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Show HN: SketchDaily.io – Free educational and fun sketching tool

4 points by ripexz 9y ago

ripexz 9y ago
I've been tipping away at this side project for over half a year (in full-time employment), but it's finally at a stage where I'm not ashamed to make it public. By no means finished but it's first time I've shipped a side project from start to finish so it feels good :)
WheelsAtLarge 9y ago
Annoying, having to login is not practical without knowing what the app is. So, I could not get past the 1st screen. You lost me and I'm sure many others.
- perilunar 9y ago
  Agree with this. Make it possible to play with it without an account, then create account to save the drawing. Or just use a random url for each drawing.
  - ripexz 9y ago
    Thanks for your feedback, I think the first route is more suitable as it's supposed to track your progress and daily streak so some sort of signup is needed. So I'll work on that next, probably a random easy sketch you can draw without signup and as you submit it, you submit a signup form.
- ripexz 9y ago
  Thanks for the feedback, I see where you're coming from. I guess I got carried away working on what's behind the login wall, but better onboarding/signup is the next thing I will work on.
- ripexz 9y ago
  So with your feedback in mind, I've reworked the onboarding/signup process and you start with a sketch first and sign up to save it, give it another chance if you have the time. :) https://www.sketchdaily.io/#get-started https://www.sketchdaily.io/#get-started
  - brudgers 9y ago
    If it is free, why have signup at all? At least for right now. If the goal is something bigger, then getting users and solving the problems related to use that come from edge cases in browser configuration; drawing size and style; and saving across the internet can be field tested by reducing the impediments to use. Getting rid of accounts also means getting rid of account management chores...like the one here...that eat into the time needed to make the user experience better. To be clear, no matter how good you make the signup, it is a bad experience that stands between a user's enthusiasm for the product and their use. Going further, there are approximately two user experience scenarios that go with signup. 1. The security conscientious user will spend time thinking about security and managing identity and assessing risk associated with adding another account because every account increases attack surface area. 2. The security naive user will just use an existing identity pattern and that makes your site a more attractive target for black hat hacking and therefore increases effort that must be exhibited on non-functional aspects of the site. Or to put it another way, would you rather spend your time managing an account system or doing creating something interesting...and productive: I found your comment from this resubmission of your site (plus an HN search): https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15283017 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15283017. It goes to the normal page instead of the new better experience, as would be expected. And so my experience was worse than you hoped because it is hard to control incoming links. Adding signup and accounts are a task that frameworks make easier than the important functional work. But they are hard to get right because no user says, "I wish I had to sign up for this instead of doing the interesting thing I came here to do." This means accounts are hard to get right. It is only the ease with which frameworks make creating a user account system possible that makes adding user accounts "best industry practice." tl;dr = Treat the need for user accounts as a possible edge case. Good luck.
    - ripexz 9y ago
      I see where you're coming from - definitely not an easy problem to solve though, from my experience other free learning web apps can't do without accounts either.(Duoling, Codecademy, etc). Maybe my views are outdated about this, but I haven't see this done without registration, sure I can store stuff locally in the browser/device but the second you switch, your data is lost. I guess I could make it easier for the latter security-naive user by offering SSO with Facebook/Twitter/what-have-you but in the end it's just glorified signup, a better UX sure, but working around the same problem. If you can give me examples of other apps that have done this well, I'm all ears, this is very much a learning experience for me and I'd like to take away as much as possible.

4 points by ripexz 9y ago

I've been tipping away at this side project for over half a year (in full-time employment), but it's finally at a stage where I'm not ashamed to make it public. By no means finished but it's first time I've shipped a side project from start to finish so it feels good :)

WheelsAtLarge 9y ago

Annoying, having to login is not practical without knowing what the app is. So, I could not get past the 1st screen. You lost me and I'm sure many others.

perilunar 9y ago
Agree with this. Make it possible to play with it without an account, then create account to save the drawing. Or just use a random url for each drawing.
- ripexz 9y ago
  Thanks for your feedback, I think the first route is more suitable as it's supposed to track your progress and daily streak so some sort of signup is needed. So I'll work on that next, probably a random easy sketch you can draw without signup and as you submit it, you submit a signup form.
ripexz 9y ago
Thanks for the feedback, I see where you're coming from. I guess I got carried away working on what's behind the login wall, but better onboarding/signup is the next thing I will work on.
ripexz 9y ago
So with your feedback in mind, I've reworked the onboarding/signup process and you start with a sketch first and sign up to save it, give it another chance if you have the time. :) https://www.sketchdaily.io/#get-started https://www.sketchdaily.io/#get-started
- brudgers 9y ago
  If it is free, why have signup at all? At least for right now. If the goal is something bigger, then getting users and solving the problems related to use that come from edge cases in browser configuration; drawing size and style; and saving across the internet can be field tested by reducing the impediments to use. Getting rid of accounts also means getting rid of account management chores...like the one here...that eat into the time needed to make the user experience better. To be clear, no matter how good you make the signup, it is a bad experience that stands between a user's enthusiasm for the product and their use. Going further, there are approximately two user experience scenarios that go with signup. 1. The security conscientious user will spend time thinking about security and managing identity and assessing risk associated with adding another account because every account increases attack surface area. 2. The security naive user will just use an existing identity pattern and that makes your site a more attractive target for black hat hacking and therefore increases effort that must be exhibited on non-functional aspects of the site. Or to put it another way, would you rather spend your time managing an account system or doing creating something interesting...and productive: I found your comment from this resubmission of your site (plus an HN search): https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15283017 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15283017. It goes to the normal page instead of the new better experience, as would be expected. And so my experience was worse than you hoped because it is hard to control incoming links. Adding signup and accounts are a task that frameworks make easier than the important functional work. But they are hard to get right because no user says, "I wish I had to sign up for this instead of doing the interesting thing I came here to do." This means accounts are hard to get right. It is only the ease with which frameworks make creating a user account system possible that makes adding user accounts "best industry practice." tl;dr = Treat the need for user accounts as a possible edge case. Good luck.
  - ripexz 9y ago
    I see where you're coming from - definitely not an easy problem to solve though, from my experience other free learning web apps can't do without accounts either.(Duoling, Codecademy, etc). Maybe my views are outdated about this, but I haven't see this done without registration, sure I can store stuff locally in the browser/device but the second you switch, your data is lost. I guess I could make it easier for the latter security-naive user by offering SSO with Facebook/Twitter/what-have-you but in the end it's just glorified signup, a better UX sure, but working around the same problem. If you can give me examples of other apps that have done this well, I'm all ears, this is very much a learning experience for me and I'd like to take away as much as possible.