

We've Launched... - blored
http://www.clutterme.com

======
jey
That is a horrible front page. You don't want your users to see that right
away. I do understand that you want your users to see right away that your
service is "OMG SO EASY" and everything, but throwing them right into the
empty personal page is very confusing. You should have a more general front
page that explains what's going on succinctly using simple terminology and
pictures, with a big "Get Started!" button that drops them into the editing
interface that's the current front page.

Alternatively, your front page could be the editing interface, but with the
default contents set to an explanation as described above. So the user would
just get started by removing your content and adding their own.

I understood your front page, but only after a moment of confusion. Your
average user is just going to be confused and scared away by that page. (They
have no incentive to put in the effort to figure out what's going on, so it
has to be obvious.)

Just my two cents.

~~~
blored
What front page do you have?

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ed
Alright, so the parent poster was not very constructive with his criticism but
personally I have no idea what to do with this site. And don't take that to be
a reflection of your own abilities as a developer, it just means it's time to
push through the next iteration cycle and do better.

A front page should provide a value proposition, either implicitly (allow the
user to sample your service in a way that makes its value clear, like google)
or explicitly (by stating your value prop, like photobucket). I think the best
front pages are hybrids, much like Flickr, which allow you to both quickly
sample the service and read how you should be using the site.

Just some food for thought!

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waleedka
You got a good name and it matches the message you're trying to convey. I
think that's very good. I'd suggest putting snapshots of the sample web sites
so users get a real sense of what can be done on your site. Having the sample
links as text links might not get many to click them.

~~~
Shooter
"You got a good name and it matches the message you're trying to convey."

Why? Can someone explain the name to me...?

~~~
Alex3917
Because their target users (MySpacers) view animated gifs and busy color
schemes as a form of self-expression.

~~~
Shooter
To each his own.

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chadboyda
Fantastic job with the simplicity of it all. Only suggestion I have right now
(after about 30 seconds) is to change the move block of text icon. I think
it's a "paw"? But it was not intuitive at all to me what the "paw" did. I kept
asking myself "how can I move this block of text?" Only after several guesses
did I figure out it was the "paw" icon.

~~~
blored
We're trying to get more intuitive than that. You don't really have to use the
paw, just click and drag.

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Prrometheus
When I started using it, I thought "Holy G------ S---. That is F------
Awesome!" Pardon the language, but I was excited. I mean, it needs work, but
this could become THE de facto site for any novice looking to put together a
quick website. And it gets an "A" for mind-blowing usability.

~~~
blored
We're a bitch in IE though.

~~~
Prrometheus
This is the way people are going to make websites in the future (except
techies like you and me). They're just going to pop open a site like clutterme
and CLICK AND TYPE. Do you know how much easier that is than WYSIWYG editors
like Dreamweaver? It takes a sophisticated 15 year-old to work Dreamweaver. On
the other hand, my MOM could do this, hell my Grandmom, hell: my dead
Grandmom. No HTML elements, no uploading, some slick GUI voodoo-magic. That is
soooooooooooooooooo Fuckin' cool.

Add links. Ditch the social networking shit. Make it less kiddie (or make one
for the kids and one for the adults). Bingo. Good-bye Dreamweaver. Hello THE
de-facto place to make a website.

This could seriously rock the world, man.

~~~
blored
=)

Thanks Prrometheus, we just have to keep on spreading the word.

Update: IE now works a _lot_ better.

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vlad
Sample site: <http://www.clutterme.com/vlad>

You guys should have a demo site. You can use mine.

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zach
This is totally cool. Well done.

Don't worry about the Comic Sans haters, of which I include myself. I think
it's great for this site because it communicates being approachable and
homemade. I think the very fact that it's used so much more widely by
individuals than advertisers or corporations gives it that kind of "a person
made this" feeling. Then again, this weekend I saw a church whose sign out
front was in Comic Sans... sigh.

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almost
Really needs a "save" button. I'm guessing to save the page you just sign up
but that's because I'm used to this sort of thing, your average web user is
probably not going to understand.

Very nicely done though, I'm impressed.

~~~
blored
It's automatically saved even without signing up.

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darragjm
just found a bug...if you click Options->Widgets, check off a new widget and
try to save without logging in the Cancel button stops working. same thing
goes for trying to change the background without logging in.

~~~
darragjm
checked it again this morning and it appears you guys fixed it. keep up the
good work!

~~~
alex_c
Yup, fixed it last night. Thanks for the heads-up!

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tokipin
bugs:

if i click on a picture and go back before it's finished loading, a page shows
up momentarily, saying "The image [...] cannot be displayed, because it
contains errors." nice formal english there btw

the button onclick action triggers from clicking on the text of the button
(for example, "Privacy") but nowhere else. i'm using firefox

private frames can have the object border around them even though they can't
be edited

ideas/suggestions:

those sample pages need to be actual pages. currently they're images. i saw a
working version of one so i'm guessing that's currently the only way to link
from a picture

a "settings" control for widgets (alongside the font/color stuff) for
configuring widget-specific things such as links. i'm guessing you're already
working on something like this

a few templates would be good to start people off

what's "Blank Button?"

some might find it useful if the top frame of the google custom page could be
edited, to put links in for example. making the frame persistent might also be
desirable -- hide/show on hotkey? drag & drop from host page? into a "look at
later" box?

a text widget that automatically shifts/hides/tabs/scrollbars text when
resized. supporting multiple entries would make it a nice blog widget

when clicking on a picture, show the enlargement without leaving the page

allow movement of multiple items by click & dragging a selection box around
them

\-- just some heuristics. i like the site so far. gl

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wastedbrains
Seems like an interesting personal wiki, with a very cool ability to WYSIWYG
create and move things around. The main problem I have is I can't see how it
would be anymore useful than a personal wiki. Also while the WYSIWYG it
doesn't add to the usefulness of the site, and I had problems using some of
the design features. So I like the concept, and some of the ideas are really
cool, but I don't know what I would ever really want it for.

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herdrick
Very cool. But that default font has got to go.

~~~
ModelCitizen
Agreed. <http://www.bancomicsans.com/>

~~~
nickb
Even though I absolutely hate Comic Sans, I think that Comic Sans is used
correctly in this case: text for speech bubbles. I'd use something else for
bigger paragraphs of text.

~~~
blored
It depends what page you're looking at. There are 3 versions of the splash
page we are trying out. Speech bubbles appear only on the third one.

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Zak
geocities -> myspace -> clutterme?

If that's your target market, I think your chances are good; I don't think I'd
use it, but if I had a 14 year old sister I'd show it to her.

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blored
Digg:
[http://digg.com/tech_news/Easiest_website_creator_on_the_Int...](http://digg.com/tech_news/Easiest_website_creator_on_the_Internet/blog)

Reddit: <http://reddit.com/info/2vgiy/comments>

~~~
blored
The reddit one no longer works because I deleted it. I resubmitted with a
catchier title.

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ardit33
WTF is this? Can you explain in three sentences or less what you guys are
doing with clutterme?

~~~
bootload
_"... Can you explain in three sentences or less what you guys are doing with
clutterme? ..."_

Agreed. But I'd settle for either

\- Text description of medium length - yuk!"

\- Here's a picture of how to make something with text - Sort of ok

\- Watch the video- Best

Since this is a tool it's probably better to create a viewable demo so you can
get an idea BEFORE you start. Especially for people who are not really sure
what is going on. One other thing that annoys me a tiny bit is there is no
menu so I can't really navigate anywhere so I can find out who made it,
instructions, blog, etc.

One other point. It might help users to have a graphic indicating where they
can click to edit an object. You run your mouse over an object and the
controls appear, move it away and the controls disappear. It is not
immediately apparent where to move your mouse again.

 _A bit later..._

Yep it's a pain to find the edit point. I would have liked some visual clue
(outline, dotted text around the control) where it is until I accept the edit.
I know the page is an "in-edit" page but I'd like some visual clue to controls
I have edited, and bits that still need work

~~~
blored
Good points.

I should have posted the video link.

Here's the video Demo of our site:
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=og7GBtFLZhA>

~~~
bootload
_"... I should have posted the video link. ..."_

Thanks. If you can add the link it to the demo page.

Had play with it and it does work and made a sort of messy myspace inspired
page. Couple of things I found.

\- it wasn't obvious you needed widgets to type stuff in but once I found
"options" it was

\- background + profile image upload worked fine

\- text resizing ok but as you increased the size to say 72pt the edit outline
stayed at old size

\- no problems moving controls around screen but noticeable delay (but not
unworkable)

\- worked as advertised but a bit slow but not too slow.

\- thought I would have needed grids so I could nicely lay stuff out but
realised this really not needed.

One question on style. Why have you chosen to have Ajax style edit dialog and
not say a plain html page on a separate url? I'm noticing this on lots of
sites (for me it's a pain but livable) why is it chosen?

Another Q? How do you make a hyperlink?

_A bit later ..._

Had some trouble with the login on the homepage. Logged in via the main page ~
<http://www.clutterme.com/bootload>

~~~
blored
Hyperlink = www.clutterme.com or <a href="<http://www.clutterme.com>">This
Links</a> ... without embedded styles.

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nextmoveone
I dont really like the Home Page, as a 'stupid' user I don't know what to do!

And that background thing has me stuck there in Firefox.

You should really consider redoing the home page...but other than that...it's
simple enough to use.

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randallsquared
Took me a while to figure out that the front page isn't tied to a cookie or
something. I was compiling a bug list, and then it became clear that other
people were deleting things. :)

~~~
blored
I think I was editing the splash page while you were looking at it.

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initself
You beat me to it!

I am having a great time using the site and I suspect other people will too.
I'm getting close to my 50MB limit already. It's a blast to use!

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imsteve
that actually looks rather nice.

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jshgmail
totally totally broken in safari

~~~
blored
I know, and as a MacBook user I'm totally ashamed.

