9 ms·

Ask HN: Please review my new website www.favilous.com

17 points by sw1205 17y ago

mikewhyley 17y ago
Looks nice - need to experiment with a delicious alternative - this could be just what i'm looking for.
- ericclemmons 17y ago
  ^ This is my main question with the site as well: what differentiates this from other bookmarking sites such as del.icio.us?
  - sw1205 17y ago
    Hi, we see it as being a simpler more stylish alternative which appeals to technical and non-technical people alike. We also distinguish between the sites you might traditionally store in your browser favourites versus the articles and blog posts you might view and store via delicious. So somewhere in between the facilities you get with a browser and an application like delicious. We also provide the facility to bookmark pages for viewing later or to tweet a link straight from a bookmarklet.
Jim_Neath 17y ago
I'm being shown the line: "Favilous is supported on all major browsers excluding Internet Explorer 6. Upgrade to the latest version of Internet Explorer." I don't think I need to see this as I'm on Safari.
- middus 17y ago
  Same for me. I'm on Firefox 3.5 (Linux).
  - benhoyt 17y ago
    Also on Chrome 4.0 (Windows).
evlapix 17y ago
It took me a moment to find the "Sign Up" button/link. I checked in some of the usual places.. At the top of the page near the "Sign In/Have an account?" link, the main navigation, and in the actual slide show to no avail. I eventually found it and felt stupid for not seeing it earlier.
- samdk 17y ago
  This was the first thing I noticed, too. I'd recommend having a 'sign up' link at the top right where the 'sign in' link is--that's where people expect it to be, and that's where they'll look for it.
daok 17y ago
Positive : I like the guided Tour. It's not a traditional video and it's quite interesting. Negative: I found the color a little dark but this might just be me. Nice website keep the good work.
zzzmarcus 17y ago
Guided tour didn't work for me. It loaded but never started playing. I didn't immediately notice any other way to find out what exactly the site is or does. Clicking the links in the bottom columns just took me to other sites.
- bitslayer 17y ago
  You have to keep clicking the forward button. I figured it out, but it is confusing.
alilja 17y ago
It's a good start, but it feels like it's a bunch of unconnected ideas at this point. I think you need some better copy, but you also need to refine your layout. Overall, it feels too busy. Items are shunted together in a confusing way, and they don't feel like they related to each other. Look at sites like http://www.pixelmator.com/ http://www.pixelmator.com/ and http://feedafever.com/ http://feedafever.com/ -- their sites are brilliantly executed. Focus on what you want your site to do: 1. Explain what you're offering 2. Convince people that they need it (especially as opposed to other, similar, services) 3. Make it easy to sign up and use As it stands now, I feel like you have the rough beginnings of this, but it's not a finished, polished version. More technically, here's what I recommend. First, you need to snap things down to a grid. This will make the page flow and FEEL better overall, and allow you to control how the user views it. Second, you need to make everything more cohesive. It looks like you have seven different fonts now (the "favilous" name, "Bookmark Tools," the default body text, the sign-in button, the rotating text in the main box, the navigation links, and the "Follow Us" link), and a huge amount of colors. You should come up with a simple color scheme of maybe three main colors and a few shades of each, and cut the number of fonts you're using down to one or two. Yes, one or two -- the Fever page uses just one. There seems to be a lot of empty space. Not white space, which a good design needs, but EMPTY space. Your main box looks like it's three times as big as it needs to be for the content it holds. Fix that, because it distracts the eye and looks unprofessional. I would also recommend a color scheme that's black-on-white, instead of white-on-black you have now. It's much harder to read white text on a black background, especially for long periods of time, and since you're expecting people to be reading and browsing, you should probably focus on making it easy to read. Finally, there are some instances on your site where you have an extra space before the punctuation ends. This looks unprofessional, and to grammar-obsessed reader, it's distracting.
- bennyt 17y ago
  This is great feedback, thanks. I think you are right that the homepage needs to explain who we are and what we are doing in a better fashion. We need to show people that we are different to Delicious. We are aimed at bookmarking rather than some other sites where it seems a bit of an after thought. I also think we need to highlight the bookmark tools more as 'favitlater' is a really bug feature but one that doesn't seemed to have been picked up here. You are right about the fonts and we will revisit this. With regard to black on white - once registered a user can select from a range of different backgrounds (including white ones) and you can also upload your own. Thanks very much for your feedback. We will discuss it and keep you updated as to any changes that we make! Much appreciated...as are all these comments!
teye 17y ago
I clicked the link and immediately thought, "How is this any different from Delicious? Why would I use this?" Sell me! On the front page, above the fold.
- bd 17y ago
  Exactly. Check how Pinboard differentiates itself against Delicious: http://pinboard.in http://pinboard.in
Vindexus 17y ago
I'd move the "Take a Tour" link to a more prominent location and make it a button. It took me a while to find it. The tour was good at showing me what this was all about though.
- bennyt 17y ago
  Where do you think we should move it to? Would it be more obvious in the main bar running at the top of the page?
  - Vindexus 17y ago
    Sorry for the late reply. Here are two options I made quickly: http://imgur.com/F3V5d http://imgur.com/F3V5d
tdupree 17y ago
Congrats, delicious needs more competition in this space. I started working on something like this with a couple buddies of mine about two years ago with the read sites later stuff, syncing across browsers, etc. Our project, favtopia.com, ended up getting put on a semi-permanent hold as we had other things we needed to work on. I think you guys are on to something really useful, with a lot of great features other offerings lack. Just keep refining your landing page (and the rest of your site), making what you do really clear to your visitors, and I think you guys will do well.
- sw1205 17y ago
  This is great thanks. You are right - we certainly need to make the homepage clearer in message. It seems to be getting lost at the moment but we are really pleased you have found the bookmarking tools and find them useful!
- deleted 17y ago
  [deleted]
richcollins 17y ago
Design feedback: That background needs to go. Marketing feedback: Tell me what I get out of using it, not how it works.
- sgk284 17y ago
  I have to counter that I rather like the design, specifically the background, but I definitely second the marketing feedback.
jparicka 17y ago
Looks cool but the transparent background wasn't necesary. It's hideous. In my opinion. All the best.

17 points by sw1205 17y ago

mikewhyley 17y ago

Looks nice - need to experiment with a delicious alternative - this could be just what i'm looking for.

ericclemmons 17y ago
^ This is my main question with the site as well: what differentiates this from other bookmarking sites such as del.icio.us?
- sw1205 17y ago
  Hi, we see it as being a simpler more stylish alternative which appeals to technical and non-technical people alike. We also distinguish between the sites you might traditionally store in your browser favourites versus the articles and blog posts you might view and store via delicious. So somewhere in between the facilities you get with a browser and an application like delicious. We also provide the facility to bookmark pages for viewing later or to tweet a link straight from a bookmarklet.

Jim_Neath 17y ago

I'm being shown the line: "Favilous is supported on all major browsers excluding Internet Explorer 6. Upgrade to the latest version of Internet Explorer." I don't think I need to see this as I'm on Safari.

middus 17y ago
Same for me. I'm on Firefox 3.5 (Linux).
- benhoyt 17y ago
  Also on Chrome 4.0 (Windows).

evlapix 17y ago

It took me a moment to find the "Sign Up" button/link. I checked in some of the usual places.. At the top of the page near the "Sign In/Have an account?" link, the main navigation, and in the actual slide show to no avail. I eventually found it and felt stupid for not seeing it earlier.

samdk 17y ago
This was the first thing I noticed, too. I'd recommend having a 'sign up' link at the top right where the 'sign in' link is--that's where people expect it to be, and that's where they'll look for it.

daok 17y ago

Positive : I like the guided Tour. It's not a traditional video and it's quite interesting. Negative: I found the color a little dark but this might just be me. Nice website keep the good work.

zzzmarcus 17y ago

Guided tour didn't work for me. It loaded but never started playing. I didn't immediately notice any other way to find out what exactly the site is or does. Clicking the links in the bottom columns just took me to other sites.

bitslayer 17y ago
You have to keep clicking the forward button. I figured it out, but it is confusing.

alilja 17y ago

It's a good start, but it feels like it's a bunch of unconnected ideas at this point. I think you need some better copy, but you also need to refine your layout. Overall, it feels too busy. Items are shunted together in a confusing way, and they don't feel like they related to each other. Look at sites like http://www.pixelmator.com/ http://www.pixelmator.com/ and http://feedafever.com/ http://feedafever.com/ -- their sites are brilliantly executed. Focus on what you want your site to do: 1. Explain what you're offering 2. Convince people that they need it (especially as opposed to other, similar, services) 3. Make it easy to sign up and use As it stands now, I feel like you have the rough beginnings of this, but it's not a finished, polished version. More technically, here's what I recommend. First, you need to snap things down to a grid. This will make the page flow and FEEL better overall, and allow you to control how the user views it. Second, you need to make everything more cohesive. It looks like you have seven different fonts now (the "favilous" name, "Bookmark Tools," the default body text, the sign-in button, the rotating text in the main box, the navigation links, and the "Follow Us" link), and a huge amount of colors. You should come up with a simple color scheme of maybe three main colors and a few shades of each, and cut the number of fonts you're using down to one or two. Yes, one or two -- the Fever page uses just one. There seems to be a lot of empty space. Not white space, which a good design needs, but EMPTY space. Your main box looks like it's three times as big as it needs to be for the content it holds. Fix that, because it distracts the eye and looks unprofessional. I would also recommend a color scheme that's black-on-white, instead of white-on-black you have now. It's much harder to read white text on a black background, especially for long periods of time, and since you're expecting people to be reading and browsing, you should probably focus on making it easy to read. Finally, there are some instances on your site where you have an extra space before the punctuation ends. This looks unprofessional, and to grammar-obsessed reader, it's distracting.

bennyt 17y ago
This is great feedback, thanks. I think you are right that the homepage needs to explain who we are and what we are doing in a better fashion. We need to show people that we are different to Delicious. We are aimed at bookmarking rather than some other sites where it seems a bit of an after thought. I also think we need to highlight the bookmark tools more as 'favitlater' is a really bug feature but one that doesn't seemed to have been picked up here. You are right about the fonts and we will revisit this. With regard to black on white - once registered a user can select from a range of different backgrounds (including white ones) and you can also upload your own. Thanks very much for your feedback. We will discuss it and keep you updated as to any changes that we make! Much appreciated...as are all these comments!

teye 17y ago

I clicked the link and immediately thought, "How is this any different from Delicious? Why would I use this?" Sell me! On the front page, above the fold.

bd 17y ago
Exactly. Check how Pinboard differentiates itself against Delicious: http://pinboard.in http://pinboard.in

Vindexus 17y ago

I'd move the "Take a Tour" link to a more prominent location and make it a button. It took me a while to find it. The tour was good at showing me what this was all about though.

bennyt 17y ago
Where do you think we should move it to? Would it be more obvious in the main bar running at the top of the page?
- Vindexus 17y ago
  Sorry for the late reply. Here are two options I made quickly: http://imgur.com/F3V5d http://imgur.com/F3V5d

tdupree 17y ago

Congrats, delicious needs more competition in this space. I started working on something like this with a couple buddies of mine about two years ago with the read sites later stuff, syncing across browsers, etc. Our project, favtopia.com, ended up getting put on a semi-permanent hold as we had other things we needed to work on. I think you guys are on to something really useful, with a lot of great features other offerings lack. Just keep refining your landing page (and the rest of your site), making what you do really clear to your visitors, and I think you guys will do well.

sw1205 17y ago
This is great thanks. You are right - we certainly need to make the homepage clearer in message. It seems to be getting lost at the moment but we are really pleased you have found the bookmarking tools and find them useful!
deleted 17y ago
[deleted]

richcollins 17y ago

Design feedback: That background needs to go. Marketing feedback: Tell me what I get out of using it, not how it works.

sgk284 17y ago
I have to counter that I rather like the design, specifically the background, but I definitely second the marketing feedback.

jparicka 17y ago

Looks cool but the transparent background wasn't necesary. It's hideous. In my opinion. All the best.