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Show HN: Stay foolish and dumb - went and built xervmon.com

5 points by sudhixervmon 14y ago

I have ignored high paying jobs/ several contracting gigs to build Xervmon.com. I would really appreciate help to test the UI for UX. I want folks who can be brutal about the tool and give a feedback on which we can improve the UI and UX. The UI does standout, but to what level it stands out, I am not sure. One catch : You need to sign up to navigate through UI. First I was shy to show my work, then angry and upset when users commented and now am shameless. Be my guest and give me feedback so I can take it as another challenge to improve the user experience.

shanelja 14y ago
Taking a look now, will update this comment once I'm done... Results follow: Issue 1: /hilo/register: On the Register page, I am unable to click on the initial password box, with no explanation as to why. The log in to the existing account link is under the border of the main container, presumably because of fixed height css. Issue 2: /hilo/register: Unable to click on the button you need to click on to register - looking back, this is untrue, you seem to be using ajax calls to load pages and send information, but without any kind of notification, so to the user it merely feels unresponsive. Issue 3: Your images are not locally hosted, IE, your encryption on your SSL appears as broken. This is more damaging than having no SSL to none developers, etc, who whilst are not your target audience, will instinctively distrust your website. Either load them locally or through an image host with https. Issue 4: /hilo/dashboard: Too much on the screen for a first time user, consider a simplified dashboard with the option to unlock all features, while you run new users through a simple (but not required) tutorial. Issue 5: /hilo/dashboard: No idea at all where to click until 30 seconds of mouse movement, there is no indication at all that the links you are using are in fact links, they look like (and are) simply black text. Issue 6: /hilo/cloud_accounts: Silly scrollbar appearing in the cloud accounts area once adding the first cloud account, consider using no margin and having the padding and the width all add up to > 100% to remove this issue. Also, the EDIT and DELETE links look quite ugly. Issue 7: There is no clear aim for what you really want me to do, I am pretty much following difficult to find requirements with no reasoning behind it and no explanation of what this will all do, your average user would already have quit the site and would be looking for "X but simpler". Issue 8: /hilo/cloud_accounts/create What you asked me to do on the last page took me back to creating a new cloud account here, feels like I'm going in circles, completely lost as a user, closed the browser window, will never open again. Criticism aside, some constructive... criticism? I like the look of the app, it feels tailored to your clients, very nice and technically working app. Feels like you are doing too much at once, it needs simplifying for the new guys, consider a sandbox approach, treat your users like idiots till they decide they should be let out of the cage. Definitely let the user know what to do next, I got lost and left and I was pretty determined to follow through. Let the user log in prior to confirming registration but again, sandbox them until they do, because having to open my dummy email account was a real pain in the ass. Feels like it's almost ready, just some tweaking really now :) And you're welcome.
- sudhixervmon 14y ago
  Thank you so much. If I may, need some clarification on Issue 3. Can you please elaborate little more?
  - shanelja 14y ago
    Well what happens is this, when your browser initializes the SSL engine, it checks every object on the page has been loaded over the same protocol, regardless of the URL preceding it. So anything which isn't loaded breaks this process and on chrome (and IE) You get the pop up saying "Elements on this page may be insecure". The simplest way to do it is this, go through each file you use (and each image) and host it on your own server, accessing it through a relative path, ie. "/images/banana.jpg" instead of "https://banana.com/images/banana.jpg https://banana.com/images/banana.jpg. It could also be any .js files you link to, for instance your jquery version, etc. if you can't find an https version to load it off, then also stick it on your own server. It costs more in bandwidth, but if you are serious about your clients security, it's great to say that "everything we host here is secured on our own servers" and also gives you constant control over every element.
    - sudhixervmon 14y ago
      We have fixed the issues and is deployed on https://apps.xervmon.com https://apps.xervmon.com
timw6n 14y ago
Haven't had time to look at the actual app yet, but the homepage looks very broken on iPad — not only do I need to horizontal scroll for some things, but other things are getting cut off at the viewport width. You need to add a meta viewport tag, or better still, redesign for circa 960px wide — there are still quite a lot of people, especially if you're going for the enterprise market, with 1024x768 screens out there. (edit: http://imgur.com/Qdwu3 http://imgur.com/Qdwu3 for screenshot)
- xervmon 14y ago
  we have view port meta tag added. Can you check one more time? Thank you so much. long term, we need to go with 960px circa.
dav62al 14y ago
Interesting concept of "app" look and feel. If user experience can be matched to app look and feel, this is a great tool from functionality wise.
julien_c 14y ago
Clickable link ; http://xervmon.com http://xervmon.com
- sudhixervmon 14y ago
  https://apps.xervmon.com https://apps.xervmon.com

5 points by sudhixervmon 14y ago

shanelja 14y ago

Taking a look now, will update this comment once I'm done... Results follow: Issue 1: /hilo/register: On the Register page, I am unable to click on the initial password box, with no explanation as to why. The log in to the existing account link is under the border of the main container, presumably because of fixed height css. Issue 2: /hilo/register: Unable to click on the button you need to click on to register - looking back, this is untrue, you seem to be using ajax calls to load pages and send information, but without any kind of notification, so to the user it merely feels unresponsive. Issue 3: Your images are not locally hosted, IE, your encryption on your SSL appears as broken. This is more damaging than having no SSL to none developers, etc, who whilst are not your target audience, will instinctively distrust your website. Either load them locally or through an image host with https. Issue 4: /hilo/dashboard: Too much on the screen for a first time user, consider a simplified dashboard with the option to unlock all features, while you run new users through a simple (but not required) tutorial. Issue 5: /hilo/dashboard: No idea at all where to click until 30 seconds of mouse movement, there is no indication at all that the links you are using are in fact links, they look like (and are) simply black text. Issue 6: /hilo/cloud_accounts: Silly scrollbar appearing in the cloud accounts area once adding the first cloud account, consider using no margin and having the padding and the width all add up to > 100% to remove this issue. Also, the EDIT and DELETE links look quite ugly. Issue 7: There is no clear aim for what you really want me to do, I am pretty much following difficult to find requirements with no reasoning behind it and no explanation of what this will all do, your average user would already have quit the site and would be looking for "X but simpler". Issue 8: /hilo/cloud_accounts/create What you asked me to do on the last page took me back to creating a new cloud account here, feels like I'm going in circles, completely lost as a user, closed the browser window, will never open again. Criticism aside, some constructive... criticism? I like the look of the app, it feels tailored to your clients, very nice and technically working app. Feels like you are doing too much at once, it needs simplifying for the new guys, consider a sandbox approach, treat your users like idiots till they decide they should be let out of the cage. Definitely let the user know what to do next, I got lost and left and I was pretty determined to follow through. Let the user log in prior to confirming registration but again, sandbox them until they do, because having to open my dummy email account was a real pain in the ass. Feels like it's almost ready, just some tweaking really now :) And you're welcome.

sudhixervmon 14y ago
Thank you so much. If I may, need some clarification on Issue 3. Can you please elaborate little more?
- shanelja 14y ago
  Well what happens is this, when your browser initializes the SSL engine, it checks every object on the page has been loaded over the same protocol, regardless of the URL preceding it. So anything which isn't loaded breaks this process and on chrome (and IE) You get the pop up saying "Elements on this page may be insecure". The simplest way to do it is this, go through each file you use (and each image) and host it on your own server, accessing it through a relative path, ie. "/images/banana.jpg" instead of "https://banana.com/images/banana.jpg https://banana.com/images/banana.jpg. It could also be any .js files you link to, for instance your jquery version, etc. if you can't find an https version to load it off, then also stick it on your own server. It costs more in bandwidth, but if you are serious about your clients security, it's great to say that "everything we host here is secured on our own servers" and also gives you constant control over every element.
  - sudhixervmon 14y ago
    We have fixed the issues and is deployed on https://apps.xervmon.com https://apps.xervmon.com

timw6n 14y ago

Haven't had time to look at the actual app yet, but the homepage looks very broken on iPad — not only do I need to horizontal scroll for some things, but other things are getting cut off at the viewport width. You need to add a meta viewport tag, or better still, redesign for circa 960px wide — there are still quite a lot of people, especially if you're going for the enterprise market, with 1024x768 screens out there. (edit: http://imgur.com/Qdwu3 http://imgur.com/Qdwu3 for screenshot)

xervmon 14y ago
we have view port meta tag added. Can you check one more time? Thank you so much. long term, we need to go with 960px circa.

dav62al 14y ago

Interesting concept of "app" look and feel. If user experience can be matched to app look and feel, this is a great tool from functionality wise.

julien_c 14y ago

Clickable link ; http://xervmon.com http://xervmon.com

sudhixervmon 14y ago
https://apps.xervmon.com https://apps.xervmon.com