5 ms·

Awesome. I'm definitely a potential paying customer. Two suggestions and a question: * How about a free trial for unlimited access or some other kind of cance

Awesome. I'm definitely a potential paying customer. Two suggestions and a question: * How about a free trial for unlimited access or some other kind of cancellation guarantee? * Minor one, but the dark contrast on your website UI is about equivalent to the background on a typical lightbox...i.e. it reads "disabled" to me on first glance. One question: I assume I could map a CNAME record to the showoff URL? (So cookies work, etc.)

senex 15y ago
We're going to add CNAME support soon. Thanks for the feedback about the color scheme. If you sign up for an unlimited account and you're _really_ unhappy, send an email to support@showoff.io and we can talk about a refund :)
- jsdalton 15y ago
  Cool good to know. :) Less a matter of the money, more a matter of wanting to easily play around with the "full strength" version to see if it really works for me. I happen to be working on an account/authentication service right now, so being able to rig it with a working domain name (via CNAME) so cookies work with my app is definitely big on my list.
- mtkd 15y ago
  Team payment options would be good too - $25/M 7 user option or something.
- russellperry 15y ago
  Contrast could be better but I like the layout and fonts. Simple.
gregschlom 15y ago
I second the dark contrast point. My first reaction on the site was "omg, what can I do to put some color and some life here". I even tried playing with the bookmarks on the top right corner to see if they would light up the site.
- barrkel 15y ago
  I kept expecting a bright background image to load, or a dynamic popup to appear. Even fully loaded, the page looks incomplete.
  - xnerdr 15y ago
    I just did a quick article on the design: Showoff.io feedback and design impressions - http://nerdr.com/startup-showoff-io-first-impressions-and-feedback/ http://nerdr.com/startup-showoff-io-first-impressions-and-fe...
    - o1iver 15y ago
      Why the "Average user asks:" critique when the target audience (as you acknowledge below) is clearly technical. Anybody with networking experience, ie. setting up a web-server (even for local dev) will know what localhost is (they type it in their address bar to access the "local" server)...etc
- protomyth 15y ago
  I've been using OS X too long, since I instinctually thought the website was grey out / not active.
- PhrosTT 15y ago
  i'll chime in as somebody who likes it.
- nitrogen 15y ago
  It looks like something designed for 3D and film production. Such an interface has very little contrast and color so it doesn't interfere with the perceived color and intensity of the image.
HerraBRE 15y ago
This is very similar to my http://pagekite.net/ http://pagekite.net/, which offers both free trials and CNAME records already. They're out-marketing me, I guess. It looks nicely done!
- pakeha 15y ago
  It's not obvious by looking at the pagekite homepage what the product does. Lots of focus on the benefits, but as a developer, I'd rather just know what it does and how to use it I would even suggest taking inspiration from the clearly annotated three-panel diagram on the showoff.io homepage - very clear and simple. I am guessing that pagekite might offer more functionality than this, but again, I am having trouble figuring that out. Best of luck!
  - HerraBRE 15y ago
    Yes, we have been struggling with a focus problem. We're techies (and our tech is good), not marketing gurus. :-) Thanks!
    - pakeha 15y ago
      I absolutely understand. I'm not a marketing person either, but I have some experience in usability research, and I think you will get as much value from testing the homepage with a few fresh faces as you would from a marketing project. There is an interesting crossover between usability and product marketing when it comes to homepages and messaging. If you haven't already, I highly recommend Steve Krug's new book "Rocket surgery made easy", which is focused on guerilla usability testing. Usability testing is classically about identifying problems/improvements to a UI, but you can quite easily use the same techniques to test your homepage and figure out whether people understand the product and whether the homepage encourages them to try it out, etc. Have fun!
  - deleted 15y ago
    [deleted]
- jsdalton 15y ago

senex 15y ago

We're going to add CNAME support soon. Thanks for the feedback about the color scheme. If you sign up for an unlimited account and you're _really_ unhappy, send an email to support@showoff.io and we can talk about a refund :)

jsdalton 15y ago
Cool good to know. :) Less a matter of the money, more a matter of wanting to easily play around with the "full strength" version to see if it really works for me. I happen to be working on an account/authentication service right now, so being able to rig it with a working domain name (via CNAME) so cookies work with my app is definitely big on my list.
mtkd 15y ago
Team payment options would be good too - $25/M 7 user option or something.
russellperry 15y ago
Contrast could be better but I like the layout and fonts. Simple.

gregschlom 15y ago

I second the dark contrast point. My first reaction on the site was "omg, what can I do to put some color and some life here". I even tried playing with the bookmarks on the top right corner to see if they would light up the site.

barrkel 15y ago
I kept expecting a bright background image to load, or a dynamic popup to appear. Even fully loaded, the page looks incomplete.
- xnerdr 15y ago
  I just did a quick article on the design: Showoff.io feedback and design impressions - http://nerdr.com/startup-showoff-io-first-impressions-and-feedback/ http://nerdr.com/startup-showoff-io-first-impressions-and-fe...
  - o1iver 15y ago
    Why the "Average user asks:" critique when the target audience (as you acknowledge below) is clearly technical. Anybody with networking experience, ie. setting up a web-server (even for local dev) will know what localhost is (they type it in their address bar to access the "local" server)...etc
protomyth 15y ago
I've been using OS X too long, since I instinctually thought the website was grey out / not active.
PhrosTT 15y ago
i'll chime in as somebody who likes it.
nitrogen 15y ago
It looks like something designed for 3D and film production. Such an interface has very little contrast and color so it doesn't interfere with the perceived color and intensity of the image.

HerraBRE 15y ago

This is very similar to my http://pagekite.net/ http://pagekite.net/, which offers both free trials and CNAME records already. They're out-marketing me, I guess. It looks nicely done!

pakeha 15y ago
It's not obvious by looking at the pagekite homepage what the product does. Lots of focus on the benefits, but as a developer, I'd rather just know what it does and how to use it I would even suggest taking inspiration from the clearly annotated three-panel diagram on the showoff.io homepage - very clear and simple. I am guessing that pagekite might offer more functionality than this, but again, I am having trouble figuring that out. Best of luck!
- HerraBRE 15y ago
  Yes, we have been struggling with a focus problem. We're techies (and our tech is good), not marketing gurus. :-) Thanks!
  - pakeha 15y ago
    I absolutely understand. I'm not a marketing person either, but I have some experience in usability research, and I think you will get as much value from testing the homepage with a few fresh faces as you would from a marketing project. There is an interesting crossover between usability and product marketing when it comes to homepages and messaging. If you haven't already, I highly recommend Steve Krug's new book "Rocket surgery made easy", which is focused on guerilla usability testing. Usability testing is classically about identifying problems/improvements to a UI, but you can quite easily use the same techniques to test your homepage and figure out whether people understand the product and whether the homepage encourages them to try it out, etc. Have fun!
- deleted 15y ago
  [deleted]
jsdalton 15y ago