

Ask HN: Review My Startup: Szpil - jorangreef

Be well organized. Keep detailed contact histories. Review past calls and conversations. Search contacts and notes. Collaborate with your colleagues. See who spoke to whom and what was said. See what you did a year ago today. Work remotely or offline.<p>https://szpil.com<p>I would appreciate your feedback.
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pmjordan
I can't seem to find any screenshots of _how_ your app does what it promises
to do. And the only way I know what it's supposed to do is because you told us
in the HN submission, not on the site itself.

The first interaction is for me to type in some pretty sensitive information
(email, phone number, etc.), which I am simply not going to do until I feel
it's worth it.

Also: your site breaks in weird ways in Opera (10.60).

~~~
jorangreef
Opera not supported.

~~~
sz
For me that's an instant disqualification.

~~~
fjabre
What!? You're joking I assume.. What % of the market does Opera have again?

~~~
pmjordan
For an Opera user, it's still damn annoying to have to start up another
browser. I tend to have Chrome running as a fallback but it does always grate
me when people don't bother to fix their sites. And it's not as if Opera was
that fussy.

------
arnorhs
Ok, I really like your app. It's very javascript based so I'll be viewing your
source heavily, because I'm also creating similar javascript based
applications and I get into a big problem with code growth/complexity, so I'm
hoping to learn something from you.

Here's some helpful criticism. I hope I don't come off too harsh, since I
really actually like this app.

Some questions:

\- What are your unique features? It seems to be very javascript centric and
it feels fast, I guess that's a good feature.

\- What is "an account" in szpil?

\- Is there some list of all contacts? I just found "Today" - but that feels
like everything I've done today, not _everything ever_

What I like:

\- It's fast to use.

\- It's simple

What I don't like:

\- The single-colored interface - some icons might help

\- The full width layout (uncomfortable on a widescreen display) - you should
at least use max-width

\- It was confusing that I didn't have to sign up and I didn't realize I had
started.

\- I didn't realize that my name when I signed up was my username, so I put my
long name with all the icelandic chars...

\- You could do better with the feedback button. Some simple feedback form or
something like that.

Bugs:

\- My name got formatted in a weird way: "ArnóR HeiðAr SigurðSson" (Should be
Arnór Heiðar Sigurðsson) - that also had complications when I logged in/out
again

\- My stored password seems to not be bound to username, it's just always
filled in - probably because you're not using a regular login form, but a
javascript method that takes the variables and submits... too bad :/

\- When I logged in again, everything I did "today" was gone. So now I can't
find the contact I created.. :P

Good luck and keep up the good work.

~~~
jorangreef
Thanks for the feedback and hope you get some good architecture ideas from the
source. Copywriting re: "account" must be improved (an account could be a
company/organization/project). Contact lists will come when I figure out how
to do them right. For now, there's the search bar in top right. This is
probably the easiest way to switch contacts or see all contacts in a company
etc. Re: interface, the idea is to keep it "text as interface", and keep the
color simple so your data can speak for itself. The goal is to keep cutting
down on "app chrome". There is "max-width" on some elements. Re: feedback
link, good point. The formatting of your name is a bug in a titleCase function
(fix coming soon). Please check back on Monday/Tuesday for some new features.

~~~
arnorhs
Great!

You know colors really help out. You don't have to have colors all over the
place, but humans are inherently bad at scanning for text and monotoned
objects.

Maybe a word for accounts: Group ..?

Keep it up!

~~~
jorangreef
"Group" was the first name I used for "Account" in fact.

------
Hates_
Just focusing on the design aspect, I'm split between thinking "I love the
simple, clean, minimalistic look" and "It looks like it's half built, I'll
come back when it's finished". Perhaps even just the inclusion of a small logo
or a bit of colour anywhere, would give the added impression that at least
"something" has gone into the design and that this isn't just the default look
& feel of a CSS framework.

~~~
rprasad
It doesn't look any more inviting after some data has been added.

It's hard to tell what this site offers, since as far as I could see, it only
stores name, email, and phone. I can get more than that free with more
trusted, well-known services (Google, Plaxo, etc.). It's missing
import/export, sorting, communications logging, attachments, related tasks,
related documents, notes...

As currently presented, this product isn't compelling enough to use _even for
free_. $10 a month is way too much.

~~~
jorangreef
Re: "it only stores name, email, and phone" that's true only when adding your
first contact (to keep the landing page simple). Leave that specific interface
within the app and come back and the form will show more fields, Skype etc.
Re: "communications logging", once you've added a contact, click the link to
their name in the success notice that pops up, or search in the top right.
From there you can log.

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watmough
Who is this app aimed at? If it's aimed at people who would pay to manage
their contacts, then it must be able to import from any reasonable email
system. That includes outlook, Notes, Eudora, Thunderbird, Mail etc.

Importing means basically scraping most of the context and content of email,
contacts, notes and appointments.

To me this sounds like a CRM system, and if someone came to me and said, I
want to build a CRM system, I'd ask what they could bring that would persuade
me to use their system instead of something established.

Typing my details manually into a web form would not make it past that bar.

I may be missing something here, and I don't want to be gratuitously harsh,
but it doesn't really seem like the basis of a viable startup.

~~~
jorangreef
Thanks, VCard import exists. Outlook import coming. Let me know what you need.

------
jorangreef
Clicky: <https://szpil.com>

------
subpixel
1\. If the whole app experience is as quick & snappy as the screens I've seen
just poking around without entering data, you're doing something very right.

2\. As a potential customer, I need a screencast that shows me what your
service does, how it will help me accomplish X and Y better than my current
system, and why I should spend time exploring it. See dropbox for an awesome
example.

3\. You should come right out and name your competition and explain what you
do better. It's a giant pain in the ass to switch CRM midstream, and yet
there's so much room for improvement.

4\. The name is atrocious. It fails multiple tests (can your users pronounce
it? spell it? remember it? understand it?). You should really consider
changing it.

Good luck!

~~~
jorangreef
Re:

1\. Thanks. It gets better when you add more data. 2\. The idea is to let you
jump right in and try it for real. 3\. Let me know what you're using so I can
build an importer for it. 4\. What do you suggest?

------
davidw
I want to look around more and learn about the features, see some screenshots,
read about the pricing, et cetera, prior to "adding my first contact".

~~~
bjnortier_hn
Ditto. What does it do??

------
sr3d
I peeked the code a bit and you got some good stuff there, like the Model
class and the Http class to wrap on top of Prototype Ajax and also support
Jsonp. I'm actually building an app that has the contacts feature as well so
it's interesting to see another design and coding approach .

With the foundation of your application right now, you can extend it to
support CSV (or sources other) import in no time, or adding a bunch of new
functionalities. The biggest question is to find out how to charge people for
your service. I truly believe in startup that aims to make money on day 1 and
this is the only future-proof way to keep your service running for the long
run.

Also, get at least IE7 support. IE is a must for serious businesses, not like
this:

    
    
        if (Prototype.Browser.IE || Prototype.Opera) {
          var safari = Html.a({ href: 'http://www.apple.com/safari' }, 'Safari');
          var chrome = Html.a({ href: 'http://www.google.com/chrome' }, 'Chrome');
          var firefox = Html.a({ href: 'http://www.mozilla.com/firefox' }, 'Firefox');
          var links = safari + ', ' + chrome + ', ' + firefox;
          Notice.error('Your browser is not supported. Please use:', links);
        }
    
    
    

Good luck!

~~~
jorangreef
Thanks you're right. I'm happy for early adopters to use a decent browser, and
would prefer to innovate for them. I'm sure that's a large enough market. The
idea is to enable everything to be done offline, and IE7 doesn't support that.

------
snitko
Make a painless iPhone (and for some folks - Android) + GMail sync and I'll
probably pay you $10. Although, I can still sync iPhone contacts with GMail
(using a payed app because MS Exchange integration is a pain in the ass), so
I'm not sure. I like that it's simple, but there should be some killer feature
that would make me want to switch.

But maybe I'm just not your target client. What's you target audience?

~~~
bjnortier_hn
Are you on MacOS? You can sync your address book to gmail contact without
using a paid app. Add you gmail account in address book preferences and use
iSync...

------
paulnelligan
I got as far as adding my first contact, and couldn't really find then where
it was added. No contact list given, no real info given about the product. Not
going to sign up, sorry, not even for free ... no clarity to this product, $10
per month for this is a little crazy. I don't think that this solves any real
world PROBLEMS since I'm quite happy with my contact management already. Looks
more like a college project than a real world product... Apologies if that
seems harsh, but it's an honest opinion.

------
harrybr
The homepage has very little salesmanship going on, making the whole thing
rather cryptic (On the other hand, the minimalism is very refreshing so there
is a balance to be struck).

You should go read "Sign up and ramp up design patterns" by Adaptive Path:

<http://j.mp/dynuJs>

I think you'll find it really helpful. Good luck.

~~~
jeroen
Full url: [http://www.90percentofeverything.com/2008/06/16/sign-up-
ramp...](http://www.90percentofeverything.com/2008/06/16/sign-up-ramp-up-
design-patterns-from-adaptive-path/)

~~~
jorangreef
Thanks.

------
slater
I get a white page with a spinning icon top left, and this in my JS console:

Error: uncaught exception: [Exception... "Security error" code: "1000"
nsresult: "0x805303e8 (NS_ERROR_DOM_SECURITY_ERR)" location:
"<https://szpil.com/javascripts/application.js> Line: 7562"]

Firefox 3.6.6, OSX 10.6.4

------
paulcarey
I like the speed and simplicity, but without the ability to import contacts,
I'm going to treat it more like a toy than a tool.

~~~
jorangreef
VCard import is already there (available in Firefox and Chrome and any browser
supporting FileReader). Outlook import on its way.

------
ximeng
No way to browse contacts. When I use the search, Chrome's suggestions appear
on top of your suggestions, which is quite confusing. Quite neat though for a
first draft, though not sure that it offers much beyond standard webmail
contact management.

------
jeb
Am I going to have to manually enter each call myself? If so, then no.

------
messel
Might I suggest a fade in with a graphic of some type?

$10/month for contact synchronization is too high. Dropbox's 50gbytes is at
that level and I think that's over priced.

~~~
jorangreef
Good idea. I actually tried something like that but couldn't get it right.
What price would you suggest?

------
jorangreef
A variant of "szpil", "speel" means "play" in the South African language
Afrikaans.

~~~
davidw
My first impression is "spill", like "oil spill".

~~~
JakeBlz
+1

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herrherr
I would be interested in the technology and architecture behind it.

~~~
jorangreef
Javascript. NodeJS. TokyoCabinet. Views and controllers are HTML and JS. 2
static files: index.html and application.js served by Nginx. Server is an API.
Authorization and filtering done at the meta-data level: set union and
intersection on database indexes to avoid JSON deserialization/serialization
overhead.

------
OoTheNigerian
I think it will help if you are more descriptive about the problems it solves
and how it solves it. Before I am welcomed on your site you are already
putting pricing in my face. Asking me to put a contact before I can 'have a
seat'. It is all too sudden

What I would advise is this, visit 37 signals and copy the format of their
apps like BaseCamp. It is pretty the industry standard for productivity
software.

Best of luck.

~~~
jorangreef
Thanks the idea is to not be too industry standard.

