

Brutal Feedback on our new facebook app? - moorage

While our main applications are b2b, we decided to create a Facebook app in Ruby on Rails that targeted consumers.<p>I'd love to hear any feedback about bugs, anything that's unclear, and how the concept can be improved.<p>http://www.facebook.com/apps/application.php?id=20356475262<p>Thanks so much!!!
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shawndrost
Put a log of recent prizes on this page. I would also make the text less
salesy, but what do I know? At least A/B test it.

Also, I see this on the right: "This application cannot be added to some of
your Pages. Learn more." I don't know why it's there, but if you can get rid
of it, do.

Of course, seed the app with 50 installs and a few discussion threads before
you launch for real.

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moorage
Hey Shawn, Thanks so much for the feedback! I'll start investigating the
cannot be added to some of your pages... Which text was particularly salesly,
in your opinion?

Thanks again so much!

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shawndrost
Hi! I didn't install the app, as I should have mentioned in my suggestions.
I'm thinking of the two paragraphs on your splash page.

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arooni
Here are my notes:

* The error page seemed a bit cramped (I tried things like entering A points, or -3 points)

* Your Current Bid: 36 points. Bid More! (What does this mean? I'd like a breakdown of which gift cards I selected, rather than a running total. This information seems to be lost).

* I don't see how: <http://99b600c6.fb.joyent.us/how-to-win.html> explains that "The more you bid, the more likely you are to win a prize today. Your prize vote increases the likelihood of that prize being awarded today." In fact, it seems to contradict what you say on your "How it works page": "At the end of the day (Midnight Eastern) we collect all of the bids made throughout the da" ... (i.e. to prizes are always awarded, and do not correspond to the # of bids placed)....Plus that URL looks spammy for some reason (even though it's not)

* Your button after bidding says: "« Go back to Easy Money, and Bid More or Get More Points!" ... but I can't see how I'd get any more points. Sigh.

* I happen to hate the ads use Facebook style buttons to assault me with (that you see after you make a bid): "You Have 1 New Message Someone On Your Friends List Has A SECRET CRUSH on You. Find Out Who! www.Crushmessage.com"

* I like how you're not sure what gift card you'll get. Keeps it exciting and I think would cause people to want to invite others to bid on the gift card they want.

* As a counterpoint to above... I'd think that the more people got invited to this app, the less likely I am to win anything. So what's my incentive for sharing this with friends? Perhaps you could have a mechanism to give me more points for inviting users (or get a constant 10 point override whenever one of my friends whom I invited places a bid)

* Ok NOW I see that you did exatly what I mentioned above. However I had to click on the "Learn more about this game »" to find out that I could invite friends for more points. The invite friends and the more points div seems to be buried at the bottom right.

* So I just invited a friend, and I didn't get my 25 points as a referral. :( Sigh. If you're going to put restrictions on when my 25 points are rewarded, as I'm guessing you're doing (perhaps only when the user actually signs up as opposed to me sending the invite), you should let users know that clearly (which you currently don't do).

* Oh and even if I do invite a friend, its a net loss for me. I get 25 more points one-time, but my friend gets 50 points to bid... Assuming they bid, I'll be less likely to win anything. Plus if they continue to bid day after day, I'll just be even more in the hole.

* I'd like to see a better countdown clock than a simple, static string: "Feb. 15, 2008 - 6h, 17m Remaining"... make it dynamic and thus more exciting.

That's all I have for now. Good luck with the launch!

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moorage
Hey David - thanks for the feedback! We're adding a lot to our project roadmap
based on it.

I totally agree with the annoying ads. Do you have anything that can work on
facebook? =) We might also do video ads from Google, if we can. We can most
likely target according to the gift cards people want.

We're also going to add a history of bidding so you know exactly what you've
done...

Perhaps we should be giving a LOT more points for friend invites :)

I'll throw it up on our todo list! Thanks again man!

