worth my time to sign up.
* Why isn't there a plan cheaper than $99/month? The 30-day trial is nice but sometimes it takes longer than 30 days to get an idea off the ground. Perhaps a "Bare Bones" or "In Development" tier with only 5 registered users, 1000 calls/month, forum-based support, etc.
* What are calls/month? Would a nondeveloper even know what a "call" would be (seems like their initial though would be support call or something like that...)? Perhaps make this something more easy for a nondeveloper entrepreneur to understand (pageviews)?
* There seems to be a bug on the login/signup page (Chrome 25 on Windows, if that matters). Clicking "Join Us" causes the email field to immediately try to validate - meaning I get a big red alert up there when my attention should be on the pricing/plan information below. If I click the "sign me up" link below, it's apparent I don't even need that form - so why should it be being validated?
Regarding not being to see the interface without signing up, I am preparing screenshots and a short screencast to use right now. Stay tuned =) I am also working on being able to let users work on their application without signing up at all, similar to how shopping carts application allow users to sign up at the end of the process, but that's longer in the future =)
Thank you for your feedback re: pricing. It's definitely something I'll consider. The current pricing might be a bit pessimistic in terms of the amount of traffic I'll receive and the support I need to provide, and I was thinking it's easier to later reduce the price than to increase if I were to underestimate =)
The calls/month comment is very useful -- a couple other users had also commented on that, and I'll work on clarifying what it is and your suggestion about using pageview is very good.
And thanks on the bug report about the sign up/login page -- I am using an onblur to validate and opening the signup causes the email field to validate -- I'll fix that =)
Thanks for your input! I love HN because of comments like yours!