

Ask HN: Review my project, fakebuttons.com - hippo33

http://www.fakebuttons.com/<p>The backstory: Last year, I was building a bunch of niche websites.  And, I'd think of features I wanted  to build.  But since I wasn't sure if features I thought were cool were actually cool, I would add fake doors to my site to determine whether or not to fully build out a feature.  Since I was building lots of sites, I did this often, and I decided to write some code just for this purpose.<p>I've now thrown it together quickly on fakebuttons.com so that other developers can test new features before building.  It's very bare bones right now but would love any and all feedback.  Thanks.
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dumbphone
There was an important question I couldn't find an answer to on the site: What
happens when the user clicks the fake button? It wasn't until I clicked on the
sign-up buttons for the paid plans that I got it.

Getting users excited enough about something to click a button and then
telling them, "Ha, we haven't implemented that feature yet!" isn't good
usability in my book - sorry.

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hippo33
thanks -- that's good feedback.

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salman89
Looks good, I would move the content where you talk about what a fake button
is higher on the page so it is seen on first load (I know this depends on the
resolution of the user). Maybe even include an actual fake button on the front
page. Its easier for people to understand what the product does if they can
see it in action. In this case, a "demo" is relatively easy to demonstrate.

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hippo33
Great idea, Salman89! Sounds like a demo on the front page is in order and
would make this more clear.

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danielfone
I'll reiterate what others have said, it doesn't give me enough information
upfront to look for more.

As a web developer, your hook line "Not sure what features to build?" has my
attention. "Add fake buttons to your website to test market demand before you
build." has me intrigued. Now I'm looking for "how does this work for me?" and
"how does this work for my users?"

In the "Ok, how does this work?" section, it stops before the bit I really
want to know. "We'll start measuring user demand for your features." How? I
think if you described the experience for users of my site, that would clear
things up.

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hippo33
yup, good point -- thanks Danielfone!

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damoncali
"Not sure what features to build? Add fake buttons to your website to test
market demand before you build." <\- some shorter form of this needs to be the
BIG h1 tag at the top of the page, not "Fake Buttons". It took a second to
figure out what it does - at first glance I thought it was an icon site.

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hippo33
Haha -- fair enough Damoncali. Good point.

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HoyaSaxa
I will reiterate dumbphone 5's point that you should make it more clear what
happens when a user clicks a "fake button." Also, I don't know if the value
proposition is there in order to demand such a high price. I would suggest
changing the pricing models. Since you can demand more money from sites that
make more money, pegging price with the number of page views might be a more
appropriate metric. Also, what is email collection?

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hippo33
Thanks, HoyaSaxa. I should probably add some sort of demo outside of the
logged in area.

Yeah, I'm still working out the pricing. Good idea on pegging it to page
views. Email collection is the ability to collect emails when someone clicks
on a fake button. A message will popup and say something like "Thanks for your
interest -- add your email to be notified when this is ready."

~~~
HoyaSaxa
Good luck with this. It is very useful. Email collection seems like a nice
feature. Just remember how hard it is to get people to pull out there credit
cards.

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ryanfitz
I can't tell what the difference is between the $9.99 plan and the $25.99
plan. If there is a difference, I can't tell from the pricing page.

~~~
hippo33
Great catch, Ryan. I haven't fully thought through the pricing.

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bakhlawa
Maybe I'm not getting it, but how is this different from putting a button/link
on my site that just points to a "Coming Soon" page and using Google Analytics
to track clickthroughs? And wait, all this for $9.99/month? I like the pricing
table categories: starter, side dish, etc. cute.

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danoc
I think to should explain it better on the site. I only knew what you were
talking about after reading the "What are Fake Buttons?" blurb at the bottom
right.

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iworkforthem
easy to click: <http://www.fakebuttons.com/>

