4 ms·

Kicking off a new website - appreciated feeback (good and bad)

4 points by livz 18y ago

livz 18y ago
Wasn't sure about whether to only use OpenID just now - made the authentication easier - can concentrate on the functionality more that way.
alaskamiller 18y ago
Why a feed reader?
- livz 18y ago
  Hi - it's not a traditional feedreader - we have written queries in the backend to return the feeds. We have actually done much more than that due to the variation in formats and semantic interpretation of RSS and Atom - but basically it's not a traditional feedreader. Thanks.
lethain 18y ago
0. Can't figure out what your added value is. 1. Buttons which do nothing ("expand to show further panels..."). 2. The question marks after "Change Location, etc" are really sized badly. 3. You are displaying escaped HTML in the right most scroll ('<b>Obama</b> says that...'). 4. You inlined all the scripts AND stylings. 5. Design is very busy and doesn't look professional. In particular the 'WebLivz' box in the top left doesn't match theme and clips over existing text. 6. 'Please get involved' text isn't centered. In summary, the site feels thrown together and adhoc. There are little problems, and bigger ones. I don't think this has enough polish or focus to be released for public consumption. You need to a) simplify the design, and b) explain your added value to users, because it isn't clear how this is going to replace my RSS feeds. Sorry to be critical of your work, but it really needs more polish before you start asking for public feedback.
- livz 18y ago
  No probs - glad to hear of any feedback. This group are focused on early stage stuff so good to hear back. Scripts are styles are inlined in some cases (not all). The buttons do stuff when it's available - but perhaps i'll hide them when there are no options. Hey, no worrie about the critique - useful to hear than nothing!
Shamiq 18y ago
I understand this is totally superficial, but can you keep the same color scheme that you had in the portal page (ie click to get started)? Defaulting to politics is no fun. Here's an idea: Can you use the information which tells you where a user came from to customize the site for him? So say I came from HN, I would probably like to see stuff about technology, startups, ect. with the option of checking out other categories. If the origin in unknown/unclear, then a default page similar to Google News would be nice, in that it shows all the major categories and top 3 from each. Definitely work on cleaning up the interface so it's easily readable/scanable. Most users don't like to and/or don't know how to hunt for information if it's not amazingly simple to find. Good luck!
- livz 18y ago
  I am interested in using where a user came from too - i just never had time to do it right now but i will check out how i could achieve that. Would make things easer - at least for location. Once you log in you can customize it. Thanks - will have a think about the UI.
timcederman 18y ago
"z" in the domain name always makes me cringe... All this talk of "we do this" and "we do that" actually makes me nervous to give you my data. It's just a wording/psychological thing. That announcement thing gives me the irrits. You should show it over top of the content or otherwise you'll get a high bounce rate. another site with square buttons? Isn't anyone getting sick of these yet? Overall the experience was overwhelming. Where do I start? What do these things do? What should I click on next? Where is the value? You talked about taking a river of RSS stuff - why not let me try it with my Google reader feed so I can see whether your intelligent stuff actually works?
- livz 18y ago
  Thanks. Out last name ends in "z" which is why i use it, but fair enough. Giving people an idea of what it does it always pretty tricky so feedback on that is good. I'll look into the things you mention - the Google feed reader is an interesting idea - and i already have the cached Atom i generate from the queries.
rw 18y ago
The page isn't redirecting properly Iceweasel has detected that the server is redirecting the request for this address in a way that will never complete. * This problem can sometimes be caused by disabling or refusing to accept cookies.
- livz 18y ago
  Aye - i use cookies to store your language. Maybe something to do with that.
livz 18y ago
Thanks all - let me have a read and post back some. Very Much appreciated!
livz 18y ago
btw - this is an excellent site. Got almost NO feedback on Twitter/FF and then this. Thanks again!
livz 18y ago
ok folks - i added RSS feeds - you will see the icon on every data panel on the front page. Will now work in your favourite RSS Reader.

4 points by livz 18y ago

livz 18y ago

Wasn't sure about whether to only use OpenID just now - made the authentication easier - can concentrate on the functionality more that way.

alaskamiller 18y ago

Why a feed reader?

livz 18y ago
Hi - it's not a traditional feedreader - we have written queries in the backend to return the feeds. We have actually done much more than that due to the variation in formats and semantic interpretation of RSS and Atom - but basically it's not a traditional feedreader. Thanks.

lethain 18y ago

0. Can't figure out what your added value is. 1. Buttons which do nothing ("expand to show further panels..."). 2. The question marks after "Change Location, etc" are really sized badly. 3. You are displaying escaped HTML in the right most scroll ('<b>Obama</b> says that...'). 4. You inlined all the scripts AND stylings. 5. Design is very busy and doesn't look professional. In particular the 'WebLivz' box in the top left doesn't match theme and clips over existing text. 6. 'Please get involved' text isn't centered. In summary, the site feels thrown together and adhoc. There are little problems, and bigger ones. I don't think this has enough polish or focus to be released for public consumption. You need to a) simplify the design, and b) explain your added value to users, because it isn't clear how this is going to replace my RSS feeds. Sorry to be critical of your work, but it really needs more polish before you start asking for public feedback.

livz 18y ago
No probs - glad to hear of any feedback. This group are focused on early stage stuff so good to hear back. Scripts are styles are inlined in some cases (not all). The buttons do stuff when it's available - but perhaps i'll hide them when there are no options. Hey, no worrie about the critique - useful to hear than nothing!

Shamiq 18y ago

I understand this is totally superficial, but can you keep the same color scheme that you had in the portal page (ie click to get started)? Defaulting to politics is no fun. Here's an idea: Can you use the information which tells you where a user came from to customize the site for him? So say I came from HN, I would probably like to see stuff about technology, startups, ect. with the option of checking out other categories. If the origin in unknown/unclear, then a default page similar to Google News would be nice, in that it shows all the major categories and top 3 from each. Definitely work on cleaning up the interface so it's easily readable/scanable. Most users don't like to and/or don't know how to hunt for information if it's not amazingly simple to find. Good luck!

livz 18y ago
I am interested in using where a user came from too - i just never had time to do it right now but i will check out how i could achieve that. Would make things easer - at least for location. Once you log in you can customize it. Thanks - will have a think about the UI.

timcederman 18y ago

"z" in the domain name always makes me cringe... All this talk of "we do this" and "we do that" actually makes me nervous to give you my data. It's just a wording/psychological thing. That announcement thing gives me the irrits. You should show it over top of the content or otherwise you'll get a high bounce rate. another site with square buttons? Isn't anyone getting sick of these yet? Overall the experience was overwhelming. Where do I start? What do these things do? What should I click on next? Where is the value? You talked about taking a river of RSS stuff - why not let me try it with my Google reader feed so I can see whether your intelligent stuff actually works?

livz 18y ago
Thanks. Out last name ends in "z" which is why i use it, but fair enough. Giving people an idea of what it does it always pretty tricky so feedback on that is good. I'll look into the things you mention - the Google feed reader is an interesting idea - and i already have the cached Atom i generate from the queries.

rw 18y ago

The page isn't redirecting properly Iceweasel has detected that the server is redirecting the request for this address in a way that will never complete. * This problem can sometimes be caused by disabling or refusing to accept cookies.

livz 18y ago
Aye - i use cookies to store your language. Maybe something to do with that.

livz 18y ago

Thanks all - let me have a read and post back some. Very Much appreciated!

livz 18y ago

btw - this is an excellent site. Got almost NO feedback on Twitter/FF and then this. Thanks again!

livz 18y ago

ok folks - i added RSS feeds - you will see the icon on every data panel on the front page. Will now work in your favourite RSS Reader.