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If you linked me directly to such a page without any explanation of why I should use your app, or even how I'm supposed to use your app, I would close it immedi

If you linked me directly to such a page without any explanation of why I should use your app, or even how I'm supposed to use your app, I would close it immediately. I think most people would probably do the same, and I'm almost positive that your "over 50%" number is vastly overestimating. It also disagrees with your original statement that "all 17000 visitors would have tried it". That's why splash pages (and writeups, like the original) are important. But as mentioned in my previous comment, those splash pages/writeups also have to be effective advertisements.

TekMol 8y ago
without any explanation of why I should use your app, or even how I'm supposed to use your app, I would close it immediately. Seeing you write this on HN, which has no splash screen either, contradicts this statement.
- txcwpalpha 8y ago
  The first several times I opened HN, I closed it immediately because I wasn't sure how to use it. It wasn't until many months later, after experience with other sites with similar interfaces, that I actually started using HN because I then understood how and why to use it. The HN interface is intuitive enough and similar enough to other website to understand that you're being shown comments and a reply box when you click on a link. That's not the case with this [1]. If you linked me directly to a page that looked like this, without any explanation of what these boxes of text are telling me, where they are coming from, or what they are, I would not use it. The button next to them (a grey box with a plus symbol on it) doesn't explain to me at all what it does, and is not something you see enough in other apps to make a good enough guess as to what it does. After reading the blog post, my assumption is that clicking that button is supposed to send me an email, I think? But I would have absolutely no way of knowing that if you just linked me directly to the app. 1: https://hackernewslater.com/images/hacker_news_later_screen_shot.png https://hackernewslater.com/images/hacker_news_later_screen_... edit: if you download the actual app, the first page it shows you actually is a splash screen that gives a brief explanation of what the app does and why. If that same splash screen content had just been shown and linked to at the top of the original writeup, I suspect he would've gotten a lot more installs.
  - TekMol 8y ago
    The button next to them (a grey box with a plus symbol on it) doesn't explain to me at all what it does If so, maybe they should use a 'read later' button instead. Or put a sentence on top 'Click + to read a story later'. The more people bounce the stronger the inclination to try that and see if engagement increases. That's why all 17000 visitors would be valuable testers, no matter how they behave.

TekMol 8y ago

without any explanation of why I should use your app, or even how I'm supposed to use your app, I would close it immediately. Seeing you write this on HN, which has no splash screen either, contradicts this statement.

txcwpalpha 8y ago
The first several times I opened HN, I closed it immediately because I wasn't sure how to use it. It wasn't until many months later, after experience with other sites with similar interfaces, that I actually started using HN because I then understood how and why to use it. The HN interface is intuitive enough and similar enough to other website to understand that you're being shown comments and a reply box when you click on a link. That's not the case with this [1]. If you linked me directly to a page that looked like this, without any explanation of what these boxes of text are telling me, where they are coming from, or what they are, I would not use it. The button next to them (a grey box with a plus symbol on it) doesn't explain to me at all what it does, and is not something you see enough in other apps to make a good enough guess as to what it does. After reading the blog post, my assumption is that clicking that button is supposed to send me an email, I think? But I would have absolutely no way of knowing that if you just linked me directly to the app. 1: https://hackernewslater.com/images/hacker_news_later_screen_shot.png https://hackernewslater.com/images/hacker_news_later_screen_... edit: if you download the actual app, the first page it shows you actually is a splash screen that gives a brief explanation of what the app does and why. If that same splash screen content had just been shown and linked to at the top of the original writeup, I suspect he would've gotten a lot more installs.
- TekMol 8y ago
  The button next to them (a grey box with a plus symbol on it) doesn't explain to me at all what it does If so, maybe they should use a 'read later' button instead. Or put a sentence on top 'Click + to read a story later'. The more people bounce the stronger the inclination to try that and see if engagement increases. That's why all 17000 visitors would be valuable testers, no matter how they behave.