

Show HN: BoldCanvas – a DIY Website Builder my parents can use - mkbhd
http://boldcanvas.com/projects/?user=auto

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anilgulecha
This looks good.

BTW -- I really liked the initial 7 steps -- convention over configuration of
various things. But my heat sank once I selected a template and I found a
fully configurable page. There's no way my mom would be able to use that (she
would have gotten past the initial 7 steps).

Perhaps you want to add more steps, and ask for details lile: top level pages,
would you like a contact form included someplace?, a map/location?, etc. You
really could get more milage from the initial wizard, and automagically setup
a site.

Good work so far!

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mkbhd
Thanks! Appreciate the feedback.

Getting more mileage out of the initial wizard is definitely a really
interesting idea. We've thought about that a lot and it's potentially the
direction we might go.

Part of what worries us is whether users would feel overwhelmed by too many
steps upfront without seeing their progress. Another idea that is similar that
we are playing around with is replacing the current sidebar (that has
instructional videos) with a sidebar that acts like a wizard, but with many
more steps.

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arcadius
On multipurpose-template-one, the hover-over text color change for the first
row of content is not quite right.

Also I'm sure it's just in the works but the homepage doesn't seem to quite
have received the design love that the templates have. Looking good!

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mkbhd
Thanks for the feedback! Really appreciate it.

You are right. I posted a temporary demo homepage I created 10 minutes before
the post - this way people wouldn't have to create an account to try it out.
The real home page is [http://boldcanvas.com/](http://boldcanvas.com/).

Regarding the hover over text color - we'll experiment with some options.
Would you suggest using something with a stronger contrast?

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arcadius
The color is fine, it's just the way it only highlights each line instead of
the entire header.

Here's an example:
[http://i.imgur.com/hQLoUwd.png](http://i.imgur.com/hQLoUwd.png)

~~~
mkbhd
Got it. I hadn't noticed that earlier. Will look into it - you are right that
the entire header should highlight instead of one line at a time. Thanks!

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mkbhd
Co-founder here. My best friend and I quit our jobs a while back and have been
working hard and bootstrapping this. This is an early version - we'll be
adding more templates and features soon

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michaelbuddy
my recommendation, show me what's going to happen before I do it. I don't want
to make a subdomain and go through the process just to look over the builder
itself. Maybe show the youtube videos on the main page or some nice
screenshots?

I like the page operations though, being able to edit and remove modules was
quite smooth.

I would recommend on that sidebar instructional panel to put the hide button
on the top right corner, not on the side.

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mkbhd
Hi, thanks for the feedback. I like the idea of placing the hide button at the
top instead of the slide. We'll experiment with both.

Regarding the "show me what's going to happen before I do it." Absolutely
agree. Our real homepage is: [http://boldcanvas.com/](http://boldcanvas.com/)
\- the link in the headline is just a demo page I created so HN users wouldn't
be forced to create an account just to try or product

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kitwalker12
looks good. nice and simple. One issue though. If I chose a subdomain that
already exists I'm taken back to the start of the process. would be great if I
could correct it right there Also like the collection of content blocks and
SEO settings

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mkbhd
Thanks! I agree completely. We'll implement that soon - I'll reply back here
once it's fixed/deployed

