

Ask HN: What do you think of our site? - mmul
http://www.txtms.com

======
mkyc
Looks crowded and confusing.

Read and apply this: <http://www.uxbooth.com/blog/good-call-to-action-
buttons/>

The nav bar, the log in button, and the two red links are all too prominent,
so nothing jumps out. Topright signin, large login, red sign up for free,
bottom left sign up - redundant. How it works in navbar, Help, red See how it
works, What is Txtms - redundant. Every extra option is one less reason to
choose ANY option.

I have no idea what your site does. However, when I read the "tip", everything
became clear: "To start sharing your profile, have any mobile user text your
User ID to x@txtms.com." Reword that and put it on the front page. You also
might want to explain why this isn't just a business myspace for mobile
phones.

------
Zev
But what does it _do_? I get that it lets me create and share a profile, but
then what? How do people view/save it on their phones — Do you just send a
text message with a blob of information to pick through? What to they do with
my profile beyond receiving it? Why do they need to create their own profile?

~~~
patio11
"Business cards, minus the paper." would probably make that a lot easier to
understand, and I think it accurately answers the questions:

1) When meeting a person, rather than giving them your business card you say
"Text 12345, which is my number, to this address" and then your business card
shows up on their phone automatically.

2) They use your profile information however they would normally use contact
and professional information. Its just a business card, after all. Go nuts.

3) You don't need to have a business card to get a business card, but it is a
good idea anyhow.

~~~
Zev
A name + position + email + company name + phone number can easily add up to >
160 characters, which is the max a text can have. Having information split up
across various texts isn't too useful; makes it annoyingly irritating to read
a phone number, for example.

And with this method, the person receiving the contact info either has to:

A. Have a good memory in order to remember everything to reenter. This is
irritating at best and very difficult at worst. Lets say there's more then one
phone number to enter? Or the person has a slightly unusual name. Or any
number of factors.

B. Have a few minutes to spend flipping back and forth between the message and
the contact. This is time consuming and much slower then just trading business
cards.

//edit: Perhaps my original question would have been better phrased as "But
what does it _do better then what is currently done_?"?

------
kiwidrew
Like the other posters have already said, it wasn't immediately apparent to me
what service is actually being offered. The 'tip' which is buried on the how
it works page definitely needs to be prominently shown as it does (somewhat)
help to explain the service.

But that still doesn't tell me what happens when someone texts my user ID to
x@txtms.com. (And they're probably doing this in response to me telling them
to 'text kiwidrew to x@txtms.com for my contact details'.) Questions that
immediately come to mind: Do they get a text message in response which has my
details? Do they have to sign up to txtms.com first? Will this somehow
automatically add my number to their phonebook? Is it actually any faster to
give them my user ID and the x@txtms.com address? Why not just give them my
phone number and email address, which is probably about the same length and
easier to remember?

After examining the Help page in detail, it sounds as though the person
sending a message to x@txtms.com (to get my details) won't get a response
until I log in to the txtms.com website and approve their request. But if I'm
out and about (away from web access) and tell someone to text x@txtms.com for
my details, _nothing happens_ for several hours -- and if something went wrong
(like the text being sent to the wrong address), neither of us will know until
it's too late to do anything about it!

------
hwijaya
I try to click around and read few times, but, it's very hard for me to get
the idea on "why i should use it". Maybe this high-concept pitch needs some
reword. "Share your info with a single text message!". IMO, it's everything,
and, it's nothing at the same time.

It probably works much better if i can have some context. As patio11 suggested
above, "Business cards, minus the paper". Nah, that i got it on why i need to
use the app.

------
asmosoinio
Where are the dates for the posts on your blog?

<http://txtms.blogspot.com/>

------
paraschopra
Name is hard to pronounce

------
bf
"We might have a job opening for you, but only if you submit your business
profile IN THE NEXT THIRTY SECONDS."

No, just kidding, I like the site. It has a nice minimalism feel like most
good sites..

