All that these stats really show is that version distribution is the least fragmented on Chrome, which was the first to implement silent updates and supported it since the beginning.
It's hard to review the app without bias when I immediately had to scroll to the bottom to see if 37signals created this product. So much of the website, sales pitch, and product sensibility has been inspired by 37signal that there is some serious brand confusion. It makes me wonder how well you know your own product, or how unique it is.
After registering, I see the value. 10 years ago, I used to have to plan websites by mocking up each page, printing them out, and taping them all up onto a giant wall with post-it notes explaining what the user can do on each page. This was the only way that management could really visualize and understand what changes we were making. This allows you to do that without the wall, and the collaboration is a nice addition. It's also a great way to look back and see how a project came to light. I often jot down these sorts of notes when planning a web app.
I recommend you reconsider being so inspired by 37signals that it's hard to tell your site apart from theirs. I think I'm being kind in how I'm describing this to you. It's very confusing for any user who is familiar with 37signals and it makes your product less trustworthy.
Hey. Thanks for the feedback. The website is horrible...and while we had many variations of the design which looked nothing like this, we went with this design. We're not really trying to sell the product yet, our billing isn't working well so we're not charging anyone until we get that fixed.
The design of this website isn't really that cool, it's more (like you said) a standard SaaS website, as we're still validating our assumptions regarding our solution to the problem with an MVP.
I think 37 inspiration is a good thing it ultimately leeds to a good product with familiar feel. There is no trademark on layout or "less is more" is it? That is like saying we can't do gui apps based on the window metaphor because MS.
PS.
I was struck by the same feeling. The layout, the -hq suffix, the big sign-up button, the scroll, the minimalism, the friendly phrase, and not to mention "the product" (collaboration), AND THE PRICING (149$) :) worth building on other's market study.
One other note: it emails me about every change or addition I make to a project. There appears to be no way to opt out of this. By creating a page with 10 user actions, I'd get 11 different emails from you. Please add a way to opt out, and consider instead sending a digest of all changes made daily.
reminds me of a redmine option called "stealth mode" . On issue/ticket pages you can choose to enable stealth mode when doing housecleaning tasks or initial setup to stop the deluge of email temporarily
Why not expand on the concept that people could use a place to store an annotation of any sort. That way, if I want to leave people text, photos, a presentation, an embedded video, etc, I can do that without the need to create a blog or let that person see a full history of other things I've written. Another idea would be to generate a QR code for the page.
That being said, I can't think of very many times I've needed something like this. If I had more to say on a topic than I wanted to leave in a comment, I'd blog about it. If I knew the person, I'd email them.
Well I'm glad he didn't wait to show it until after he'd expanded on the concept. This is a great example of software that does one thing and does it well.
This articles misses opportunities to dive deeply into every concept it proposes. Even when discussing the use of Facebook credits, you really miss an opportunity to discuss Facebook credits as a competitor to PayPal, and a scenario where Facebook does for our online spending what they propose to do for email with their Messaging system. It's a shame that you put this article together so quickly without adding any depth.
For example, Facebook could use the same logic they used in their live Messaging launch for our online spending - that by combining our social graph with how we spend money online, we can better learn from, and organize our spending. They could easily compete with services like Mint and Blippy by providing interesting data about what we are purchasing, and what our friends are purchasing. The opportunity to combine this with Facebook Places makes this a likely scenario - a lot more likely than the childish idea of forcing Credits for all FB connect sites simply to enforce a monopoly.
I'd enjoy a 3rd party login manager that is a separate system from Facebook. Some place where I can view all sites that I have authorized, manage my communication settings, and keep track of who I've registered with. I don't want facebook to know this about me.
I'd be more comfortable with Google doing this. It would simplify my sign in process for new websites, reduce the number of accounts and passwords I need to manage, remove the need for a password manager like 1password, and give me quick access to disable or block access to sites I no longer want to have an account with.
A startup could tackle this, but they would have to build trust and widespread adoption.
That's great! If you do keep using it, you can stay in touch with me at admin@keywordenvy.com if you ever need anything, or have ideas on how we can make the service work better for you.
This is great feedback. As always, the price point is really tough to settle upon. I thought of analytics suites such as Clicky when setting the price and tried to keep the end user in mind. We also work directly with marketing agencies, and in those cases the prices are set in bulk. I always go back to this article by 37signals when trying to determine a proper price: http://37signals.com/svn/posts/1287-ask-37signals-how-did-yo...
Looking at the design again, I can see how the icons stand out too much. The original concept was to keep the design very flat and without too much eye candy.
Again, thank you for taking the time and giving advice.
Actually, we've been running for about a year with a small number of online marketing agencies, so the service is very polished on the backend with a tested API. Allowing the public to join is what's new about us.
It's true, saying "leading" is pretty boastful. We're proud of the service we built, and we set out to be the leading service from day 1. I agree it should be removed until we can quote a reputable source.
