

UX Design for Startups - mtreder
http://uxpin.com/ux-design-for-startups.html

======
SkyMarshal
Thanks for the ebook, a little feedback in return:

After providing my email address for the ebook, I followed through and created
a trial account for your site, and checked out the wireframing tool.

At first glance it looks nice, but I've been a happy subscriber to Balsamiq
for over a year now and have no reason to leave at this point.

If there are any major advantages of UXPin over Balsamiq, it's not clear from
a cursory look, which is all I have time for at the moment.

I'm also somewhat locked into Balsamiq, given that I have several ongoing
projects there.

Hence, your 7-day trial probably won't be long enough to have any effect on
people like me. Most likely I'll continue using Balsamiq for the foreseeable
future, the trial will expire, and I'll forget about UXPin.

An alternative that might work better, would be to have a non-expiring free
tier instead of the trial, with up to, say, 3 projects or something like that.
Knowing that I can experiment with UXPin in my own time, when I'm ready (say
the start of a new project which could be weeks or months away), and not lose
my work, or not lose access to it in 7 days, would be more likely to tempt me
to take the time to try it out, and ease into it if I find it better in ways
worth making the transition for.

Hope that gives you a little insight into potential customers, good luck!

~~~
mtreder
Thank you very much! Lovely feedback!

First of all I really respect what Peldi and Balsamiq did. Balsamiq is a
decent (to say the least) wireframing tool with an amazing marketing. They
deserve the number of customers they've got.

UXPin is a different tool. We're a young company established by UX Designers
and backed up with VC money, aiming at one goal: creation of The UX Design
App.

UX Design is much more than mere wireframing and we're here to provide full,
well designed, solution for any web, mobile and software team, that cares for
stunning user experience.

If you feel that you match this description, I'm sure, pretty soon, you'll
find no excuses not to join UXPin :).

We're improving our tool every day and step by step we're getting closer to
the ultimate goal.

The trial time is extendable to 30 days (click on 'extend trial' on the top of
your dashboard). What's more you can always ping us and we'll be glad to give
you further time to work with UXPin.

Cheers!

------
facorreia
I tried to get the book and a message appeared on the next page: "The
following From address failed: hello@uxpin.com"

~~~
mtreder
Popularity of the ebook totally surprised us. 700 downloads in 30 minutes
killed gmail. We're working on the problem right now. In about 10 minutes,
we'll post links to download on the landing page.

My sincere apologizes!

~~~
camus
app doesnt scale , that's a poor user experience , use a webservice like
mailgun or sendgrid at least ...

~~~
mtreder
We've switched to mandrill. Cheers! :)

------
jofo25
After you submit your email, the big white sign-up box led me to believe you
had to sign up to actually get the book. Only after had I signed up did I
notice the little paragraph saying the email had been sent.

Personally, "EBOOK WAS SENT TO YOUR E-MAIL" should be much bigger compared to
sign up. I understand you want people to sign up but concerning UX, its not
pleasant.

~~~
mtreder
Agree that might be seen as a dark pattern. We were trying to play with the
colors and labels to emphasize that signing up is next, not required, step.

If you felt bad about it - we failed. Apologizes!

We're working on the landing page right now. Thanks for your feedback!

------
zapfmann
They should listen to Seth Godin and make submitting email optional. Earn our
permission to be contacted.

Trying 10 minute mail. :-)

Also hey.. Why am I falling for this. I have no preview, I don't even know
these guys, and it seems like it is a UX consulting shop. So their marketing
worked. I know shall remember there are some lads called UXPin.

Well done. But not downloading the book. Being about UX, I don't think they
would be the best - making me give them my email on a viral marketing
campaign. Doesn't seem to clever to me.

~~~
blowski
I had no problem just giving my email address. As amazing as Seth Godin is,
blindly following (or recommending) every one of his suggestions in every
situation is not a good idea, and I doubt he would say it is either.

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ukjadoon
Hi! Just a friendly suggestion, please correct the spelling of "conquer" on
your page as it's spelled wrongly as "conquare"...that might leave a bad
impression on your users. Otherwise, great job!

~~~
mtreder
Thanks mate! We've missed that one. Correction on the way :) Cheers!

~~~
ukjadoon
Glad to help! Cheers!

------
nezza-_-
Please let me download it without giving you my mail address :/ If you don't
spam me, you don't need it..

~~~
mtreder
Well you're right. I prefer you to read the book, than fear the e-mail from me
:).

Hope you'll like it! [http://uxpin.com/upload/ux-design-for-startups-marcin-
treder...](http://uxpin.com/upload/ux-design-for-startups-marcin-treder.pdf)

~~~
DoubleMalt
Thank you. The mail form does not seem to work anyway ;)

~~~
mtreder
We've posted links to ebook on the landing page + we've changed e-mail server.
The amount of requests is so huge that we have delay in sending e-mails.
Apologizes :(

We didn't expect such a success.

Anyway you can download ebook here: * [http://uxpin.com/upload/ux-design-for-
startups-marcin-treder...](http://uxpin.com/upload/ux-design-for-startups-
marcin-treder.pdf) * [http://uxpin.com/upload/ux-design-for-startups-marcin-
treder...](http://uxpin.com/upload/ux-design-for-startups-marcin-treder.epub)
* [http://uxpin.com/upload/ux-design-for-startups-marcin-
treder...](http://uxpin.com/upload/ux-design-for-startups-marcin-treder.mobi)

Thank you so much!

------
digitalengineer
thank you for the book and the good links inside.

@ HN community, @mtreder, I'd love to hear what you think about Axure
<http://www.axure.com/> ? I'm currently studing it and it has a lot of great
features (more than most tools), including the ability o generate a spec sheet
and html/css prototype without actually requiring me to do the actual html/css
just for a prototype. Have any of you got any experience with Axure? Pro's?
con's?

~~~
madoublet
I briefly used Axure and found it to be pretty solid. I know a lot of UX
professionals that swear by it, but frankly it was not for me. For lo-fi
prototypes, I still use paper. And, as I move into higher fidelity prototypes,
I find it much easier to just code the prototype in HTML/CSS/JS. The primary
benefit being that I can easily prototype responsive layouts without double
(or triple) work, and the final product can be used as an input to the
development process.

~~~
digitalengineer
Thank you! I see the ability to communicate within the file (working
assumptions, feedback and priorities) as a real pro. Also; I've tried html/css
and as a designer I'm just not fast enough in it. I don't have the time to
keep learning design, ui, ux _and html/css_. Axure looks like it allows me to
concentrate on the user, the flow and the ui/design without worrying about the
code and all the browser-stuff related to it. The generated prototyes allow
for good testing.

~~~
madoublet
My only cautionary advice is that it is becoming more common to see the UI/UX
role to encompass design, HCI, and front-end development. You might be
limiting yourself by having a narrow focus.

~~~
digitalengineer
Thank you, I see a much bigger role for UI/UX these days. It's everywhere and
-as I see it- it working with Axure would allow me to create high fidelity
prototypes, much better than my old friend OmniGraffle. I enjoy working with
wireframes, flows and solving problems. It's what I do, even more than
designing. I'd like to be able to build html prototypes without the 'hassle'.
(Dangerous thing to say here at HN, but I don't much like coding and html/css.
I do like working with developers/frontend pro's).

~~~
madoublet
Completely understand. I know a number of successful, well-respected UI/UX
folk who do not code.

------
nicpottier
On the confirmation page after you submit your email you big giant headline
seems to have a typo:

"UX DESIGN TOOLS BUILD BY UX DESIGNERS"

Should be BUILT not BUILD no?

~~~
ziebak
Fixed, thanks!

------
bobthedino
On the front page, it should be "advice" not "advices".

~~~
ziebak
Fixed, thank you! :)

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DevoAKA
Sweet, thanks! I will suggest that the "Email This eBook To Me" button have a
'cursor: pointer' CSS property.

~~~
ziebak
Done:) Thanks!

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jaxonrice
fyi if you click on the ebook link to read the pdf in the browser (ie on
Chrome) and try to click back in order to sign up to uxpin then you get an
error message.

The ebook itself is an excellent introduction to UX.

~~~
mtreder
Thanks! We're checking it right now.

------
piocan
Great job.

~~~
mtreder
Thanks! :)

------
ahoyhere
My advice is not to listen to the no doubt tiny percentage of people
complaining about the email delivery. Hard fact of business: if people hate
commerce, they won't buy from you. It's a mistake to tailor your business
around people you can't sell to… probably sounds obvious, but we're all built
to respond to the squeaky wheel instead of the 4 other wheels who roll along
happily.

Don't hamstring your future business success simply because your offer isn't
right for everyone with an "add comment" button!

Email newsletters -- opt in, permission marketing, like yours -- are gold.
Readers love them, and they do gangbusters for your sales!

~~~
edgesrazor
I 100% agree with you. It's a 127 page book on UX design written by someone
with what appears to be a great deal of knowledge on the subject.

The bottom line is when you're trying to run a business, leads and exposure
cost money. They wrote a book and asked for an email in return. To me, that
seems like a fair trade - especially for something as critical as UX.

------
camus
Downloading the book is a poor user experience at first place ... just let me
download it right away or even better , just let me read that thing online...
and make me download the book only if i'm interested in it. That's what user
experience is about.

~~~
wikwocket
When did this get to be a Java forum with 27 "send me the codes" posts at the
bottom of each thread?

User experience is indeed about making things smooth for viewers, but
considering you could probably sell an eBook like this for $29 to $39, I think
asking your email in exchange is fair! :) Especially considering you can
unsubscribe with a click or two if you're unhappy about it.

------
kyro
You're asking for my email address? What're you trying to do, hack into my
bank accounts? Might as well ask for my social security too!

What's wrong with just giving me the ebook without expecting anything in
return? Now _that's_ good design.

Anyway, overlooking that, this actually looks pretty interesting. I'll make my
way through it this week!

~~~
mtreder
Don't expect to be spammed, but rather expect to get an occasional e-mail from
me (with UX-oriented stuff only). It won't be regular. It won't even be once a
month. Obviously it's a form of gratitude for the effort of writing a free
ebook.

I don't take it too serious though. In the comments below you'll find links to
the ebook :).

~~~
kyro
I was being totally sarcastic there. You have every right to ask people for
their email addresses, especially because it looks like you've put a ton of
work into producing this ebook.

~~~
mtreder
Damn, sorry I didn't get it. Thanks mate!

