
seeking 20-second feedback on ourdoings.com front page - brlewis

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binarybits
From looking at the site, I gather you're doing photo hosting, but that's
about all I gather. What I think you should be thinking about is "How am I
different than flickr?" As far as I can see, none of the "other features"
differentiates your site from flickr. So why would someone go for your service
instead of a trusted site with a huge network effect?

And as another poster said, you shouldn't brag about stuff that's little more
than basic functionality. Sorting by date is not a cutting-edge feature.
Neither is not spamming the user's friends. Or "easy access to full size."
Listing those sorts of things as features makes it look like you have so few
real features that you had to stretch to fill out your list.

Finally, you need to figure out what your audience is. It's extremely unlikely
that you're going to beat Flickr at their own game, so you need to find a
niche they aren't serving well. Frankly, I'm having trouble seeing what that
niche would be, but if you want to succeed you're going to have to find it.

~~~
brlewis
On flickr, as on almost every photo-sharing site out there, you have to decide
how to organize your photos into albums. When you have kids, some photos don't
fit neatly into one or another album, and you spend too much time deciding.
Letting the timestamps do the organizing for you is a big win for people who
don't want to spend time organizing. No, it isn't groundbreaking technology,
but it's worth bragging about to people who have photos to share but don't
have time to organize them.

The email feature is great for keeping friends up-to-date with what you've
been doing. When you email a link, there's a decision people have to make as
to whether they should look now or later. With embedded thumbnails they can
see at a glance how interesting your latest photos are to them. I use the
feature to keep up with old friends and former coworkers, as well as family,
and it's the feature that generates the most excitement.

There are sites out there that spam your friends after you invite them to see
your private album, and sites that don't give you access to the full-size
photos you've uploaded, so those features are worth mention. If the bulleted
list distracts from the main distinguishing features, do you think I should
just make "other features" a link to a separate page?

I'm definitely not trying to beat flickr at its own game. Still, I am trying
to find the right niche. Parents like ourdoings.com when I show it to them,
but I still haven't found the market where people's hair is on fire.

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PindaxDotCom
I don't mean to be harsh but the design of the site is sorely lacking. It
looks like your design was trying for zen-like simplicity but instead just
looks amateurish. There is much wrong with the design, and instead of posting
a short novel on the subject I would recommend googling "basic design
principles" or going into your local Barnes & Noble and finding the same.

Beyond that, I would also criticize your choice of domain name. It is good
that you are using real words in your domain name, but the words "ourdoing"
has nothing to do with photos, time or email, which I take it is the essence
what you are offering. A domain like "bestphotoemail.com" would serve you
better even if its not your brand name.

I do like your logo, conceptually at least. It needs work and should be more
prominent.

~~~
budu3
Well there's nothing wrong with a simple design. As long as it helps get the
user what they want. It's got that craigslist feel to it. I just think (s)he
needs to improve the usability. As a user I wanna be uploading/sharing/viewing
pics in as few steps as possible. I found the demo lacking and I had to log
out of the demo, then go back "hosting plan" to sign up, then wait 20 mins for
my email before I could start using the service. That being said, keep up the
good work. As for your business model, I don't think I'm qualified to comment
on that.

~~~
brlewis
This is very useful feedback; I wish I could mod you up twice. I'll put it at
the top of my list of gaining-new-customers features. Making existing
customers happy is higher priority, though, and I have a few things on that
list to get out of the way.

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maxklein
Hi, Answer: No, you are not there yet. Let me give you some advice. Forget ALL
the features you have added. Don't pimp them on the front page. There is
really only one unique thing about your site, and it is what you should
concentrate on:

Timeline based albums.

Everybody things they are good at everything. There are two things you are not
good at - copywriting and design. So long you do not learn that, you will
continue to fail with that site. That's why people specialise, so they get
good at something. For example:

"Your photos are _automatically_ organized by date."

What were you thinking? You think that "automatically" is important to most
people looking at your site? No, it's not! That's a technical feature, it's
not a dream of people. You are not conveying the correct impression.

Your title is "Amazingly simple photo sharing". Okay, first of all, "Amazing"
has been overused and means nothing. "Simple", well everything is simple once
you know how to use it. "Photo sharing". So the focus of your site is sharing?
Like, you make the process of "sharing" very simple?

I did not read a single one of your features, because there are just too many,
and you do not highlight the most important.

Back to the point - what I'm trying to say is just stick with pimping and
developing a timeline based approach to storing albums. Make this your prime
feature and design your site around it.

And by the way - you are NOT a designer. Go work in mcdonalds for 2 weeks,
you'll make enough money to hire a romanian designer for $200 that will make
you a great site.

Your site looks like it time travelled from 1998.

~~~
brlewis
If you ever took a hundred kid photos and tried to organize them into albums
on a non-automatic photo-sharing site, you'd understand why I emphasize
"automatically."

I used to think "amazing" was useless marketingspeak until I saw reddit
stories succeed or fail based on the word. Yes, simple is absolutely what I
emphasize. Yes, the purpose is to share photos. It isn't a social networking
site for photography enthusiasts like flickr, etc.; it's a simple way to share
photos.

I realize I am not a designer. I'm poor enough at it that I might not
recognize good design if I saw it, except in terms of usability. That aspect
of the site will have to wait. Luckily, people seem to get a positive
experience when attention is drawn to content they're interested in, and the
current default style accomplishes that.

~~~
maxklein
You have something in your head, and you mould every feedback you get to fit
in with that concept. First rule of interface design - if people are
complaining, don't explain to them how what you have in your head is the best
approach, change it so they figure it out.

You needed a lot of time to do a lot of nothing, and if you ever want succeed,
you'll need to change that.

~~~
brlewis
Please note, maxklein, that your feedback is not the only feedback I'm
receiving, and your "first" rule of interface design is what I'm doing.

The reason why I'm not changing the page in response to your particular
feedback about emphasizing _automatic_ is that it's not coming from a
potential customer. Explaining to non-potential-customers why other people
would value this feature is not a high priority. Potential customers (people
with little free time) will recognize immediately why having something done
for them is valuable.

This entire round of feedback is for one change made in response to Paul
Buchheit's complaint last time. I've made other changes in response to
customer feedback, but didn't ask for news.yc feedback on all of them.

~~~
maxklein
You have a great idea, but you're doing so many things wrong, it's amazing.
Look at your hosting plan. Totally obscure. You're adding uncertainty. So many
little things here and there are wrong, but I see that you're the type of
person who only takes advice if it is given with a bucket of sugar, so this is
the last piece of advice I'll give you:

Do your thing, bro.

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brlewis
I previously got feedback on my photo-sharing site overall. Feedback was
(among other things) use less text but explain it better. Today I'd like a
20-second evaluation of my front page, with one simple question: After
skimming it for about 20 seconds, do you know why someone would use it instead
of another photo-sharing site? A simple 0 or 1 answer will do.

~~~
ph0rque
Well, I understand the differentiation, but I don't see the value-add for me.

But that's just my personal opinion.

~~~
davidw
Something that might make a difference for me is that I actually get to keep a
bit of the money the site makes with advertisements. There's no way I'm going
to _pay_ someone to host my photos when I can do it myself and make some money
at it.

~~~
brlewis
If there's enough interest in your photos that you could make nontrivial money
from ads near them, then you're not in my target market. Skilled artistic
photographers are well-served by existing photo-sharing sites. This one is for
photos whose value is in the story they tell.

~~~
davidw
I make trivial money from them. Enough for hosting and a bottle of wine now
and then. But that sure beats _paying_ someone to host them.

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henryw
I would suggest using a different body font and add some gradients/borders.

~~~
brlewis
Thanks for the considered feedback. I modded you up even though I don't have
enough design sense to know whether your advice is good or bad.

