4 ms·

Ask HN: Please Review My Mobile Webapp (Drupal-powered)

4 points by mstefff 18y ago

http://www.streetread.com/blog/streetread-mobile-officially-launches (the address above points to a blog post where an interactive demo is available, along with screenshots) HN provided some great feedback and advice on the initial launch of Streetread over 2 months ago. The service has come along way since and the mobile edition of the site is the latest development. Being that I love the wisdom that this community offers, I'm looking forward to any feedback you might have. I would ALSO love some ideas on how to effectively promote this. From what I know, this is the most comprehensive mobile financial news app that is free of charge. And last, yes this is completely powered by Drupal - any dev questions are welcomed too. Thanks

DenisM 18y ago
You started off on the wrong foot: 1. There is no link to your site from your profile, so I have to copy-paste. That loses a great deal of hacker right there. 2. The site (I copy-pasted the link) keeps talking about anything except about what it actually does. I don't know what streetread is. I'm confused and about to drop out. 3. So I clicked through to the home page and now I know what it does. You really need to explain how this is any better/different than google finance. There is no FAQ linked from home page. At this point I lose interest and drop out. FWIW.
bootload 18y ago
"... HN provided some great feedback and advice on the initial launch of Streetread over 2 months ago ... I'm looking forward to any feedback you might have. ...." 5m test, here's what I found: - I tried to enter googles stock quote but couldn't find it. How do I find a stock quote of a company I don't know? Maybe this is a useless edge case but it was a problem for me. - lots of words "Click here to login", "Click here to register (free)" so they can be simplified - sampled text news article headlines from http://www.streetread.com/m/feed/site_Yahoo http://www.streetread.com/m/feed/site_Yahoo and got 203, 148, 168, 178, 193 without the headings .. bit wordy. Maybe the suggestion is keep the length but decrease the item count? - monkey test for input & doesn't barf when unicode entered - tried getting news from WSJ, the page responded "PAGE UNAVAILABLE" from WSJ side. This exposed a problem that I can't get back home. Is there a back button on the devices? Should a home logo always be there? Works. Is there any chance of a Video demo on the site?
- mstefff 18y ago
  Thank you for the feedback. 1. I don't have access to an adequate data feed to be able to search based on company names - and no it's not useless, it's needed. 2. I understand where you're coming from, but if there is one thing I've learned, it's that 99% of users need to be spoon fed. 3. I don't understand what you're saying with the numbers. I just checked the page and it looks fine. 4. Nice. 5. Strange error. Being that the news content is hosted on other sites gives me no way of including a Streetread logo or button to return. I don't know of any mobile browser that doesn't have a back button. What would you suggest? Video - maybe. Good idea. I thought the interactive demo was enough. I never had the patience to ever watch an app demo. Thanks again
  - calvin 18y ago
    In regards to a video app demo, I'd recommend giving it a chance if you've got time for it. People have different learning styles and some will have an easier time learning to use this app if they "see" it first. This will become more important when you reach further beyond the early adopter crowd.
  - bootload 18y ago
    - #3 - just character counter/news item sans the header. You get 10 x 150char thats a lot for a phone. Is it? - #5 might be a problem with the demo. I simply clicked a link & got transported to an error page. Is it the demo? Take your point about the back button. - #1 I don't think it would be as much a problem if users know their stock name. But as a secondary service. "... I thought the interactive demo was enough ..." Good way to show the best features w/o users having to experiment. Good demo btw. Works as advertised.

4 points by mstefff 18y ago

DenisM 18y ago

You started off on the wrong foot: 1. There is no link to your site from your profile, so I have to copy-paste. That loses a great deal of hacker right there. 2. The site (I copy-pasted the link) keeps talking about anything except about what it actually does. I don't know what streetread is. I'm confused and about to drop out. 3. So I clicked through to the home page and now I know what it does. You really need to explain how this is any better/different than google finance. There is no FAQ linked from home page. At this point I lose interest and drop out. FWIW.

bootload 18y ago

"... HN provided some great feedback and advice on the initial launch of Streetread over 2 months ago ... I'm looking forward to any feedback you might have. ...." 5m test, here's what I found: - I tried to enter googles stock quote but couldn't find it. How do I find a stock quote of a company I don't know? Maybe this is a useless edge case but it was a problem for me. - lots of words "Click here to login", "Click here to register (free)" so they can be simplified - sampled text news article headlines from http://www.streetread.com/m/feed/site_Yahoo http://www.streetread.com/m/feed/site_Yahoo and got 203, 148, 168, 178, 193 without the headings .. bit wordy. Maybe the suggestion is keep the length but decrease the item count? - monkey test for input & doesn't barf when unicode entered - tried getting news from WSJ, the page responded "PAGE UNAVAILABLE" from WSJ side. This exposed a problem that I can't get back home. Is there a back button on the devices? Should a home logo always be there? Works. Is there any chance of a Video demo on the site?

mstefff 18y ago
Thank you for the feedback. 1. I don't have access to an adequate data feed to be able to search based on company names - and no it's not useless, it's needed. 2. I understand where you're coming from, but if there is one thing I've learned, it's that 99% of users need to be spoon fed. 3. I don't understand what you're saying with the numbers. I just checked the page and it looks fine. 4. Nice. 5. Strange error. Being that the news content is hosted on other sites gives me no way of including a Streetread logo or button to return. I don't know of any mobile browser that doesn't have a back button. What would you suggest? Video - maybe. Good idea. I thought the interactive demo was enough. I never had the patience to ever watch an app demo. Thanks again
- calvin 18y ago
  In regards to a video app demo, I'd recommend giving it a chance if you've got time for it. People have different learning styles and some will have an easier time learning to use this app if they "see" it first. This will become more important when you reach further beyond the early adopter crowd.
- bootload 18y ago
  - #3 - just character counter/news item sans the header. You get 10 x 150char thats a lot for a phone. Is it? - #5 might be a problem with the demo. I simply clicked a link & got transported to an error page. Is it the demo? Take your point about the back button. - #1 I don't think it would be as much a problem if users know their stock name. But as a secondary service. "... I thought the interactive demo was enough ..." Good way to show the best features w/o users having to experiment. Good demo btw. Works as advertised.