10 ms·

juwo beta is released (at last!). Please use it and help improve it!

5 points by juwo 20y ago

juwo 20y ago
You all gave me valuable advice here when I asked for help. http://news.ycombinator.com/comments?id=1890 http://news.ycombinator.com/comments?id=1890 I followed it! Please help juwo improve. Thank you! I am grateful to you guys, news.YC and PG for this forum.
veritas 20y ago
To be brutally honest: color scheme + horizontal scrolling + too much text + general design = I ran off before learning too much about what Juwo does. Please redesign! Also try to condense what Juwo is trying to do into a short paragraph. So far, all I can gather by a quick 10 sec browse is that it has something to do with recording/playing back audio, table of contents for audio etc. Leave the demos, instructions, examples for other pages. Give me the story in nice big font and tell it to me like "I'm a 4 yr old." Hope that helps :) I'll try to look around a bit more once I'm out of work.
- jkush 20y ago
  I agree with veritas. Try to tell us in a few sentences what juwo is all about.
  - dpapathanasiou 20y ago
    Based on a comment in another YC news post, I thought juwo was a tool for automatically transcribing audio to text (is that correct?). If so, then why not just say that; the demos can be simplified to be the raw audio/video clip with the text, as transcribed by juwo next to/underneath the clips.
    - juwo 20y ago
      no, that's not correct. It does not transcribe automatically. however the labels can have functionality attached. for example, to run the speech recognizer you have installed on your computer, on a voice note.
- juwo 20y ago
  Thanks for being the first public to drive it!. I read that people dont want to click, but scrolling is ok - I thought that was the lecture at startup school? (I saw a breief note on it here on this site) the condensation is at the diagrams on the right.
  - dpapathanasiou 20y ago
    I read that people dont want to click, but scrolling is ok I wasn't at the most recent Startup School, but in general, people don't mind scrolling down; scrolling horizontally is a headache.
    - Goladus 20y ago
      I wasn't at the startup school either, but in my experience people don't want to have to scroll down just to find things. People will scroll down to follow something they've already started, such as a comment thread, an essay, or a list of topics. They also will scroll down to read a list of blog entries, preferably in chronological order. (Otherwise they'll prefer to follow links to particular articles) But if there is a variety of different types of content on the page, there should at least be a table of contents to do the scrolling for you.
      - juwo 20y ago
        I have put in a TOC now. http://news.ycombinator.com/comments?id=14590 http://news.ycombinator.com/comments?id=14590
- juwo 20y ago
  my website is updated. Please visit again.
jkush 20y ago
One big issue is that the demo I downloaded had some audio pre installed with it. Just a thought, but using audio from a speech given by a man with cerebral palsey is not the best choice for a demo. It was very unclear and hard to see what it was that your software was accomplishing.
- juwo 20y ago
  Thanks for being the first public to drive it!. Try the BBC demo. it is video - or pretty American Idol Katharine McPhee.
  - dpapathanasiou 20y ago
    For the BBC demo page, how about isolating the clip you want to show, perhaps surrounded by whitespace, but with a juwo page header? (i.e., make it clear this page still belongs in the juwo site, and you've just sampled a small part of the BBC page) People with ADD like me will start reading the news ticker or some of the other stories (seriously, I had to back up twice to figure out what I supposed to click on!). Also, for people not running XP and using Java plugins in their browser (I'm one of them!) can you prepare a version that will still convey what the demo does?
    - juwo 20y ago
      Do you mean, show the media player in the browser? Or should I draw the link for the demo in large font? Actually, juwo is great for people with ADD. you can sit in a class and record lectures - and then review only the important parts. I have some kind of ADD myself - and use juwo in important meetings.
      - dpapathanasiou 20y ago
        Basically, lose everything from the BBC page except the href to the clip you want to show and put it inside a "juwo" page, consistent with everything else on your site. For a while there, I thought I was at bbcnews.com and I started reading all these extraneous links and photos.
davidw 20y ago
http://juwo.com/company.html http://juwo.com/company.html "Juwo LLC was founded by Anil Philip in December 2004, and is based in Olathe, Kansas. We are" ... 'we' ? Also, the religious stuff probably belongs elsewhere, on your own home page, for instance.
- juwo 20y ago
  I am embarrassed to admit it's just me. It seems like "No single-founders allowed". So the 'we' is wife (advisor)... (Actually, I had an informal advisory group which I dissolved. The 'we' comes from there. As you fellow entrepreneurs will learn, advice is of little use - you want someone to help with the work to be done).
- create_account 20y ago
  It's not important, IMHO. It could be single founder + employees (but unlikely given the site design) or just him. But he could always say he's using the royal we.
  - davidw 20y ago
    You think? As someone potentially in the same situation as he is, I would feel uneasy about writing something that's not the truth.
    - juwo 20y ago
      'we' is the truth because my wife does give me valuable advice and assessment on juwo, on people I interact with for juwo. Even though she has 0% equity.
      - dhouston 20y ago
abstractbill 20y ago
I tried the first demo and got this: An error occurred while launching/running the application. Title: Nodepad Vendor: juwo LLC Category: Unexpected Error Unexpected exception: java.lang.reflect.InvocationTargetException
- juwo 20y ago
  I assume you ran it on Windows? The download JDIC libraries are for Windows. If anyone is good with javascript, we can port it to run on other platforms.
  - abstractbill 20y ago
    Linux (ubuntu). I clicked on the first demo when I saw it, without reading the rest of the front page (which was pretty overwhelming). I didn't see anywhere that would suggest this was a Windows thing until later.
    - juwo 20y ago
      I really apologize. I am not a Windows guy myself. (Read my rant on how Java harmed Unix and helped windows win). It is my major priority to get it working on Linux and Mac.
abstractbill 20y ago
Your web pages do not render correctly in firefox: http://abstractnonsense.com/juwo.png http://abstractnonsense.com/juwo.png
- dfranke 20y ago
  Works for me.
- juwo 20y ago
  that's weird - it is straight html, done in dreamweaver 8. thank you for taking the trouble to get the screenshot. I shall run it from firefox on Linux
  - jaggederest 20y ago
    done in dreamweaver 8 Yeah, that'd be your problem. http://validator.w3.org/check?uri=http%3A%2F%2Fjuwo.com http://validator.w3.org/check?uri=http%3A%2F%2Fjuwo.com
    - juwo 20y ago
      thanks, shall fix by hand
wammin 20y ago
Too many words! This is my most common criticism for evaluating an interface. If you need so many words on the home page to describe how to do something or what it is, then it's not easy enough. Remember you only have about 20 seconds of somebody's attention before they decide to click away. I got lost pretty quick (and I'm actually pretty smart). The crap about Jesus on the about page turned me off, too. You're welcome to your religious beliefs, but keep them on your blog or someplace more appropriate.
- juwo 20y ago
  I read that people dont want to click, but scrolling is ok - I thought that was the lecture at startup school? (I saw a breief note on it here on this site) the condensation is at the diagrams on the right. Should I move the diagrams left? I am stubborn about Jesus; even though I have lost a lot of good opportunities because of it.
  - wammin 20y ago
    I have no problem with scrolling ... but that doesn't mean you should try and cram more words on the page to explain what's going your website is about or how to use it. The harsh reality is that the vast majority of people won't make it through the first paragraph. I don't have all the answers ... but try making better use of headlines, images/diagrams, or a quick demo. Somebody should be able to visit your site and quickly know what it is and the basics of how it's used. Juwo sounds like a cool idea, but I don't get that as soon as I hit the homepage. Some examples of homepages that I like that do a good job of conveying the idea/service in less than 20 seconds (I have no affiliation with any of these): http://writewith.com/ http://writewith.com/ http://basecamphq.com/ http://basecamphq.com/
    - juwo 20y ago
      I have reorganized the page.
    - juwo 20y ago
      my website is updated. Please visit again.
blader 20y ago
I haven't downloaded it because the site doesn't inspire confidence that this is anything I want to install on my machine. Some suggestions: 1. Messaging. I am confused about what Juwo really is as well. It seems to be a way to tag audio or video by time? There is way too much text on the page. I know Juwo probably has a ton of features, but you need to nail down your core message and drill it in (and design your product around it). Can you describe what Juwo is in 5 words or less? Now what about 2 words? Anything longer than that and you've exceeded my attention span. 2. Design Horizontal scrolling plus web design circa 1995 plus religious proselytizing doesn't inspire confidence that this is something I want to use and would enjoy using. I strongly recommend looking at other websites featuring downloadable apps such as Skype.com or Trillian, etc to see how they are approaching this. This is compounded by the lack of a clear message as to what your product is. From what I understood of the core idea, it seems useful, but I can't see myself downloading a standalone app for this functionality. Btw, Have you checked out http://www.veotag.com? http://www.veotag.com? Seems like a competitor.
- juwo 20y ago
  It goes much further than veotag IMHO. I have a comparison matrix with with competitors, including veotag.
  - blader 20y ago
    I think the difference is that I can understand what Veotag is in about 2 seconds, and I am still trying to figure you what Juwo is after really reading about it and thinking about it, and I did that only because I was asked to check it out. More features does not a better product make. More importantly, you can have 100x times Veotag's features, but it won't matter unless you can make people understand, instantly what your product is. Now I imagine I'm a random stranger on the internet stumbling across your site. You really have less than 5 seconds of time before I click off back to YouTube or something. I just don't have that much attention.
    - juwo 20y ago
      so tell me, how should I explain it? should I move the diagrams to the left, or just one column?
brett 20y ago
I have no idea what's going on on that page. Is it a blog? Is it a product?
extantproject 20y ago
In one sentence, what is Juwo?
- juwo 20y ago
  juwo is... A "Swiss Army knife" piece of software that gives more power to consumers to structure snippets of audio, video and text as a bullet list, to more easily index and annotate them, and to share the lists with others. Its benefits extend to multimedia as related to more enriching broadcasts, collaboration and organizing.
  - kevinrose 20y ago
    is this for web or desktop?
    - juwo 20y ago
      both. please click a demo.
Goladus 20y ago
When I visit the site, I have these questions, in this order: (1) What is Juwo? (2) How do I get it? (Or get access) (3) How do I use it? (3) What can it do for me? Here's what happens when I visit the site: (1) What is Juwo? After scrolling up and down trying to make sense of the page, I gave up and just started reading from the top. After the first two sections I still am not quite sure what it actually is. I feel I have to try to piece it together from all the little clues in the text. (2) How do I get it? As far as I can tell, there is nothing to get. I can't find a download area or login box anywhere. Halfway down the page I see some demos, but I can't tell if that's the actual software or what. (3) How do I use it? This question is answered, although I had to scroll down to find it and I don't really understand the explanation because I don't know what Juwo is (1) and don't know how to get it (2). (4) What can it do for me? This question isn't important for me, but it is for some people. A lot of the page is devoted to talking about how the product can help me, however because (1) and (2) haven't been answered, I feel like I'm wasting my time.
- juwo 20y ago
  Please click on the demos. The software downloads and installs. It is desktop-web. I have reorganized the page.
- juwo 20y ago
  "(2) How do I get it? (Or get access) " Thanks for your feedback! I have added a line at the top. Note: When you click on a demo, NP will automatically download and install. NP can be run both offline and also connected to the internet. (see Technical Requirements)
- juwo 20y ago
  my website is updated. Please visit again.
pg 20y ago
I can't tell what it does. Aim for this: http://wufoo.com http://wufoo.com
- juwo 20y ago
  It is hard to explain juwo in one sentence because it can be used for at least a dozen things. I dont want to leave anything out. IMHO, juwo is a new concept. IMHO it is very powerful - but I am getting carried away... I have reorganized the page so that the simple explanation with the diagrams comes first. I have to also say this. Your recommendation, wufoo.com; "Online HTML forms" means nothing to the layman. Similarly, I think the layman will not understand anything by "juwo is... A "Swiss Army knife" piece of software that gives more power to consumers to structure snippets of audio, video and text as a bullet list, to more easily index and annotate them, and to share the lists with others. Its benefits extend to multimedia as related to more enriching broadcasts, collaboration and organizing". Yes, it may look like I have put the Help manual there. That is intentional. For a new concept, I believe that if people cannot get help easily with the details, then they will stop using it. Help manuals tend to be secreted away in software like a squirrel hides nuts. Of course, it can be argued successfully that I have already scared even the geeks away! I am not justifying, but explaining my rationale. I hope everyone at news.YC will continue to engage with juwo. Anil Philip juwo.com
  - zaidf 20y ago
    You can either choose to emphasize how POWERFUL--as in scale--that Juwo is OR you can emphasize how EASY it can make my life. Right now even though you have glimpses of trying to show how it can help me, the overall tone of your site(confirmed by your posts here) is on features rather than practical use. Any tool can be used to do dozen things. Our site can be used to post music, lectures, pranks, cries of your first child and literally hundreds of other things. But it has its few primary uses and you have to pin them down and focus on those DEFINED audiences in the BEGINNING stages. Otherwise you end up confusing EVERYONE as you seem to have done here. I'll help you get started if you're interested. This should make for a good mini guide too for folks in your position Answer the following questions for me in LESS than 20 words each: 1. What is the problem? 2. Who is it a problem for?(note: everyone isn't an answer; think age groups, job profiles of people MOST likely facing the problem you describe in #1) 3. How do you plan to solve this problem? (theoretically, not what Juwo is) 4. How is Juwo solving this problem Use these guidelines: - Be as specific as you can be. - Use as simple words as you can use.
zaidf 20y ago
My humble advice... 1. Take this demo OFF now! People are going to develop a SUPER BAD bias of your product that will be hard to overcome even in the future should you improve the UI. 2. Hire or partner with a UI designer who knows usability and design! 3. I'll hypothesize that most people that visit your site will leave without any clear idea of what your product is.
- juwo 20y ago
  are you talking about the website? or the actual software, NP.
  - zaidf 20y ago
    The website. I've no idea what the software is and thus I didn't download it.
    - juwo 20y ago
      I have reorganized the page.
      - zaidf 20y ago
        What you really need to do is make a screencast demo explaining from the VERY beginning a) what is the problem b) how juwo solves it. In very plain language with in screen demo. For a sample look at Mosoto: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SpuU4l_4Nr0&eurl=http%3A%2F%2Fmosoto%2Ecom%2F http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SpuU4l_4Nr0&eurl=http%3A%2F%2Fmosoto%2Ecom%2F You don't have to be anywhere near as crisp as these guys. If you can answer what's the problem and how juwo solves it in 2minutes you'll have fewer confused minds.
        juwo 20y ago
        Arent the pictures clear and simple? The problem with screencast is what juwo tries to solve. However, as you suggest, I shall create a screencast and see which is better. Also see: my reply is here: http://news.ycombinator.com/comments?id=14590 http://news.ycombinator.com/comments?id=14590 Thanks for continuing to engage!
bkmrkr 20y ago
I still have no idea what the hell this is
ecuzzillo 20y ago
Who funds juwo?
- juwo 20y ago
  me - or more accurately, my depleted savings did. why?
rms 20y ago
want... to... troll... about... religion...
- juwo 20y ago
  http://news.ycombinator.com/comments?id=14583 http://news.ycombinator.com/comments?id=14583
woot 20y ago
Hey! This is cool! But Crap Box is better.
- juwo 20y ago
  "Hey! This is cool! But Crap Box is better" Did you actually use juwo before stating that your toilet is better?
philc 20y ago
Juwo, this is the most confusing thing I've ever looked at. I have a feeling the product is not very focused itself, and thus is hard to convey. If you can't convey it in a single page with a few terse sentences (ala skype.com), you might need to redesign and make it simpler. I'm glad you're a Christian, but a company-about page is probably not the best place for pro/con links. It's distracting.
- juwo 20y ago
  my reply is here: http://news.ycombinator.com/comments?id=14590 http://news.ycombinator.com/comments?id=14590 Thanks for continuing to engage! What is a pro-con link?
budu3 20y ago
I agree with most people on this thread. There's an information overload. Plus I suggest you hire a web designer. The design is not doing your service justice.
- juwo 20y ago
  I have reorganized the page.
sblservices 18y ago
I have seen many sites before and most of them do not look this good. Regards, http://www.saibposervices.com/Video-audio-tagging.aspx http://www.saibposervices.com/Video-audio-tagging.aspx

5 points by juwo 20y ago

juwo 20y ago

You all gave me valuable advice here when I asked for help. http://news.ycombinator.com/comments?id=1890 http://news.ycombinator.com/comments?id=1890 I followed it! Please help juwo improve. Thank you! I am grateful to you guys, news.YC and PG for this forum.

veritas 20y ago

To be brutally honest: color scheme + horizontal scrolling + too much text + general design = I ran off before learning too much about what Juwo does. Please redesign! Also try to condense what Juwo is trying to do into a short paragraph. So far, all I can gather by a quick 10 sec browse is that it has something to do with recording/playing back audio, table of contents for audio etc. Leave the demos, instructions, examples for other pages. Give me the story in nice big font and tell it to me like "I'm a 4 yr old." Hope that helps :) I'll try to look around a bit more once I'm out of work.

jkush 20y ago
I agree with veritas. Try to tell us in a few sentences what juwo is all about.
- dpapathanasiou 20y ago
  Based on a comment in another YC news post, I thought juwo was a tool for automatically transcribing audio to text (is that correct?). If so, then why not just say that; the demos can be simplified to be the raw audio/video clip with the text, as transcribed by juwo next to/underneath the clips.
  - juwo 20y ago
    no, that's not correct. It does not transcribe automatically. however the labels can have functionality attached. for example, to run the speech recognizer you have installed on your computer, on a voice note.
juwo 20y ago
Thanks for being the first public to drive it!. I read that people dont want to click, but scrolling is ok - I thought that was the lecture at startup school? (I saw a breief note on it here on this site) the condensation is at the diagrams on the right.
- dpapathanasiou 20y ago
  I read that people dont want to click, but scrolling is ok I wasn't at the most recent Startup School, but in general, people don't mind scrolling down; scrolling horizontally is a headache.
  - Goladus 20y ago
    I wasn't at the startup school either, but in my experience people don't want to have to scroll down just to find things. People will scroll down to follow something they've already started, such as a comment thread, an essay, or a list of topics. They also will scroll down to read a list of blog entries, preferably in chronological order. (Otherwise they'll prefer to follow links to particular articles) But if there is a variety of different types of content on the page, there should at least be a table of contents to do the scrolling for you.
    - juwo 20y ago
      I have put in a TOC now. http://news.ycombinator.com/comments?id=14590 http://news.ycombinator.com/comments?id=14590
juwo 20y ago
my website is updated. Please visit again.

jkush 20y ago

One big issue is that the demo I downloaded had some audio pre installed with it. Just a thought, but using audio from a speech given by a man with cerebral palsey is not the best choice for a demo. It was very unclear and hard to see what it was that your software was accomplishing.

juwo 20y ago
Thanks for being the first public to drive it!. Try the BBC demo. it is video - or pretty American Idol Katharine McPhee.
- dpapathanasiou 20y ago
  For the BBC demo page, how about isolating the clip you want to show, perhaps surrounded by whitespace, but with a juwo page header? (i.e., make it clear this page still belongs in the juwo site, and you've just sampled a small part of the BBC page) People with ADD like me will start reading the news ticker or some of the other stories (seriously, I had to back up twice to figure out what I supposed to click on!). Also, for people not running XP and using Java plugins in their browser (I'm one of them!) can you prepare a version that will still convey what the demo does?
  - juwo 20y ago
    Do you mean, show the media player in the browser? Or should I draw the link for the demo in large font? Actually, juwo is great for people with ADD. you can sit in a class and record lectures - and then review only the important parts. I have some kind of ADD myself - and use juwo in important meetings.
    - dpapathanasiou 20y ago
      Basically, lose everything from the BBC page except the href to the clip you want to show and put it inside a "juwo" page, consistent with everything else on your site. For a while there, I thought I was at bbcnews.com and I started reading all these extraneous links and photos.

davidw 20y ago

http://juwo.com/company.html http://juwo.com/company.html "Juwo LLC was founded by Anil Philip in December 2004, and is based in Olathe, Kansas. We are" ... 'we' ? Also, the religious stuff probably belongs elsewhere, on your own home page, for instance.

juwo 20y ago
I am embarrassed to admit it's just me. It seems like "No single-founders allowed". So the 'we' is wife (advisor)... (Actually, I had an informal advisory group which I dissolved. The 'we' comes from there. As you fellow entrepreneurs will learn, advice is of little use - you want someone to help with the work to be done).
create_account 20y ago
It's not important, IMHO. It could be single founder + employees (but unlikely given the site design) or just him. But he could always say he's using the royal we.
- davidw 20y ago
  You think? As someone potentially in the same situation as he is, I would feel uneasy about writing something that's not the truth.
  - juwo 20y ago
    'we' is the truth because my wife does give me valuable advice and assessment on juwo, on people I interact with for juwo. Even though she has 0% equity.
    - dhouston 20y ago

abstractbill 20y ago

I tried the first demo and got this: An error occurred while launching/running the application. Title: Nodepad Vendor: juwo LLC Category: Unexpected Error Unexpected exception: java.lang.reflect.InvocationTargetException

juwo 20y ago
I assume you ran it on Windows? The download JDIC libraries are for Windows. If anyone is good with javascript, we can port it to run on other platforms.
- abstractbill 20y ago
  Linux (ubuntu). I clicked on the first demo when I saw it, without reading the rest of the front page (which was pretty overwhelming). I didn't see anywhere that would suggest this was a Windows thing until later.
  - juwo 20y ago
    I really apologize. I am not a Windows guy myself. (Read my rant on how Java harmed Unix and helped windows win). It is my major priority to get it working on Linux and Mac.

abstractbill 20y ago

Your web pages do not render correctly in firefox: http://abstractnonsense.com/juwo.png http://abstractnonsense.com/juwo.png

dfranke 20y ago
Works for me.
juwo 20y ago
that's weird - it is straight html, done in dreamweaver 8. thank you for taking the trouble to get the screenshot. I shall run it from firefox on Linux
- jaggederest 20y ago
  done in dreamweaver 8 Yeah, that'd be your problem. http://validator.w3.org/check?uri=http%3A%2F%2Fjuwo.com http://validator.w3.org/check?uri=http%3A%2F%2Fjuwo.com
  - juwo 20y ago
    thanks, shall fix by hand

wammin 20y ago

Too many words! This is my most common criticism for evaluating an interface. If you need so many words on the home page to describe how to do something or what it is, then it's not easy enough. Remember you only have about 20 seconds of somebody's attention before they decide to click away. I got lost pretty quick (and I'm actually pretty smart). The crap about Jesus on the about page turned me off, too. You're welcome to your religious beliefs, but keep them on your blog or someplace more appropriate.

juwo 20y ago
I read that people dont want to click, but scrolling is ok - I thought that was the lecture at startup school? (I saw a breief note on it here on this site) the condensation is at the diagrams on the right. Should I move the diagrams left? I am stubborn about Jesus; even though I have lost a lot of good opportunities because of it.
- wammin 20y ago
  I have no problem with scrolling ... but that doesn't mean you should try and cram more words on the page to explain what's going your website is about or how to use it. The harsh reality is that the vast majority of people won't make it through the first paragraph. I don't have all the answers ... but try making better use of headlines, images/diagrams, or a quick demo. Somebody should be able to visit your site and quickly know what it is and the basics of how it's used. Juwo sounds like a cool idea, but I don't get that as soon as I hit the homepage. Some examples of homepages that I like that do a good job of conveying the idea/service in less than 20 seconds (I have no affiliation with any of these): http://writewith.com/ http://writewith.com/ http://basecamphq.com/ http://basecamphq.com/
  - juwo 20y ago
    I have reorganized the page.
  - juwo 20y ago
    my website is updated. Please visit again.

blader 20y ago

I haven't downloaded it because the site doesn't inspire confidence that this is anything I want to install on my machine. Some suggestions: 1. Messaging. I am confused about what Juwo really is as well. It seems to be a way to tag audio or video by time? There is way too much text on the page. I know Juwo probably has a ton of features, but you need to nail down your core message and drill it in (and design your product around it). Can you describe what Juwo is in 5 words or less? Now what about 2 words? Anything longer than that and you've exceeded my attention span. 2. Design Horizontal scrolling plus web design circa 1995 plus religious proselytizing doesn't inspire confidence that this is something I want to use and would enjoy using. I strongly recommend looking at other websites featuring downloadable apps such as Skype.com or Trillian, etc to see how they are approaching this. This is compounded by the lack of a clear message as to what your product is. From what I understood of the core idea, it seems useful, but I can't see myself downloading a standalone app for this functionality. Btw, Have you checked out http://www.veotag.com? http://www.veotag.com? Seems like a competitor.

juwo 20y ago
It goes much further than veotag IMHO. I have a comparison matrix with with competitors, including veotag.
- blader 20y ago
  I think the difference is that I can understand what Veotag is in about 2 seconds, and I am still trying to figure you what Juwo is after really reading about it and thinking about it, and I did that only because I was asked to check it out. More features does not a better product make. More importantly, you can have 100x times Veotag's features, but it won't matter unless you can make people understand, instantly what your product is. Now I imagine I'm a random stranger on the internet stumbling across your site. You really have less than 5 seconds of time before I click off back to YouTube or something. I just don't have that much attention.
  - juwo 20y ago
    so tell me, how should I explain it? should I move the diagrams to the left, or just one column?

brett 20y ago

I have no idea what's going on on that page. Is it a blog? Is it a product?

extantproject 20y ago

In one sentence, what is Juwo?

juwo 20y ago
juwo is... A "Swiss Army knife" piece of software that gives more power to consumers to structure snippets of audio, video and text as a bullet list, to more easily index and annotate them, and to share the lists with others. Its benefits extend to multimedia as related to more enriching broadcasts, collaboration and organizing.
- kevinrose 20y ago
  is this for web or desktop?
  - juwo 20y ago
    both. please click a demo.

Goladus 20y ago

When I visit the site, I have these questions, in this order: (1) What is Juwo? (2) How do I get it? (Or get access) (3) How do I use it? (3) What can it do for me? Here's what happens when I visit the site: (1) What is Juwo? After scrolling up and down trying to make sense of the page, I gave up and just started reading from the top. After the first two sections I still am not quite sure what it actually is. I feel I have to try to piece it together from all the little clues in the text. (2) How do I get it? As far as I can tell, there is nothing to get. I can't find a download area or login box anywhere. Halfway down the page I see some demos, but I can't tell if that's the actual software or what. (3) How do I use it? This question is answered, although I had to scroll down to find it and I don't really understand the explanation because I don't know what Juwo is (1) and don't know how to get it (2). (4) What can it do for me? This question isn't important for me, but it is for some people. A lot of the page is devoted to talking about how the product can help me, however because (1) and (2) haven't been answered, I feel like I'm wasting my time.

juwo 20y ago
Please click on the demos. The software downloads and installs. It is desktop-web. I have reorganized the page.
juwo 20y ago
"(2) How do I get it? (Or get access) " Thanks for your feedback! I have added a line at the top. Note: When you click on a demo, NP will automatically download and install. NP can be run both offline and also connected to the internet. (see Technical Requirements)
juwo 20y ago
my website is updated. Please visit again.

pg 20y ago

I can't tell what it does. Aim for this: http://wufoo.com http://wufoo.com

juwo 20y ago
It is hard to explain juwo in one sentence because it can be used for at least a dozen things. I dont want to leave anything out. IMHO, juwo is a new concept. IMHO it is very powerful - but I am getting carried away... I have reorganized the page so that the simple explanation with the diagrams comes first. I have to also say this. Your recommendation, wufoo.com; "Online HTML forms" means nothing to the layman. Similarly, I think the layman will not understand anything by "juwo is... A "Swiss Army knife" piece of software that gives more power to consumers to structure snippets of audio, video and text as a bullet list, to more easily index and annotate them, and to share the lists with others. Its benefits extend to multimedia as related to more enriching broadcasts, collaboration and organizing". Yes, it may look like I have put the Help manual there. That is intentional. For a new concept, I believe that if people cannot get help easily with the details, then they will stop using it. Help manuals tend to be secreted away in software like a squirrel hides nuts. Of course, it can be argued successfully that I have already scared even the geeks away! I am not justifying, but explaining my rationale. I hope everyone at news.YC will continue to engage with juwo. Anil Philip juwo.com
- zaidf 20y ago
  You can either choose to emphasize how POWERFUL--as in scale--that Juwo is OR you can emphasize how EASY it can make my life. Right now even though you have glimpses of trying to show how it can help me, the overall tone of your site(confirmed by your posts here) is on features rather than practical use. Any tool can be used to do dozen things. Our site can be used to post music, lectures, pranks, cries of your first child and literally hundreds of other things. But it has its few primary uses and you have to pin them down and focus on those DEFINED audiences in the BEGINNING stages. Otherwise you end up confusing EVERYONE as you seem to have done here. I'll help you get started if you're interested. This should make for a good mini guide too for folks in your position Answer the following questions for me in LESS than 20 words each: 1. What is the problem? 2. Who is it a problem for?(note: everyone isn't an answer; think age groups, job profiles of people MOST likely facing the problem you describe in #1) 3. How do you plan to solve this problem? (theoretically, not what Juwo is) 4. How is Juwo solving this problem Use these guidelines: - Be as specific as you can be. - Use as simple words as you can use.

zaidf 20y ago

My humble advice... 1. Take this demo OFF now! People are going to develop a SUPER BAD bias of your product that will be hard to overcome even in the future should you improve the UI. 2. Hire or partner with a UI designer who knows usability and design! 3. I'll hypothesize that most people that visit your site will leave without any clear idea of what your product is.

juwo 20y ago
are you talking about the website? or the actual software, NP.
- zaidf 20y ago
  The website. I've no idea what the software is and thus I didn't download it.
  - juwo 20y ago
    I have reorganized the page.
    - zaidf 20y ago
      What you really need to do is make a screencast demo explaining from the VERY beginning a) what is the problem b) how juwo solves it. In very plain language with in screen demo. For a sample look at Mosoto: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SpuU4l_4Nr0&eurl=http%3A%2F%2Fmosoto%2Ecom%2F http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SpuU4l_4Nr0&eurl=http%3A%2F%2Fmosoto%2Ecom%2F You don't have to be anywhere near as crisp as these guys. If you can answer what's the problem and how juwo solves it in 2minutes you'll have fewer confused minds.
      - juwo 20y ago
        Arent the pictures clear and simple? The problem with screencast is what juwo tries to solve. However, as you suggest, I shall create a screencast and see which is better. Also see: my reply is here: http://news.ycombinator.com/comments?id=14590 http://news.ycombinator.com/comments?id=14590 Thanks for continuing to engage!

bkmrkr 20y ago

I still have no idea what the hell this is

ecuzzillo 20y ago

Who funds juwo?

juwo 20y ago
me - or more accurately, my depleted savings did. why?

rms 20y ago

want... to... troll... about... religion...

juwo 20y ago
http://news.ycombinator.com/comments?id=14583 http://news.ycombinator.com/comments?id=14583

woot 20y ago

Hey! This is cool! But Crap Box is better.

juwo 20y ago
"Hey! This is cool! But Crap Box is better" Did you actually use juwo before stating that your toilet is better?

philc 20y ago

Juwo, this is the most confusing thing I've ever looked at. I have a feeling the product is not very focused itself, and thus is hard to convey. If you can't convey it in a single page with a few terse sentences (ala skype.com), you might need to redesign and make it simpler. I'm glad you're a Christian, but a company-about page is probably not the best place for pro/con links. It's distracting.

juwo 20y ago
my reply is here: http://news.ycombinator.com/comments?id=14590 http://news.ycombinator.com/comments?id=14590 Thanks for continuing to engage! What is a pro-con link?

budu3 20y ago

I agree with most people on this thread. There's an information overload. Plus I suggest you hire a web designer. The design is not doing your service justice.

juwo 20y ago
I have reorganized the page.

sblservices 18y ago

I have seen many sites before and most of them do not look this good. Regards, http://www.saibposervices.com/Video-audio-tagging.aspx http://www.saibposervices.com/Video-audio-tagging.aspx