4 ms·

Ask HN: Feedback on our new landing page?

22 points by prateekdayal 15y ago

prateekdayal 15y ago
We have been working on SupportBee for about a year now and getting close to a public launch. We made this site using Foundation CSS http://foundation.zurb.com/ http://foundation.zurb.com/ (works really well on ipad too but has some issues on iphone) and some fonts from Typekit. This is very much a work in progress but wanted to get some early feedback. Would love your feedback on the following points * Is the product positioning clear? Can you understand the difference between this and most other Help Desk Softwares out there? * Feedback on Design and Copy Any other feedback would be appreciated too. Also, happy to answer any questions Thanks
deleted 15y ago
[deleted]
pagehub 15y ago
Looks good, one thing I would mention on the signup page is that the question 'What exact needs are you looking to solve with SupportBee?' is quite open ended, if people have already decided to use the software do you really need to know that?
- prateekdayal 15y ago
  Thanks for pointing it out. It is a leftover from our previous design where were still trying to figure out the positioning. Will remove it :)
alexchamberlain 15y ago
I'm getting errors in my console (Chrome/Linux). Also, the page looks great, but the top bar could be a bit more flashy. See Bootstrap's top bar (http://twitter.github.com/bootstrap/ http://twitter.github.com/bootstrap/).
- prateekdayal 15y ago
  There seems to be some issue with the Vimeo JS wrapper that I am not able to figure out. However it worked so I pushed it. Will check it out again or atleast hide the error :) Yes, I have looked at bootstrap. Do you mean the header background could be better?
  - alexchamberlain 15y ago
    Yeah, and the logo top left. I like the top bar in bootstrap, but don't necessarily encourage using the whole lot.
sushi 15y ago
Couple of things: 1. Not too sure about the title "Kiss Your Complicated Help Desk Software Goodbye!" as well as the statement below it. Big words, which can easily be replaced by smaller words and more images of the product. 2. Not a fan of Serif and fantasy fonts either. Try some Sans-Serif fonts instead. Will make the copy more legible. 3. The boxes which show product features look like blobs of text. Use images with text. Keep the feature boxes less and instead give a link to a separate "Features" page. 4. The "play" button image on the video looks odd. Doesn't gel with anything else on the page. 5. Put more testimonials and put shorter ones on homepage. Shorter ones tend to have more punch. Make a separate page for testimonials where you can allocate the bigger ones. Really dig your product by the way. All the best.
- prateekdayal 15y ago
  Thanks for the detailed feedback. > 1. Not too sure about the title "Kiss Your Complicated Help Desk Software Goodbye!" as well as the statement below it. Big words, which can easily be replaced by smaller words and more images of the product. I used to think that way too but experimenting with some tips in the CopyHacker book - http://www.copyhackers.com/ http://www.copyhackers.com/. Will post back results here in sometime. > 2. Not a fan of Serif and fantasy fonts either. Try some Sans-Serif fonts instead. Will make the copy more legible. Did you feel that way for headings or body copy? 3. The boxes which show product features look like blobs of text. use images. Keep the feature boxes less and instead give a link to a separate "Features" page. We will work on a features page as well. I wanted to pick some icons/images but the problem was finding icons/images for some features like No-ugly case IDs or Realtime Email Importing. Any suggestions you have on that or examples from other sites would be very useful. 4. The "play" button image on the video looks odd. Doesn't gel with anything else on the page. Cool. I'll try to find a better one. 5. More testimonials and put shorter ones on homepage. Shorter ones tend to have more punch. Make a separate page for testimonials where can allocate the bigger ones. Thanks. Will work on a separate customers page and incorporate the feedback there. > Really dig your product by the way. All the best. Thanks. Very encouraging for us :)
  - sushi 15y ago
rezrovs 15y ago
1. Your tag line could be shorter. What about instead of "Get SupportBee - The Simple & Snappy Email Ticketing Software that doesn't kill Your Human Face" rather using "Get SupportBee - The Simple & Snappy Email Ticketing Software". 2. The focus on not killing your human face sounds wrong. If you turned the sentence around it would come across as more positive - "Promote your human face" perhaps?
- prateekdayal 15y ago
  Thanks. We will split test and see which one does better. A lot of the messaging is trying out tips from CopyHackers - http://www.copyhackers.com http://www.copyhackers.com and so may be a little too edgy.
DizzyDoo 15y ago
Quick thought on the copy - "Get SupportBee - The Simple & Snappy Email Ticketing Software that doesn't kill your Human Face" It took me a few seconds to realise that what was meant was a company's human face, not my literal face.
buro9 15y ago
A very minor thing, but I find it difficult to read the text quickly. I think the problem is best summed up as, "When in doubt, capitalise everything.". Example: "The Simple & Snappy Email Ticketing Software that doesn't kill Your Human Face". Would be better as: "The simple & snappy email ticketing software that doesn't kill your human face". Though I'd also change the phrase "kill your human face" to something that sounds less like a slasher movie. On capitalisation: If it's not a name, trademark, acronym or the first word in a sentence, then don't capitalise it. But if you are going to capitalise every word in a sentence, be consistent: : "Real-Time Email Importing", is one title, and another title just above is ,"Stay in the loop". Very minor, but when you have a well designed page it's a shame that the copy is the weak point.
- rbrcurtis 15y ago
  Agreed. I think the italics of "The Simple & Snappy Email Ticketing Software that doesn't kill Your Human Face" isn't extremely legible, causing my eyes to jump right over it, so I didn't pick up on what was being sold right away.
ericmsimons 15y ago
I love this idea. Any chance I can get a beta invite? Video could use a little more work. Give specific use cases, ie "we sold Johnny 6 widgets and he contacted us and wanted to return one. I reply, and it automatically removes him from the main view. If I want to follow up with Johnny, I can just 'star' it. etc, etc" What I'm trying to say is tell them a story. People LOVE stories, but they hate listening to someone explain features :)
- prateekdayal 15y ago
  Thanks for the suggestion on the Video. We are definitely going to do that for our next iteration. How do I send over the beta details to you? Could not find an email address. You can signup here btw - http://supportbee.com/beta-signup http://supportbee.com/beta-signup
Lukebream 15y ago
I'm getting a loading error using iPhone.the right handside of page is blank. Header background for example cuts off half way through beta text. All content below the header is Formatted onto left half of page and all right hand side is blank.
geuis 15y ago
The close button on the video overlay doesn't work, at least in Chrome 15. Also, one should be able to hit the escape key to close the overlay as well.
- prateekdayal 15y ago
  Thanks for pointing it out. Will have it fixed. We are using Reveal JS that comes packaged with Foundation - http://www.zurb.com/playground/reveal-modal-plugin http://www.zurb.com/playground/reveal-modal-plugin.
citricsquid 15y ago
With regards to the products ux, one thing that I don't understand from the video: why does a tag for a ticket need to be dragged on to a ticket, why not a simple "click tag click ticket" system? The only reason dragging should really exist is when there is the potential for the decision to change, where up until the point where the drop is executed the decision is undecided. The best way to do it would be a simple system where the agent clicks on the tag then clicks on the ticket and that ticket now has that tag; if you have to drag and drop it requires precision and extra attention to be paid; it's much easier to drop a tag in the wrong place than it is to click, because people have different expectations about which part needs to match. The only way to solve this would be to have the ticket that the drop is about to be executed on highlighted when the tag is over it, but even then that's more work than it is for click tag.
- prateekdayal 15y ago
  Wow. Never thought about it that way. The decision to have it drag and drop comes from the fact that Gmail does it that way too and we wanted to stay as close to Gmail as possible to avoid any kind of learning curve. One thing that we are missing and will add is the row on which you are dropping getting highlighted when you move the label over it. Gmail does that.
fookyong 15y ago
First impression, my inner monologue: "It looks like an email client. So why don't I just use an email client?" End.
- prateekdayal 15y ago
  To collaborate with your team. If you are the only one doing support in your company and never need to involve anyone else, then yes, you can use an email client.
  - fookyong 15y ago
    right. maybe you need to address that then. because in your hero section all I see is a) big picture of email-looking app, then b) text that says "email ticketing" really makes me think that it's just an email client with some bells on it. what's the benefit of Support Bee? Tell me that. You say it doesn't kill my human face but how do I understand what that means from the video thumbnail? (there aren't even many faces on the video thumbnail, so now I'm really confused). Perhaps everything becomes super clear when you watch the video but that's not good enough. I need to be interested enough to want to watch the video in the first place.
- realschool 15y ago
  I agree with fookyong, it looks like Gmail. Also after using Kayako, something as simple as that looks (your product) would probably be a pleasure to use.
  - prateekdayal 15y ago
    The resemblance with Gmail is intentional. I think we should talk about it on the page. The idea is that most people already love Gmail for their customer support and want a few extra features on top of it. That is exactly what you get with SupportBee. A Gmail like interface and paradigm but adapted to customer support needs.
tomelders 15y ago
Move the headline text to the middle of the page (or into the box that holds the video). Choose a better font combination. Don't make your sign up button Red. Make it green or blue. Red means "Delete" or "Cancel" or "Eject" or "Make wings fall off". Lose the "our customers" bit. They're not well known, so they don't infer anything. Put a screen shot gallery there instead. Product looks OK thought. It's not something I know much about, but it looks OK.
goatcurious 15y ago
My top ones - Need to be consistent with capitalizing (try slight bold for emphasizing instead. - Don't mix serif, sans-serif and cursive. Try all sans. - What happened to the old logo? Maybe doesn't go well w the new clean look (which is awesome btw) but atleast gave it some character. - Take a second look at the language construction. Make sure your primary market doesn't feel its written by foreigners. - I think the best line is hidden in the footer. "SupportBee is a hosted Help Desk Software"
- prateekdayal 15y ago
  Thanks for the feedback. Yea we are still deciding on the logo. Like the Bee but I think the placement has to be played around with :) Let's discuss the language construction in a call soon. Thanks for the other pointers as well
nirrrrrr 15y ago
my 2 cents. - keep text above the fold. easier to read titles than decide to click on a video. - make titles easy to read. grid is not easy to read. find your top 4 titles write them above the fold than video than you can write the rest of the titles. - I think that a road map of prices would help but this is probably not possible now. "beta subscribers secure 20% discount of our listed price" would probably increase your signups.
moustachioapp 15y ago
Hello, prateekdayal. I've put together a review of the supportbee landing page using moustach.io -- I hope you find this useful. http://moustach.io/welcome/e/reviewed/G97Y-I6S74uu7eJQ6-lsPuGwFB6UUPjAVB6la9iR3hM/bqqAdAzwSDk4OAMjGAKJog http://moustach.io/welcome/e/reviewed/G97Y-I6S74uu7eJQ6-lsPu...

22 points by prateekdayal 15y ago

We have been working on SupportBee for about a year now and getting close to a public launch. We made this site using Foundation CSS http://foundation.zurb.com/ http://foundation.zurb.com/ (works really well on ipad too but has some issues on iphone) and some fonts from Typekit. This is very much a work in progress but wanted to get some early feedback. Would love your feedback on the following points * Is the product positioning clear? Can you understand the difference between this and most other Help Desk Softwares out there? * Feedback on Design and Copy Any other feedback would be appreciated too. Also, happy to answer any questions Thanks

deleted 15y ago

[deleted]

pagehub 15y ago

Looks good, one thing I would mention on the signup page is that the question 'What exact needs are you looking to solve with SupportBee?' is quite open ended, if people have already decided to use the software do you really need to know that?

prateekdayal 15y ago
Thanks for pointing it out. It is a leftover from our previous design where were still trying to figure out the positioning. Will remove it :)

alexchamberlain 15y ago

I'm getting errors in my console (Chrome/Linux). Also, the page looks great, but the top bar could be a bit more flashy. See Bootstrap's top bar (http://twitter.github.com/bootstrap/ http://twitter.github.com/bootstrap/).

prateekdayal 15y ago
There seems to be some issue with the Vimeo JS wrapper that I am not able to figure out. However it worked so I pushed it. Will check it out again or atleast hide the error :) Yes, I have looked at bootstrap. Do you mean the header background could be better?
- alexchamberlain 15y ago
  Yeah, and the logo top left. I like the top bar in bootstrap, but don't necessarily encourage using the whole lot.

sushi 15y ago

Couple of things: 1. Not too sure about the title "Kiss Your Complicated Help Desk Software Goodbye!" as well as the statement below it. Big words, which can easily be replaced by smaller words and more images of the product. 2. Not a fan of Serif and fantasy fonts either. Try some Sans-Serif fonts instead. Will make the copy more legible. 3. The boxes which show product features look like blobs of text. Use images with text. Keep the feature boxes less and instead give a link to a separate "Features" page. 4. The "play" button image on the video looks odd. Doesn't gel with anything else on the page. 5. Put more testimonials and put shorter ones on homepage. Shorter ones tend to have more punch. Make a separate page for testimonials where you can allocate the bigger ones. Really dig your product by the way. All the best.

prateekdayal 15y ago
Thanks for the detailed feedback. > 1. Not too sure about the title "Kiss Your Complicated Help Desk Software Goodbye!" as well as the statement below it. Big words, which can easily be replaced by smaller words and more images of the product. I used to think that way too but experimenting with some tips in the CopyHacker book - http://www.copyhackers.com/ http://www.copyhackers.com/. Will post back results here in sometime. > 2. Not a fan of Serif and fantasy fonts either. Try some Sans-Serif fonts instead. Will make the copy more legible. Did you feel that way for headings or body copy? 3. The boxes which show product features look like blobs of text. use images. Keep the feature boxes less and instead give a link to a separate "Features" page. We will work on a features page as well. I wanted to pick some icons/images but the problem was finding icons/images for some features like No-ugly case IDs or Realtime Email Importing. Any suggestions you have on that or examples from other sites would be very useful. 4. The "play" button image on the video looks odd. Doesn't gel with anything else on the page. Cool. I'll try to find a better one. 5. More testimonials and put shorter ones on homepage. Shorter ones tend to have more punch. Make a separate page for testimonials where can allocate the bigger ones. Thanks. Will work on a separate customers page and incorporate the feedback there. > Really dig your product by the way. All the best. Thanks. Very encouraging for us :)
- sushi 15y ago

rezrovs 15y ago

1. Your tag line could be shorter. What about instead of "Get SupportBee - The Simple & Snappy Email Ticketing Software that doesn't kill Your Human Face" rather using "Get SupportBee - The Simple & Snappy Email Ticketing Software". 2. The focus on not killing your human face sounds wrong. If you turned the sentence around it would come across as more positive - "Promote your human face" perhaps?

prateekdayal 15y ago
Thanks. We will split test and see which one does better. A lot of the messaging is trying out tips from CopyHackers - http://www.copyhackers.com http://www.copyhackers.com and so may be a little too edgy.

DizzyDoo 15y ago

Quick thought on the copy - "Get SupportBee - The Simple & Snappy Email Ticketing Software that doesn't kill your Human Face" It took me a few seconds to realise that what was meant was a company's human face, not my literal face.

buro9 15y ago

A very minor thing, but I find it difficult to read the text quickly. I think the problem is best summed up as, "When in doubt, capitalise everything.". Example: "The Simple & Snappy Email Ticketing Software that doesn't kill Your Human Face". Would be better as: "The simple & snappy email ticketing software that doesn't kill your human face". Though I'd also change the phrase "kill your human face" to something that sounds less like a slasher movie. On capitalisation: If it's not a name, trademark, acronym or the first word in a sentence, then don't capitalise it. But if you are going to capitalise every word in a sentence, be consistent: : "Real-Time Email Importing", is one title, and another title just above is ,"Stay in the loop". Very minor, but when you have a well designed page it's a shame that the copy is the weak point.

rbrcurtis 15y ago
Agreed. I think the italics of "The Simple & Snappy Email Ticketing Software that doesn't kill Your Human Face" isn't extremely legible, causing my eyes to jump right over it, so I didn't pick up on what was being sold right away.

ericmsimons 15y ago

I love this idea. Any chance I can get a beta invite? Video could use a little more work. Give specific use cases, ie "we sold Johnny 6 widgets and he contacted us and wanted to return one. I reply, and it automatically removes him from the main view. If I want to follow up with Johnny, I can just 'star' it. etc, etc" What I'm trying to say is tell them a story. People LOVE stories, but they hate listening to someone explain features :)

prateekdayal 15y ago
Thanks for the suggestion on the Video. We are definitely going to do that for our next iteration. How do I send over the beta details to you? Could not find an email address. You can signup here btw - http://supportbee.com/beta-signup http://supportbee.com/beta-signup

Lukebream 15y ago

I'm getting a loading error using iPhone.the right handside of page is blank. Header background for example cuts off half way through beta text. All content below the header is Formatted onto left half of page and all right hand side is blank.

geuis 15y ago

The close button on the video overlay doesn't work, at least in Chrome 15. Also, one should be able to hit the escape key to close the overlay as well.

prateekdayal 15y ago
Thanks for pointing it out. Will have it fixed. We are using Reveal JS that comes packaged with Foundation - http://www.zurb.com/playground/reveal-modal-plugin http://www.zurb.com/playground/reveal-modal-plugin.

citricsquid 15y ago

With regards to the products ux, one thing that I don't understand from the video: why does a tag for a ticket need to be dragged on to a ticket, why not a simple "click tag click ticket" system? The only reason dragging should really exist is when there is the potential for the decision to change, where up until the point where the drop is executed the decision is undecided. The best way to do it would be a simple system where the agent clicks on the tag then clicks on the ticket and that ticket now has that tag; if you have to drag and drop it requires precision and extra attention to be paid; it's much easier to drop a tag in the wrong place than it is to click, because people have different expectations about which part needs to match. The only way to solve this would be to have the ticket that the drop is about to be executed on highlighted when the tag is over it, but even then that's more work than it is for click tag.

prateekdayal 15y ago
Wow. Never thought about it that way. The decision to have it drag and drop comes from the fact that Gmail does it that way too and we wanted to stay as close to Gmail as possible to avoid any kind of learning curve. One thing that we are missing and will add is the row on which you are dropping getting highlighted when you move the label over it. Gmail does that.

fookyong 15y ago

First impression, my inner monologue: "It looks like an email client. So why don't I just use an email client?" End.

prateekdayal 15y ago
To collaborate with your team. If you are the only one doing support in your company and never need to involve anyone else, then yes, you can use an email client.
- fookyong 15y ago
  right. maybe you need to address that then. because in your hero section all I see is a) big picture of email-looking app, then b) text that says "email ticketing" really makes me think that it's just an email client with some bells on it. what's the benefit of Support Bee? Tell me that. You say it doesn't kill my human face but how do I understand what that means from the video thumbnail? (there aren't even many faces on the video thumbnail, so now I'm really confused). Perhaps everything becomes super clear when you watch the video but that's not good enough. I need to be interested enough to want to watch the video in the first place.
realschool 15y ago
I agree with fookyong, it looks like Gmail. Also after using Kayako, something as simple as that looks (your product) would probably be a pleasure to use.
- prateekdayal 15y ago
  The resemblance with Gmail is intentional. I think we should talk about it on the page. The idea is that most people already love Gmail for their customer support and want a few extra features on top of it. That is exactly what you get with SupportBee. A Gmail like interface and paradigm but adapted to customer support needs.

tomelders 15y ago

Move the headline text to the middle of the page (or into the box that holds the video). Choose a better font combination. Don't make your sign up button Red. Make it green or blue. Red means "Delete" or "Cancel" or "Eject" or "Make wings fall off". Lose the "our customers" bit. They're not well known, so they don't infer anything. Put a screen shot gallery there instead. Product looks OK thought. It's not something I know much about, but it looks OK.

goatcurious 15y ago

My top ones - Need to be consistent with capitalizing (try slight bold for emphasizing instead. - Don't mix serif, sans-serif and cursive. Try all sans. - What happened to the old logo? Maybe doesn't go well w the new clean look (which is awesome btw) but atleast gave it some character. - Take a second look at the language construction. Make sure your primary market doesn't feel its written by foreigners. - I think the best line is hidden in the footer. "SupportBee is a hosted Help Desk Software"

prateekdayal 15y ago
Thanks for the feedback. Yea we are still deciding on the logo. Like the Bee but I think the placement has to be played around with :) Let's discuss the language construction in a call soon. Thanks for the other pointers as well

nirrrrrr 15y ago

my 2 cents. - keep text above the fold. easier to read titles than decide to click on a video. - make titles easy to read. grid is not easy to read. find your top 4 titles write them above the fold than video than you can write the rest of the titles. - I think that a road map of prices would help but this is probably not possible now. "beta subscribers secure 20% discount of our listed price" would probably increase your signups.

moustachioapp 15y ago

Hello, prateekdayal. I've put together a review of the supportbee landing page using moustach.io -- I hope you find this useful. http://moustach.io/welcome/e/reviewed/G97Y-I6S74uu7eJQ6-lsPuGwFB6UUPjAVB6la9iR3hM/bqqAdAzwSDk4OAMjGAKJog http://moustach.io/welcome/e/reviewed/G97Y-I6S74uu7eJQ6-lsPu...