

Show HN: Our new Startup - Interactive travel guides - Mamady

Over the last year, me and my co-founder have been working on a startup that provides a marketplace for what we call "self-guided tour itineraries". The best way to understand it is to have a look, here is an example:<p>http://www.unanchor.com/itinerary/view/149<p>We just did our public launch today - it would be great to get your feedback on it. Be blunt, we can handle it :)
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kls
I think you have a good start, have you ever thought about getting the
itinerary out of a PDF and into a more interactive medium. A mobile app could
do some pretty cool stuff, say you purchase an itinerary and it is pushed to
your phone, you could do on location things like offer special discounts from
vendors as well as location aware items like restaurant review integration
from yelp or urban spoon, etc.

Taking it to a mobile platform as opposed to or in addition to a PDF opens a
world of revenue opportunities as well as makes for a better overall user
experience.

You should take a look at my profile, I have done a lot of travel related
stuff and exited a few start-ups in the space. If you guys ever want to chat,
I can offer you guys some good advice on how to position your app

. As well, please take this with a grain of salt, but you guys need to get a
graphic artist, pictures sell travel and they need to be great, a travel
brochure should wow people and get them excited about the destination. Design
is so critical in travel.

Also 70% of travel related decisions by couples are made by the woman.
Remember that statistic when your designer works on the site, you should try
to remain neutral in design, but if you cannot, lean toward more feminine
qualities, soft curves, lighter colors. Images of attractive women do not
drive away women, but they will up your male conversion rate. A masculine
young male can reduce your conversion (in heterosexual markets), try to employ
images of couples with an older attractive male and a younger attractive
female. Ensure that they are tasteful but employ them as people like to see
attractive people having fun. I could go on for a month, if you want to chat
hit my up on Skype, it is in my profile.

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Mamady
Thanks for the great feedback. We have just recently launched the second
version of our platform, which allows for interactive itineraries, but if you
want to "take it away" with you, it still needs to be downloaded as a PDF.

We are in the process of building our mobile apps - unfortunately we lack
inhouse skills for this, so it has taken us longer than it should have.

Regarding design - although we know we have to improve our design, we didn't
have the insight you just provided, very useful information - thank you.

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petervandijck
"if you want to "take it away" with you" -> it needs to be a mobile app.

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rishi
Hi Jason - I've been following your company for a while now and really love
the service you provide! Congrats on the public launch your product is getting
better and better.

My biggest feedback is that I found the left hand navigation to be really
confusing. Instead I would use big beautiful travel images to draw the reader
in so they will actually read your sample itinerary.

If you ask any big time blogger what the #1 tactic to draw a reader in it is
always a combination of a written compelling tagline and an awesome image.

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LifeAfterCubes
Thanks Rishi -- I really appreciate the feedback. That's interesting and not
something we had thought about.

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md1515
Hey Jason, I'd like to help you out. This seems like a really cool idea. I
lived in Europe and traveled extensively while living there. Can you send me
an email? It is in my profile..

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LifeAfterCubes
Thanks, will do.

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AznHisoka
I entered hawaii and got nuthing.

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LifeAfterCubes
Unfortunately we don't have anything in Hawaii yet. Thanks for checking it out
though.

