1.) Every alpha test should have an easily acceptable "Feedback" link in the layout. I know you've got "Contact Us" on the about page, but most people won't look that far (I wouldn't have had someone not commented about ads on the About page). Feedback is for your benefit, not really your users, so users will not jump through hoops to give it to you.
2.) The front page is too cluttered. A lot of sites try to give a taste of every bit of functionality on the front page, but it doesn't work well. Which do you go to: Google or Yahoo? Why did AltaVista die (hint: it had something to do with "portal")? I'd take the Most Active and Last Registered users off the front page and onto a separate "Stats" page.
3.) You need to display more than a couple sentences of each story in the summary. Typically, readers decide whether they'll read a book after the first 2 paragraphs or so (that's an oft-quoted statistic from the dead-tree publishing world). I'd display about that much, and avoid cutting stories off in mid-sentence.
4.) The language links should also filter the stories visible to a casual browser. I can't read Italian, and so have no interest in Italian stories. Also, duplicate the language links on the story box itself. I was looking for some way to filter the languages and didn't see any until my eyes moved up to the top left corner.
Thanks for the feedback.
Good advice, definitetly.
The only problem is about the language filter: we already thought about it, but now we have only one story in english, so you wouldn't have seen anything. This is one of the first things we'll fix in the next days.
Dont feel bad, but the fact that novlet.com got rejected looks like a right decision. The home page has only a small block of usable information [Top stories section ]. Everything else is just space fillers.
Last registered users, Top usrs.. are all sections that should become prominent once the community gets strong.To let the section take a major portion of page doesnt make sense at this point of time .
Yes its an alpha, but when you do alpha,you should be DOING alpha.
Not that you guys have done a bad job, but the site gives an impression that it was cooked up without developers themself having no genuine interest in the site.
Please dont get discouraged even a little bit..Keep working with an open , positive mind. Best of everything to you . :)
The only thing that makes us feel bad is the impression that we developed it without interest. We built novlet in our spare time while graduating, so we couldn't spend the time we would have liked to, however we were very interested in the project and it's a pity that it doesn't seem so.
The site was initially meant mainly as a proof that we could work togheter, but it would be great to work on it full time, but apparently they didn't even look at it.
We are not discouraged, it would have been a fantastic experience.
We'll keep on working.
Actually, during PG's talk at UC Berkeley ( where I go to school ), I went up and asked him if a demo is important..etc and he advised me to put up a screencast instead, so we did that. I don't know if they actually viewed it because I can't tell from the server logs.
Well it seems it did not play a huge role either way. In my opinion a demo or a prototype is a huge advantage in getting across an idea. At the same time we were reluctant to show ours this early in the process. Anyway goodluck to those who made it. Maybe I will see you at some of the Boston web meetups.
we didn't make it. Maybe it was because we didn't get that prototype online.
I seriously might go over to JoyEnt and kill all those lousy bastards ;-) We were promised our new server repeatedly the next day for two weeks now, believed in it and didn't just put that damn thing online on an improvised dyndns box. Big fault, I suppose... :(
