Thanks for the reply :)
Yeah, I guess there really is not much in the way of explanation. The Recipes site is very much a sort of springboard for the Beadifier app, to get users accustomed to the idea.
Payment plans is a big headache, to be honest. There seems to be no surefire way to do it. I went with a subscription plan because that seemed reasonable at the time. The free version is supposed to be fully featured enough to cater to most needs, though. I don't want to alienate those who are opposed to paying monthly, but I still want to keep that as an option so I can keep the lights on(!)
Auto aspect ratio is on my to-do list : )
I see. As you're going down the freemium model really push the free service to get people using it and wanting more.
If there was an easy and consistent answer to pricing models a lot more people would still be in business! Especially for a hobby based service. I don't know how much market research you've done but even asking on forums would be a good way to get an idea. Monthly commitments are full on for people to make. How about bundles of uses? Like 10 uses for a few dollars?
Fair point. I'll argue that the power of Beadifier lies in the ability to choose from actual bead manufacturer palettes, like Hama, Perler, etc.
Also, the core dithering algorithm actively squeezes as much realism as possible out of the colors of beads available.
Beadifier Recipes is a recipe site for making perler bead (ironing bead) art :)
It's built upon the Beadifier platform (application for making fuse bead patterns from images): https://www.beadifier.com
More info here: https://www.facebook.com/beadifier/
There are a lot of ironing bead enthusiasts out there creating sophisticated artwork. So, I'll say there is a market. The feature set in the premium version more than justifies the monthly price.
iPhone app is not in development at the moment, but the mobile site is somewhat usable.
I'm not saying that your app isn't worth $4 a month. If someone uses Beadifier to create art for sale, and it's an important part of their workflow, you could probably charge a lot more.
However, the question is, are there a 1000 people out there who sell photorealistic ironing bead pictures on a regular basis, who absolutely need your tool?
And you are targeting only people who are really into ironing beads. If someone (like myself) only uses beads occasionally, they wont buy a subscription. But I might buy something that costs a one time price, just like I bought a few of those bead matrices (not sure what those things are called).
Which market you target is up to you, but I'm pretty sure that there are 1000x more occasional ironing bead users than hard core enthusiasts.
(BTW: I tried the mobile website on the iPhone, and it kinda works, but feels broken. A proper iPhone app would probably have a live preview, so I could see the pattern in real time as I frame the picture, and I could just point a camera at my beads to load the palette... but that's just wishful thinking)
Thank you so much : )
I'm glad to hear that.
The premium version of Beadifier (https://www.beadifier.pro) provides a similar count of each bead color to what you are describing.
I made this tool on my free time late last year. It has gained some traction, but is still far from being the preferred tool among users for this particular job (although, I argue, it has the best feature set). I have faced challenges getting it to market in a quantifiably successful manner, but I try and spread the word as best I can. I love making hobbies like this easier and more accessible for people. That's what this tool represents. I value usability and attention to detail. Seeing the reactions so far has been extremely gratifying.
Perhaps it's just me but I'd make your immediate example conversion image with the arrow in a bit larger and more prominent, to give a better idea* of what it can accomplish. Perhaps even make the widgets at the right hand side do something off the bat? Perhaps not.
* I actually physically paused, wondering whether I should write 'eye-dea'. I'm glad I didn't.
Haha, yes : )
For the longest time I didn't even have an example conversion image featured (!), and the interface was really barren as a result. I'm going to enlarge it, to make it stand out. Thanks for the advice : )
The notion of having the widgets at the right hand side do something right off the bat also intrigues me... Perhaps the interface should come preloaded with a live example image... Or would that be too confusing...? UX is super hard.
It provides an optimized solution for a very niche type problem (making fuse bead patterns from images).