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First off, a thousand apologies - I went to your site before I read your reply. Consequently, you'll have a visitor from Regina, Saskatchewan polluting your res

by hluska 15y ago

First off, a thousand apologies - I went to your site before I read your reply. Consequently, you'll have a visitor from Regina, Saskatchewan polluting your results.... I'm going to start by talking about some things you are doing extremely well: 1. Great work coming here and asking for feedback. That takes a whole lot of courage! 2. I love how deeply you are dissecting your own work - you've got a great attitude! And now for some general questions: 1. Are you sure there is actually demand for this? I know that this is the ugliest question to ask (and the ugliest answer to ponder), but I suggest that you start here. 2. Are you sure that the people who you think will be most interested (males between 18 - 30) are actually interested enough in this to convert? Have you ever thought of targeting some retired people (especially engineers)? As an example, I know an engineer who just retired who would sign up for this in a second (if he lived in South Florida) And finally for some criticism: 1. I really like your website, but I have some problems with the text. While the writing itself is great, I question whether 12px helvetica was the correct choice. I also wonder whether your conversion rate wouldn't improve if you increased the line spacing and decreased the total amount of text on the homepage. With the web, the more words you have the lower the chance that anyone will actually read all of them! 2. I question the information flow - if I were in your shoes, I'd likely design the information flow around a 'what is Arduino - what can I do with it? - why should I learn about it?' pattern. Might be worth doing a split test to see if that sort of flow has a higher conversion rate. 3. Here's a picky little thing that I only noticed because I'm a little obsessive compulsive about such things. Consider this scenario: - I live in South Florida (I wish) and arrive on your website. - I get down to the bottom and decide, "This sounds cool." - I decide I want to sign up for the newbie package, so I click "Signup Now" (below the newbie package). - I arrive on the Eventbrite page and discover that 'newbie package' has a quantity of zero. Now I'm in some trouble. I can't remember whether I wanted the newbie package, the auditor package or the loaner package. Do I hit back? Will that mess everything up? Hmmm...I wonder what is happening on Hacker News.... All in all, great work throwing this event and if I lived closer, I'd definitely take it. I hope some of this helps!!

mikegreenberg 15y ago
All points are well taken. First, thank you! Re: Validation of demand? No, I'm not sure of my demand. Further, I KNOW my market is spread quite thin over the geographic area, however, this is one giant test to begin with so I'm prepared for demand to be non-existent. I've hedged myself against this risk to be able to recoup as much as possible if this tanks in glorious failure. Additionally, my market (18-30 male) is not a explicit selection but is more just representative of the majority of the groups I'm attempting to attract. There are some channels I will explore that touch the retiree market which is likely more profitable, but also harder to reach through the usual channels I'm used to (online and grassroots meetups). Re: Flow. I agree the format sucks. However, this version was just updated this morning. This is what I started with: http://cl.ly/3x1n1531162f2H1o1Q1Q http://cl.ly/3x1n1531162f2H1o1Q1Q Was this a step in the wrong direction, you think? I felt it was too sparse on information and didn't provide enough for someone interested but too lazy to get in touch to ask their burning question that's stopping them from registering. Unfortunately, my personal bandwidth is tapped and can't invest in a redesign to test against. Next event. Re: Text. I'll improve the text rhythm and see about tightening up my copy. I didn't think about the font-size with the design I was given, but it can only help to fix it. Re: Eventbrite signup fail. Yes, I know. Not aware of a way to do with Eventbrite. There are a lot of things that are short-coming about their registration system. Another reason I'm likely to roll my own and use something like Stripe to process CC next time. Thanks much for your thoughts!
- hluska 15y ago
  I don't think this is what you want to hear, but I prefer the first version (ie, picture2.jpg). While there are a few little copy issues, in general, it tells me what I need to know without feeling intimidating. Your new version felt intimidating - I knew I wanted to read it so I could help you, but I was nervous to get started! If you'd like to run your copy by anyone, I've been writing for most of my life. And, my girlfriend is a much better writer than I am. Feel free to email me (I'm pretty sure it is on my profile) and we would be glad to give your stuff a read. Best of luck - this event sounds very cool!!

by hluska 15y ago

mikegreenberg 15y ago

All points are well taken. First, thank you! Re: Validation of demand? No, I'm not sure of my demand. Further, I KNOW my market is spread quite thin over the geographic area, however, this is one giant test to begin with so I'm prepared for demand to be non-existent. I've hedged myself against this risk to be able to recoup as much as possible if this tanks in glorious failure. Additionally, my market (18-30 male) is not a explicit selection but is more just representative of the majority of the groups I'm attempting to attract. There are some channels I will explore that touch the retiree market which is likely more profitable, but also harder to reach through the usual channels I'm used to (online and grassroots meetups). Re: Flow. I agree the format sucks. However, this version was just updated this morning. This is what I started with: http://cl.ly/3x1n1531162f2H1o1Q1Q http://cl.ly/3x1n1531162f2H1o1Q1Q Was this a step in the wrong direction, you think? I felt it was too sparse on information and didn't provide enough for someone interested but too lazy to get in touch to ask their burning question that's stopping them from registering. Unfortunately, my personal bandwidth is tapped and can't invest in a redesign to test against. Next event. Re: Text. I'll improve the text rhythm and see about tightening up my copy. I didn't think about the font-size with the design I was given, but it can only help to fix it. Re: Eventbrite signup fail. Yes, I know. Not aware of a way to do with Eventbrite. There are a lot of things that are short-coming about their registration system. Another reason I'm likely to roll my own and use something like Stripe to process CC next time. Thanks much for your thoughts!

hluska 15y ago
I don't think this is what you want to hear, but I prefer the first version (ie, picture2.jpg). While there are a few little copy issues, in general, it tells me what I need to know without feeling intimidating. Your new version felt intimidating - I knew I wanted to read it so I could help you, but I was nervous to get started! If you'd like to run your copy by anyone, I've been writing for most of my life. And, my girlfriend is a much better writer than I am. Feel free to email me (I'm pretty sure it is on my profile) and we would be glad to give your stuff a read. Best of luck - this event sounds very cool!!