

Ask HN: Review my startup - Osef

Hi Everyone,<p>This is the first time that I've submitted anything here, but I follow and read HN daily.<p>OSEF launched a few days ago. It's very much a functioning minimum viable product, but there's still work to do. It's bootstrapped by me and my partner.<p>OSEF is a collective photo sharing service that  lets any single group of people, even those that don’t know each other, to create a collective private photo album, wherein each participant can contribute photos, comments and invite new participants to the group.<p>http://osef-app.com/<p>* You can check out album number 1372 which I created for Hacker News. Feel free to add your pictures and test the system.<p>Briefly: OSEF enables quick and real time photo sharing, without the prior need of exchanging email, face- book or any other address’s etc,.<p>Each album can be password locked, and the application is absolutely free - no registration is required!<p>The collective photo- album can be viewed by all participants /guests on their mobile devices, PC, laptops, and streamed live to any screen.<p>We are particularly looking for feedback about the usability, and advices for initiating a viral campaign.<p>Thanks, Sharon.
======
bhauer
Thanks for sharing and welcome! Some quick thoughts, which I hope all come off
as constructive criticism and I apologize if they do not.

* I've only checked the site on my desktop PC. The look and feel seems optimized for mobile, leaving the desktop experience spartan and somewhat odd looking.

* I am not a graphic designer, so I have no business critiquing graphic design. Still, here are my layperson thoughts on the graphics:

1\. Consider using a web font from the likes of Typekit or Google Web Fonts.
On my Windows desktop the font is Verdana, which gives off the scent of ten
years ago.

2\. The logo looks "unapproachable" or "uncomfortable" which strikes me as odd
for a photo sharing site.

3\. Margins and padding seem to have been forgotten. Take for example the
"join album" page where the text input boxes are touching the bottom edge of
their container.

* In general the forms look rushed. The album number input box isn't focused; the validation message is "Album number enter only numbers."

* Performance isn't great. It seems some page loads take a lot longer than I'd expect. It takes about a second after submitting the Join Album form.

* The notion of "joining" an album seems a little weird. I guess you use that term because once I'm viewing the album, I am also permitted to contribute.

* I uploaded a sample photo from Windows, the lighthouse. It's only ~500k but it took a good 15 seconds to upload.

* The viewer dims the background to black, which is very nice. But the controls are a little odd. They don't seem to properly reveal themselves when I move the mouse, so in order to close the viewer, I need to click twice at the bottom left. Seems weird.

Is there other functionality to look at?

~~~
Osef
Hey bhauer, and thank you for your comments.

We will consider them for our next version.

many thanks for you inputs.

Sharon.

------
alt_
You need a larger, and sparser, id space. I found a bunch of "private" albums
by just trying numbers manually.

Design is a bit plain and the button images look blurry and out of place on a
retina iPad. I also didn't find an obvious way to comment - is that not yet
implemented?

~~~
Osef
Hey alt_, and thank you for your comment.

The system was initially designed for Android, so most of the features
(including the comments) are currently available only for Android based
devices.

Regarding the blurriness of the buttons - will fix it - thanks.

Thank you for you help.

------
dear
The site design is a little boring. I know it's an MVP. Making it prettier and
more intuitive may help signups because it's a consumer oriented app. Also the
More Information button does not work.

~~~
Osef
hey dear 3, and thank you for your information.

working on it right now :)

------
stevoo
Just a SEO tip.

Google does not like - in the domain name. It will believe that you are
imitating some other site and will lower you down.

Perhaps think for a different domain name.

~~~
Osef
Thanks, stevoo

we will consider this!

------
icedchai
OSEF? What's that stand for?

~~~
Osef
Collection (in Hebrew) and Interjection (in french).

~~~
fabrice_d
In French, this is an acronym for "On S'En Fout", which mean "we don't care".

~~~
Osef
hey fabrice_d, and thank you for your input :)

have you tried our system? i would love to get as many points of view
regarding our system :)

thanks, Sharon.

------
patrickrogers
Isnt this bonfyre?

~~~
Osef
Hey patrickrogers, no - bonfyre is a closed social network app. we focus only
at the collective photo sharing - you don't even have to register with us.

bonfyre, like path - creates a social network alternative. OSEF lets any
single group of people, even those that don’t know each other, to create a
collective private photo album.

in our solution you don't need to exchange contact before sharing together!.

thanks,.

