

I've launched my alpha (using Heroku); thoughts? - ph0rque

I have just recently launched the alpha version of my app:<p>http://ezlearnz.com<p>There are still major pieces of functionality missing, e.g. anything that has to do with user profiles, comments, voting, and other things. I'll be implementing them in the coming weeks/months. But before I do so, I will eat my dogfood and create some lessons/courses.<p>Please be gentle in your (constructive) criticism; I was an absolute newbie when I got this idea ~9 months ago, so I had to learn html, css, a bit of javascript, and ruby on rails in order to make the app. Incidentally, I'm looking for a co-founder.<p>Thanks for your feedback!
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kingnothing
I think you should retool your design because:

1\. The site requires me to have my browser window full screened at 1280x1024
resolution, otherwise it forces me to scroll horizontally.

2\. The top of the site is wasted.

3\. It looks strange to me for the background color to extend in to the main
"content area" -- maybe consider making the background in the middle all the
same color.

Beyond that... The site doesn't really tell me what it does, you should give
me some more info, and don't assume that I know what SourceForge is, although
I think Wikipedia is widespread enough to use that reference.

"try it out! In the left column..." -- the left column, immediately below
that, is your Features image with the pic of the kid.

The "comment on this" link doesn't seem to do anything, neither does "vote on
this" or "revision history." I click it and get a busy mouse cursor for a
second, but nothing actually happens.

Whenever I saw a link to a quiz or test, it just takes me to a set of blank
rich text input boxes. I don't see any questions or a way to submit what I
assume are answers.

When editing a subject, I don't see any way to rearrange the Lessons. Drag and
drop, ajax style, would be nice for that, in addition to an integer value for
the position.

Beyond the usability stuff, I'm not sure how much sense it really makes for
anyone to be able to edit the courses. It seems like only the teacher should
be allowed to do that, as the teacher should be an expert in his field and
should not need to have his lesson plan corrected in the middle of a
"semester."

All in all, it looks like you've got an interesting concept there. One
possible use I can see for the technology is that, once you get some courses
on there that are proven to be correct, you could export the whole course, or
a set of courses, to CD and sell or donate them to developing nations. You
might even be able to partner with the XO and other laptops aimed for kids who
might not have access to quality education.

You also will eventually need to get teachers to create lesson plans on the
site. I think a good way to do that would be to approach private schools and
sell them on the benefits of having that info online -- the parents can see
exactly what their kids are studying, the teachers, if they're any good, will
feel good because they're able to teach more kids than just those who sit in
front of them, the school can get some philanthropic benefits out of it, etc.

~~~
ph0rque
Thanks for the feedback. I'll be working on design improvements over the next
few days. Drag and drop, along with the things mentioned in the submission, is
something I'll be working on in the near future.

You're right about the landing page not being informative enough as to what
ezLearnz is. That's something that will probably take a while for me to be
able to come up with a pithy one-liner to describe what it's about.

Once the user resource is implemented, it will be so that once you start
editing a course, it is added to your "teaching cart", for lack of a better
description. (To extend the analogy, if you add a course to your "learning
cart", the editing ability disappears). Thanks for the business model
suggestion, as well; I have lots more in mind; just need to make the site a
reality first.

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uuilly
I know domain-names are tough to come by these days, but I just don't dig on
slang mis-spellingz in an edumacational site. You feel me cuz?

~~~
ph0rque
Not everything that ends with a "z" is slang. I'll be happy to purchase
ezlearn.com, or learn.com, once I have the money and they're available.

For the record, my first name for the app was wikinstitute.com :~).

~~~
uuilly
For some reason I always associate the 'z' in place of an 's' as pretty
juvenile slang (though funny its right place.) You'd be surprised, there are
tons of good names still out there. This is probably not one, but may be a
good jump off point:

wisdomgrasper.com

It's unregistered. I say this b/c I am in the midst of a name change. What was
funny and cute late at night is now tedious, obscure and cumbersome. Best of
luck to you...

~~~
ph0rque
Thanks for the tip. I guess I've thought in terms of ezLearnz for so long that
it feels noble and dignified to me :~). Also, the tentative slogan is "making
learning easy", so I thought ezLearnz was particularly appropriate. If anyone
comes with any better suggestions, let me know...

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whacked_new
The UI looks a lot better than the last time you submitted the link. The logo
is slick, and looks quite cool all-round. I don't really know what it does
(but I'm probably not the one who's going to be using it).

I am guessing it's a mix-and-match kind of coursework that can derive course
credits (and/or such) from various sources, existing, new, contributed. I'm
guessing this because I have thought of projects like this and this is wishful
thinking, but I'm not sure if I'm right. If I am, it's not clear from looking
at this.

Edit: on second glance, it seems to be exactly that. Kudos for taking it on;
this is a very difficult problem, and has so many unknowns (to me) that I
don't think I have a good strategy for it.

~~~
ph0rque
This is the first time I submitted the link to news.yc; I think we may have
had private communications in the past perhaps.

~~~
whacked_new
Oops, you're right! :)

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mynameishere
It seems like you have something decent going on here, but I'm so far out of
your target audience that I won't try to review it. If you want teachers to
use it, it's important that your CRUD screens closely resemble the tools that
teachers already use. I've learned that from other contexts.

Drop the ads until you get traffic. I don't know how many times I've told
people that.

Sidenote: This is a good example of how screwed up google's adsense is. I'm
seeing all of these advertisements for "OpenVMS Support" and "VAX & Alpha
migration"....all because he referred to his app as an "alpha" version. Geez.

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elai
You really have to make a better summary of what your product does. I'm not
really sure what it does or it's purpose. The top "500 pixels" is really
important to tell people what your product does.

Look at mint.com or backpackit.com for good examples. For example, mint.com
says: we're a money manager (nice summarizing screenshots), and this is how
we're better.

backpack says: We're your simple, easy small business intranet. (notice the
feature summarizing keywords in the top 500 & the title. And WHAM, a demo
video to see what it is right away.

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ameilij
I loved the idea! I would really make the subjects stand out a little more. It
seems to me your site is all about content, and at the moment content is not
king. Make the content column stand out more, and probably use different fonts
for subject title and description.

I love the idea, and I think making the subject list stand out would make your
sight more appealing

~~~
ph0rque
Agreed; content is probably the highest priority right now. I'll be working on
that (and getting friends to help); if you have a subject you've been itching
to teach, jump in ;~).

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mk
A couple things I would do for now is get rid of the ad's and add more initial
content. I think more content would convey what you are trying to do better. I
know this is supposed to be user generated content, but to bootstrap some of
the content up maybe have some friends write some stuff. How do you like
heroku ?

~~~
run4yourlives
echo mk here. I'm not too sure what it is you're trying to do. Is it just a
place to store lesson plans?

Also, Like ____ for _____ is evil. You should try to explain it without
referencing another product.

Good luck to you!

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mattmaroon
I mostly agree with your second statement, though I'm not sure I'm convinced
it's evil. "Like Flickr for video" worked out, in fact, far better than Flickr
for photos.

~~~
run4yourlives
Well, there's always an exception to the rule. :-)

~~~
eusman
"the rule is that there are no rules"

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wumi
Summary:

1\. Improve Usability 2\. Build Content "Content is King" 3\. Make it claer to
the user what your product does 4\. Wasted space with the design, and the
color may not go well 5\. remove ads (I showed a friend and he said the same
thing)

Great work so far.

I think you should come up with a clear plan and don't just keep coding.

I.e. how you will reach your audience/build content.

That's the biggest problem -- nobody, seemingly not even you, knows what your
product is, who it is for, how people will use it, or how to take or teach
classes.

I think that's an important thing to figure out.

"the future of learning is here and free"

~~~
ph0rque
It's not that I don't know my product; it just takes several paragraphs to
describe it (<http://blog.ezlearnz.com/post/29205280>). It will take a while
to distill that into the one-liner that I keep referring to. Thanks for the
suggestion, tho.

I'll be removing ads in the next several days.

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symptic
I'd love it if I had time to sit down and critique your site's design, but I
don't. However, I do think the idea is great.

I'm not quite sure the name might is entirely relative to a powerful learning
environment. It's the Z in 'learnz'.

In terms of the design, I think you could greatly benefit by comparing your
site to the site <http://quizlet.com/> . It's a great site with a similar goal
in mind, and I think if you can match wits and be competitive with Quizlet,
you have some great potential.

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tonyvt2005
I agree with what others are saying about usability, but it's great that
you're making your idea a reality.

Keep up the good work!

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chomchom
The intention needs to be a lot clearer, also you could do with some
javascript pop ups on your controls up in the corner as the alt info isn't
fast enough.

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lpgauth
You need to hire someone with usability expertise.

p.s. Anyone as a spare Heroku invite (lpgauth at gmail)

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ph0rque
I'd love to, once I have the money.

Also, invite sent; enjoy!

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lpgauth
If you can't pay for one, copy/inspire yourself from mainstream 2.0 website.

Thank you for the invite.

P.S. Don't quit, knowledge should be free!

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ideas101
i appreciate your effort to learn everything in 9 months to bring your dream
come true - good luck

