

Ask HN: Demo or Video? - vshlos

I know dropbox had a lot of success by putting together a video of their idea. I created a demo page, do you think this is as effective? http://oim.ae/chatdemo
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cmarshall
I think part of the reason that dropbox's video works so well is it shows you
how dropbox solves a problem, if they just had a technical demo of how their
stuff synchronises files then techies would see it and realise how it was
useful, but a person on the street probably wouldn't.

I can see where your app would be good, but I'm a developer and I have friends
with English as a second language. If you had a video that showed someone
catching up with a person they'd met on a holiday in another country or
something similar then I think it'd put the problem you're solving in context
better than the demo.

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vshlos
I like that idea of doing a video, but instead of showing what are the
different features of the application, show the problems this solves. Thank
you!

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T2P
Instead of settling for one or the other, you could write some jQuery that
interacts with the forms using some predefined dialogue. Maybe have a half-
dozen of these scripts made that rotate when the script runs out or the user
reloads. Possibly add some humor in these scripts? just to get the user to
watch the show a bit longer. When the user clicks in the chat, maybe
relinquish control from the javascript to the human so they can test drive it.

FWIW, I think it's neat. But for some reason, my brain acted like a deer in
the headlights when I saw the two chat boxes side by side like that.

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gumbo
I also suggest so. People like video as it is clear and they can see what they
can do without much effort.

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podman
I think this might work well for people who like to experiment, but it might
not work as well for people who like to passively learn about things. It could
be interesting to also create a video demo and then split test the two.

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vshlos
I will try this! thanks!

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robflynn
Excellent work on the Russian text input. I was easily able to sound out some
russian phrases that I know and input them correctly.

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vshlos
I was thinking about making that an open source jQuery plugin. If you would
like I can provide it to you. There are a few issues with it right now
however. After I fix those issues, I can provide it.

~~~
robflynn
That would be cool. I'd love to play around with it.

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Geee
Definitely do a video, it would demonstrate really well what the app does
without need of user interaction.

