

Ask HN : What is your feedback on our site's new name and landing page? - januaryjin

Hi, We are currently testing our landing page for the Site that we have developed. The original name of this site was Phoenary but we changed to GemShelf www.gemshelf.com since the former was a little not too clear. GemShelf is a Knowledge Management tool and Collaboration Platform where 1) can store everything in one place (PDFs, Word files, text, photos, audio etc.),(2) search through everything, anytime, anywhere, on any device because it has offline capability (3) can import and export and share information easily, upload photos, smart capture and we&#x27;re also planning on incorporating OCR technology.<p>So what do say about the landing page and the new name?
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pedalpete
First off, I think your product looks and sounds great!

Whenever somebody posts a request like yours on HN, I always go to the link
right away, so as not to be influenced by your HN description. Then I read
your description, and it is amazing how often the description on HN is
different from what the website says. Yours is a perfect example of this.

Your whole description of a "Knowledge Management tool and Collaboration
Platform..." is a horrible way to describe what you're doing. It's full of a
bunch of buzzwords, and I assume most people wouldn't know what you're talking
about, but you've done quite a good job on your website of describing the
product, so stick with one message.

Another reason to go with the messaging on your website is that a 'knowledge
management tool and collaboration platform' (said in your most serious voice)
limits your market to professionals only, when there is no reason for that. If
your massive market ends up being 25-35 year old women planning their
weddings, go with it. So don't overly define your product in the early stages
if you can get away with it, and in this case I think you can.

Ok, now to ACTUALLY review your website.

"Your Group Content in One Place, Organized" \- that's a great start, it's
simple and well defined. However, I think you could improve it a bit and make
it more compelling. Your name "GemShelf" can be easily forgotten, but I think
what you're trying to say is "You have a bunch of content you love and want to
share. These are your Gems, GemShelf lets you organize and share your Gems".

The only reason I made the connection with Gems is because you've asked us for
input. Without that, I probably wouldn't have made the connection, and
therefore your name may be forgotten.

"Collect, organize and share the content that matters most to you and your
group." \- again, really well done. My only concern is the "group" thing, and
I wonder if people will try to figure out what their "group" is, and if they
have a "group". It might be better to just cut it out after "matters most to
you", as you've already said 'share' which implies they'll be sharing with
somebody. But maybe that just needs to continue to be tweaked. But again,
great start.

"GemShelf is a single, easy to use, hub for your group’s content. Once you use
GemShelf, you’ll quickly realize that there is no better way to:" \- huh?
'single', as opposed to? Less is always more, so if any word here isn't
needed, ditch it. I'd just say "Once you use GemShelf..."

"an Evernote Alternative, " by saying you're an evernote alternative (which
you may be), I think you're casting yourself in a light that many people won't
understand. Evernote is big, but not that big, and I suspect more people have
heard of it than have actually used it, and used it well. This might not be
necessary, again, it's putting yourself in a bucket where I don't think it is
needed. You've done a good job describing yourself to this point, I never
would have compared you to Evernote up to then. "Group Evernote Alternative"
and then you did it again.

SCREENSHOTS!!! Fantastico!! Oh please tell me that is not what your site looks
like!? You've done so well up to this point, I worry that I look at that
screenshot and it looks so busy. You were going to make this simple! I know
it's probably a work in progress, but go with the feature limited screenshot
if you have one. It could be just that I'm looking at a minified version of
the site, maybe it's fine in full detail, but it just looks busy and a bit
tired with the gradients and such.

Hope this is helpful, seems like a cool product. Best of luck.

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toumhi
I'll support the contrary viewpoint that you should limit your audience.

You can't have a new product targeting both professionals and consumers. These
are very widely different markets, that buy differently, that you'll reach
differently, for which you need different messaging, features etc.

For a new product, the more targeted and focused your audience, the better.

"for professionals" for example is far from targeted enough.

"for growing startups" is a more focused audience: they tend to hang out at
the same place (online on forums or offline in conferences for example) they
exhibit some of the same buying behaviors, they have similar needs, etc.

Not saying "growing startups" is a good target for OP's product but just using
it as an illustration.

~~~
januaryjin
Thanks a ton for taking the time. We're working on something revolutionary in
the learning space and if our wording makes us sound like just another cloud
platform then we clearly need to go back to the messaging drawing board.

But does the actual problem that we're addressing on the landing page make
sense to you?

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zarriak
I like your landing page, but the four topics you speak about have no visuals
to provide context. The picture at the bottom looks just like Google drive. I
think you should stop describing and showing what everyone else does, and
focus on what you do. Just show what features you made to improve the
experience and reduce the hassle.

The only thing your landing page would need to be to get sign ups is to state
and show how your are different. I don't need to switch to your service to do
the three things you have listed. I still think there is great room for
improvement in online storage, and hope you can build something that comes
closer to that.

~~~
januaryjin
Thanks a lot for the messaging advice. As we iterate our design and messaging
we will certainly take it to heart.

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diorray
Only one suggestion: Fonts matter. Change those fonts

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poissonpie
clicky:

[http://www.gemshelf.com](http://www.gemshelf.com)

