

Please review KartMe - phil_KartMe
http://www.kartme.com

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transmit101
I found the design to be pretty confused, and I suspect that most visitors
will leave immediately because of this. You need to communicate what the site
is useful for, and how to start using it simply. For example, I wasn't sure
whether to start by searching for an item, or clicking the 'Start KartMe'
button on the right.

Maybe the design mirrors the fact that the site is trying to do quite a lot of
stuff. It's a pretty impressive feat technology/coding-wise, but it might be
worth tweaking the homepage (and maybe moving some stuff off it) to help ease
the new-user experience.

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phil_KartMe
I clearly struggle to simplify the message. Thanks for encouraging me to focus
on this.

Any ideas for what one thing i should ask users to do on the homepage?

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aik
Your description here makes sense, though I don't see a description on the
actual website. Really had no idea what it was. Not sure what Kart Me means
either at the moment. Looks nice otherwise. Cool design.

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timdorr
I was able to figure out that's for storing things I like, but I don't know
what the benefits of that are. Why do I want to use this service? The "Save
time & money" section doesn't tell me anything that it seems like it should.

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nollidge
Agreed. What problem do I have that this is trying to solve? I poked around a
little and did a couple searches, and I still don't know what it's trying to
help me with.

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cedsav
Here's my 2c. Feels like information overload. If I click on 'Books to read'
on the homepage, I'm expecting a list of books to read. Here's what I get:

* Picture of Phil with some unrelated stats.

* List of karts created by Phil, with the option to 'watch them all' (is that ever useful?)

* The list of books to read. Each entry has 8+ possible actions. The only useful visible info about each book is its title and a comment.

* Another unrelated list of 'most watched karts'.

* list of karts watched by Phil.

<http://www.kartme.com/user/115/karts/47>

I'm not sure new visitors would stay long enough to understand that page.

I would suggest you decide where the focus should be for each page and remove
everything that is a distraction.

For instance,

* remove Phil's data from the left column (belongs to a profile page)

* remove the redundant title "Phil's Kart Books to read" from each entry in the list.

* remove or tone down the right column.

* show a summary extract for each book, show the price and option to track price (or automatically track price when 'karting')

* strip down possible actions for each entry to 3 or 4.

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phil_KartMe
So helpful! Thanks!

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phil_KartMe
I've enjoyed Hacker News the past year as I worked on KartMe, and now would
greatly appreciate your thoughts on this free service for easily organizing
and sharing favorite books, restaurants, gadgets, recipes and more. Thanks!

* What would get you to use KartMe every week?

* What would get you to tell a friend about KartMe today?

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nobody_nowhere
I wasn't able to understand _really quickly_ what KartMe is offering. That's
my biggest hurdle to either using it or telling people.

What would get me to use it would be something that makes it easier, faster,
or cooler than tweeting, blogging, or however else I might let people know
about this stuff. (Not that I actually do any of those things while working
12h days at a startup.)

Also: name issues. When I see "Kart" i'm thinking "shopping cart" or
"mariokart" -- what's the relationship between that and sharing gadgets or
recipes? For me at least, you've got a gap right there. The "K" for "C"
substitution also gives me "KMart" associations, which probably isn't want
you're going for.

Good luck! Don't give up.

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phil_KartMe
Thanks.

Maybe i should say: "The easiest way to create a shareable list of real world
stuff"

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nobody_nowhere
Go for fewer words. "Share lists of real world stuff"

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phil_KartMe
"Wishlist for the World" ?

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nobody_nowhere
I think your ideal tagline describes what you're doing _and_ has a call to
action.

Look at posterous -- currently "the dead simple place to post everything. just
email us." Pretty wordy, there's really not much else to say about it. But it
calls you to action.

Maybe you're "Share anything with your friends and save". Depends on where you
want to take it.

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saurabh
You seriously need to take a look at minimalism. As all others have said, I
couldn't understand what your site is about. But best of luck, it seems you
have put a lot of effort on this. It looks nice too.

These guys sum it up nicely what I want to say.
<http://commandshift3.com/about.html>

>>I was going to write a sentence about why this site exists, but when I
asked, Darrell said "If it's not self-evident then fuck off." Feisty.

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mol2103
I didn't understand what the site was about. Seems like a wishlist of all
items.

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aidenn0
My first thought on going to the site: "WTF is a Kart?" Spent about 30 seconds
looking around trying to figure it out and left.

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fizx
I gotta say, the domain just makes me think of red turtle shells.

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releasedatez
haha... yes indeed

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phil_KartMe
funny. i definitely hear different allusions depending on the audience. i
guess i'm not surprised no one here focused on "kart wheels"

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drhodes
My impression is that the site is like social bookmarking for real world
items.

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phil_KartMe
really well said!

