3 ms·

Judging by the lack of comments, does this idea fall in the realm of mediocrity?

by jkush 20y ago

BrandonM 20y ago
I don't think the issue is one of mediocrity. I can certainly see the merit of your idea, but it all depends on execution. Would I use it? I don't think so. I know plenty of people who would, though, and if they created such a memorial for a friend of mine, I would be compelled to visit and add to it. So in a sense, it is viral, and as someone else mentioned, there is certainly a market for it. So go for it. It doesn't seem like a super-complex idea involving crazy algorithms or anything. You are going to have to really consider design issues about how such a site should be navigated, if perhaps it should be linked with MySpace or Facebook or something so that friends can refer people to memorials on the site or something. Or come up with a different plan altogether. The point is that it doesn't matter how good the idea is if you don't have a good design in mind and the motivation to make it happen. I think it would be great, but can you do it? (That's meant to be a motivational challenge in order to help get you started on it.)
- SwellJoe 20y ago
  The design also needs to take into account that the vast majority of customers for a memorial site will be older folks (I've seen enough memorial services being planned to know that it's the grandmothers and great aunts that do the work...everybody else is too wrapped up in their own grief to get anything done...maybe this is just in the matriarchal south, but I suspect it applies across the country). That's a really hard market to design for. But, craigslist has shown that if you take a newspaper product and dump it onto the web with a perfect implementation (say what you will about craigslist and how ugly it is...but it's a beautifully functional ugly that's a joy to use), you'll get lots of users. Every day there are thousands of obituaries published. The paper gives you three or six or whatever lines for free, and you can pay for bigger ad-style layouts. Just like classifieds being really cheap for a few lines, but getting more expensive the more copy you write, you can remove the expense of extra copy and adding pictures. So, taking something that's currently inconvenient (call the newspaper, spell the name three times, struggle with the family about who gets listed under "survived by", since you're running out of words, etc.) and making it convenient and free sounds like it'd be a winner. It's the "free" part that makes it hard to make money on. Who wants ads for home mortgages and crap all over their grandfather's obituary? But I dunno if people will pay for it.
  - waleedka 20y ago
    Good analysis, but there is a catch. Newspapers already have readers. When people post in a newspaper, they want to get the word out. But if you create a web site specifically for this purpose, I doubt that people will read it often to check if someone they know had passed away. However, if a known online news service provides this as an extra feature, then people will figure out that they can get the word out by posting there.
    - jkush 20y ago
      Yes. All good points. Thanks guys - this feedback is very helpful.

Judging by the lack of comments, does this idea fall in the realm of mediocrity?

by jkush 20y ago

Judging by the lack of comments, does this idea fall in the realm of mediocrity?

I don't think the issue is one of mediocrity. I can certainly see the merit of your idea, but it all depends on execution. Would I use it? I don't think so. I know plenty of people who would, though, and if they created such a memorial for a friend of mine, I would be compelled to visit and add to it. So in a sense, it is viral, and as someone else mentioned, there is certainly a market for it. So go for it. It doesn't seem like a super-complex idea involving crazy algorithms or anything. You are going to have to really consider design issues about how such a site should be navigated, if perhaps it should be linked with MySpace or Facebook or something so that friends can refer people to memorials on the site or something. Or come up with a different plan altogether. The point is that it doesn't matter how good the idea is if you don't have a good design in mind and the motivation to make it happen. I think it would be great, but can you do it? (That's meant to be a motivational challenge in order to help get you started on it.)

SwellJoe 20y ago
The design also needs to take into account that the vast majority of customers for a memorial site will be older folks (I've seen enough memorial services being planned to know that it's the grandmothers and great aunts that do the work...everybody else is too wrapped up in their own grief to get anything done...maybe this is just in the matriarchal south, but I suspect it applies across the country). That's a really hard market to design for. But, craigslist has shown that if you take a newspaper product and dump it onto the web with a perfect implementation (say what you will about craigslist and how ugly it is...but it's a beautifully functional ugly that's a joy to use), you'll get lots of users. Every day there are thousands of obituaries published. The paper gives you three or six or whatever lines for free, and you can pay for bigger ad-style layouts. Just like classifieds being really cheap for a few lines, but getting more expensive the more copy you write, you can remove the expense of extra copy and adding pictures. So, taking something that's currently inconvenient (call the newspaper, spell the name three times, struggle with the family about who gets listed under "survived by", since you're running out of words, etc.) and making it convenient and free sounds like it'd be a winner. It's the "free" part that makes it hard to make money on. Who wants ads for home mortgages and crap all over their grandfather's obituary? But I dunno if people will pay for it.
- waleedka 20y ago
  Good analysis, but there is a catch. Newspapers already have readers. When people post in a newspaper, they want to get the word out. But if you create a web site specifically for this purpose, I doubt that people will read it often to check if someone they know had passed away. However, if a known online news service provides this as an extra feature, then people will figure out that they can get the word out by posting there.
  - jkush 20y ago
    Yes. All good points. Thanks guys - this feedback is very helpful.