8 ms·

Show HN: A place to buy and sell services directly from each other

135 points by sushimako 14y ago

lewisflude 14y ago
Great domain name you have there!
timdorr 14y ago
Holy buzzwords, Batman! Seriously, I hate them. It makes it seem like you don't have anything substantial when you use them. They appear as filler for a weak product. Talk to me like a human. Given that I'm trying to find other humans for work, I would rather trust something that felt honest than something peppered with marketing-speak.
- hucker 14y ago
  It doesn't really help that 'please' is categorically misspelled as 'pls' either...
  - hnriot 14y ago
    That isn't a misspelling, but a very common shortcut. I fail to see how this in any way detracts from the readability of the text. Other shortcomings notwithstanding, "pls" is fine for the vast majority of internet users.
    - trafficlight 14y ago
      It's lazy and unprofessional.
    - bdunbar 14y ago
      Using 'pls' in formal communication indicates sloppiness and imprecision of thought. It indicates that one is not serious. A mental flyweight. Shorter: spelling counts.
      - gojomo 14y ago
        Generally in my life I've shared the same opinion... but are you sure that if A/B-tested, 'please' would outperform 'pls' in the context of Work.IO's goals? For example: when soliciting user participation, it often helps to lower user anxiety that what is written needs to be perfectly crafted/grammatical. 'Txtspeek' can send a signal: it's OK whatever 'u' want to type here.
        bdunbar 14y ago
        a) A/B testing grammar is a lame idea. b) Please isn't perfectly crafted, it's just the right way to spell that word. c) Text speak is a signal, but only a positive one for functionally illiterate Eloi.
    - anonymouz 14y ago
      That's ok on a forum, but not on a site that tries to appear professional and elegant (and buzzword-y). Personally, I also think the font used on the "About Us" page for "What you need" and so on does not mesh all that well with the rest of the site.
    - grey-area 14y ago
      Love the idea for the site, and though it may be ahead of its time, it is an ambitious project and deserves to do well - one day a lot of work will be distributed this way. However using txtspk like pls for talking to potential customers is not quicker or cool - it shows a lack of respect. Also, this error from zephyr has been on your home page for the last few hours: Obvisously you want to keep your site and app secure, but who is really good at this? Zephyr comes from MIT and is the perfect interface to the Noisebridge community. Simple spelling and grammatical errors on your site home like this will cost you credibility and customers; best just to fix them and move on. Your initial text, by you and your users, will set the tone for everything that follows.
      - sushimako 14y ago
        Also, this error from zephyr has been on your home page for the last few hours: [...] Thx & (hopefully) fixed!
- brunooo 14y ago
  OK, the templates have to start somewhere, pretty much everything else was written by users, check https://www.workio.com/b/Y2NlMTY5MDYt/security-assessment https://www.workio.com/b/Y2NlMTY5MDYt/security-assessment for example. Or is the About page that puts you off? Guilty regarding the Pls's...
matlock 14y ago
The editor is pretty fancy, dragging stuff around when you create a new document works really well. Will give it a try
- sushimako 14y ago
  thx! Btw, to anyone who wants to try it out: there's no signup needed. Just start a new document from any of the Templates or create a copy from a landing page (e.g. https://www.workio.com/b/Y2NlMTY5MDYt/security-assessment https://www.workio.com/b/Y2NlMTY5MDYt/security-assessment ) by clicking the "Customize and order" button.
michaelbuckbee 14y ago
A few things: 1. Congrats on launching! 2. You have an explanation video hidden somewhere on the site (like literally I saw it then got back to the homepage and couldn't recall which link I had clicked to find it). Having that front and center would really help. 2a. Don't use the robot voiceover for the video. If you're not comfortable doing it yourself find somebody on Fiverr.com to do it for you. 3. It would be very helpful to have some extremely simple examples of what you are providing. Along the lines of: "Jim wants to boost sales, instead of hiring a costly salesperson he can request getting leads." (which is something I think you do). Looks like you're off to a good start.
- brunooo 14y ago
  Thanks Michael, we're working hard on Topic / Industry specific landing pages, where it's just the video, 5 best products (without the detour of you having to customize them by hand) and 5 great people providing them. Voiceover was Voicebunny or Bodalgo, very close decision, but there are definitely artifacts from the Mercedes GPS she did left over, but you (gladly) haven't heard the timing test we spoke...
cyphersanctus 14y ago
Great design.
subnet 14y ago
the replay-mode of the editor just rocks :) I'm offering consulting-serives about Facebook-platform there, + you can ask me a free question about platform as well :) https://www.workio.com/u/NTU0MT/michael-kamleitner https://www.workio.com/u/NTU0MT/michael-kamleitner
jaggs 14y ago
I'm sorry I found it all very confusing. For me personally it failed the 5 second test - what is the site primarily about, and how can I extract 80% of its functionality quickest? I clicked on the Buy button and was no further forward. The design is very slick, but there's too many words on the front page, no obvious action button/s and no immediate examples of how this could benefit me.
- lucahammer 14y ago
  May I ask you to try the 5 seconds test with my profile? https://www.workio.com/u/MjA3ZD/luca-hammer https://www.workio.com/u/MjA3ZD/luca-hammer Does that work for you?
  - mengine 14y ago
    Not really. What problem are you trying to solve and what are the benefits to me? This is a much better splash page but the copy is still pretty bad - https://www.workio.com/about/ https://www.workio.com/about/
    - lucahammer 14y ago
      We want to streamline work processes. If you need something done you have to find someone who is able to do it and has time. work.io takes care of this. You define what you need, say how much you want to pay and get the results. You don't need to interact with the providers. Less overhead and better results are your benefits.
      - jaggs 14y ago
        You see that there is a bit of your problem. No-one really understands what 'streamline work processes' actually means. Does that mean you can help me serve my Big Macs better in my day job? Jargon kills (and I mean KILLS) marketing effectiveness.
        lucahammer 14y ago
deleted 14y ago
[deleted]
natrius 14y ago
There are many grammar errors throughout the site. Pay someone to copy edit it.
- brunooo 14y ago
  Yup, embarrassing indeed in some places, wip, but not yet easy to simply extract all current data to easily hand it to someone. Thanks for pushing it up the "damn,we gotta take more care of that" list.
  - wanderful 14y ago
    Take screenshots or print the pages. They don't need to look at the code to review the copy. Change the mindset to look for solutions rather than problems.
Zak 14y ago
Pretty design, and nice concept overall but there doesn't seem to be any way to add certain kinds of information other than connecting social networking sites. I don't want to do that.
- lucahammer 14y ago
  Thanks for the feedback. We wanted to make it harder for people to add topics and industries only to get certain jobs. We will look into ways for user who don't want to connect their profile to social networking sites.
  - Zak 14y ago
    A way might be to simply limit the number of topics and industries a person can list, though that has its own downsides. Just thinking of my own case, you won't get much of use from Facebook (I post pictures of kittens and cookie recipes), twitter (It's been nearly a year since I've tweeted anything) or Linkedin (I barely use it). You'd get more of use from HN, reddit or (especially) github, but it might be harder to extract useful information from those sources.
    - lucahammer 14y ago
      We will definitely add more services in the future and you are right that these three were the easiest to start with and give ok results for many people. You could still provide buyers with awesome cookie recipes!
chrislomax 14y ago
Like the others have said, the design is good but I just don't know what I am getting from the site on first approach. I also don't like how the home page main call to action is Sign In, what am I signing into and why should I? I expect the homepage to tell me how you are going to help me, not for me to find out how you can help me?
- lucahammer 14y ago
  Here is an older version of the homepage: https://skitch.com/lucahammer/eagkm/workio-hompage-old https://skitch.com/lucahammer/eagkm/workio-hompage-old
cinbun8 14y ago
This is what I understand 1 minute after perusing your website. 1 - This is some sort of a marketplace where you can buy and sell expertise. Kinda like a Air bnb for odd jobs. Reminds me of a similar startup that tried that, but I cannot remember their name. 2 - The landing page's layout is a little confusing. I clicked on a couple of links and landed on your about page[1]. When you have a 90 second video explaining what your product is, why would you not put that on a landing page ? The call to action would be very easy for me. Click on the video and know more about you. 3 - Although you meant for people to click sign-in on the landing page, that action was not very obvious to me. You should look to prioritize 'Sign-up' not sign in. The fact that they are both green buttons that look alike does not help. 4 - Your key customer sign-up categories appear to be a buyer who gets services and a seller who markets his / her services. You might want to streamline signups to reflect that. 5 - The text overlay on the image is not very visible / readable. Have you considered switching the images to color on mouse-over ? 6 - Where is the submit button for 'Suggest a feature' under watercooler ? 7 - I don't quite get the watercooler part. Is it meant for users to share insights and that becomes part of the news ? 8 - What is your pricing ? Where can I see what cut you take and what I get in return ? What are people signing up for ? 9 - When I sign up, its not very clear to me that something happened on the screen. Its great that I am logged in, but the UI needs to do more to inform me about what just happened. 10 - A short tutorial on signing up would be great. The app asked me to add funds and I don't understand what for. I like the idea. The presentation and the user flow could use a little work. Gather the feedback you get here and fine tune your site. Nice work. [1] - https://www.workio.com/about/ https://www.workio.com/about/
- brunooo 14y ago
  Hey, thanks a ton for the detailed feedback! 1) Solvate and many others. 2) Went with the current one to see what appeals to people, but like mentioned the industry specific landing pages will be a lot like you suggest. 3) Sign-In is both Signup & Login, the redundant one is just as backup (just to explain the thoughts behind it). 4) Still fiddling with this, most sites like oDeks et al do it, but nt yet sure if it's more effective (considering that you only have to sign up in the very last moment, eg order a job or offer a service) 5) 2 of the people just had this ones in B&W, will switch once we have a broader pool. 6) Right, submit on \n is still no good practice. 7) Highlight whats happening on the platform, bit of a placeholder now, but think more lively statistics, stories, industries, rankings here in the future. 8) 15% cut, we take care of the whole payment, landing pages etc. 9) Right, not all callback messages there yet. 10) This only happen if you "made up your mind" eg clicked "order" on a product, but a nice generic tutorial video combined with 9 would be nice. Thanks again for taking the time, all the feedback, and the chance to start thinking about it while typing this.
bravura 14y ago
Could you please explain how you will address: * quality: How do I know the quality of the work will be good? What happens in the case of disputes? * reputation: How will you keep track of reputation of the workers? Odesk, Vworker, Ebay are marketplaces that do a decent job at filtering out spammers and bad guys. Where they lack is determining the difference between good and great. Everyone gets FIVE STARS or close to it for every job, unless it's completely bungled. This also creates a perverse pressure on the contractor. If an employer complains about the contractor publicly, the contractor quickly lose all work. Workers are thus pressured to satisfy out-of-scope employer demands so they get a five star rating and maintain their sterling reputation.
- lucahammer 14y ago
  * quality: Matching the task with the right providers is crucial. At the moment we do a lot of manual vetting, making sure each task gets to the right people and everyone is happy. Over time we will collect more data to improve matching. Disputes are handled by ourselves right now and we want to have humans in charge for these things in the future. * reputation: We also have a rating system in place which is used to give the provider feedback on their work and also helps us with matching future tasks. Buyer will get rated too. At work.io the buyers don't have to choose the provider but only defines what results they want to have delivered. There is the option to buy services directly by someone but these deals are normally done because of the reputation someone has outside of work.io
  - brunooo 14y ago
    In addition to what luca said: We take a lot of pressure out of the marketplace by not having a biding mechanism in the first place, so better matches in terms of budget / skills etc are likely (happy to go into more depth on this) and we also collect tons of implicit data, so once we should get some traction, it should be easier to model the current manual work we do behind the scenes into corresponding algorithms (also happy to expand on this).
slashedzero 14y ago
I think the design of the site and the product conflict. The design looks like you're selling the person, not their expertise, especially from the front page. I'm sure any of these people can do multiple things, but I don't care about that, if my goal is to set up shop in Asia, mention that. I am in no way able to know that just seeing Sophie Song's face on your front page. Also, for sellers to solely use social media as a verification system just rubs me entirely the wrong way. I really like the idea though, good luck!
- lucahammer 14y ago
  We had no faces on the homepage when we started. Usertests showed that people were unsure who will fulfill the tasks and therefore didn't want to give us their money. At the moment we show some faces and some tasks which may be even more confusing. Sorry for the social media verification thingy. It works for most people and so we choose to start from there. We will look into alternatives in the future. Thanks! If I can help you with anything let me know.
krapp 14y ago
Interesting, and nice design. I'd like to be able to add my github and behance.net profiles as well if I can. Those would reflect my skills a lot better than would my facebook. Also I don't really like that my username seems linked to whatever my email address was -- I should be able to display my real name, and if I can change that I haven't found where yet. What is the user ID for and why is it listed in my profile? I would like to know a bit more about how you're handling payment, and dealing with conflict and arbitration. Can I connect my paypal account? Is there some kind of escrow thing like elance uses?
- sushimako 14y ago
  Thx for the feedback! Your should already be able to connect your LinkedIn account on your profile page. Github, behance and other identity providers of specific industries will be added in the future. Right now we fetch your name from the identity providers that you connect (e.g. linkedin) and fall back to the user part of your e-mail address if none connected. Being a little experiment, this is the only way to set your name for now (i.e. no manual input). Of course we will change this, if that's what the users want. Re: payment: Upon ordering a job the buyer transfers money to work.io (via creditcard, paypal or purchase order) and after the job is completed and accepted, all participating users will receive their share in their account-wallet. This earned money can then be payed-out via paypal, check or ACH. Right now, we're handling disputes/conflicts ourselves and will rely on human support in the future as well.
  - krapp 14y ago
    Couple more things. Why is it linked to my facebook account? I don't remember ever opting in for that. How do I unlink it now because my facebook account is not a business account. For that matter, how much control do I actually have over what you pull from my accounts? - Can I delete anything you add and unlink any accounts I link? - Can I opt not to synchronize my accounts or lock my profile at a certain state? - Can I delete my entire workio account if I want, and if so, what if anything does workio retain of my data?
    - 14y ago
aurora72 14y ago
just 3 spontaneous impressions: 1- The site (front page) is not bad. Anyway it addresses the one big problem of buying and selling the desired jobs. 2- The name and position of "Watercooler" is interesting and invokes curiosity about the site. 3- The presence of Linked-in as a login option is bad, because the Linked-in is bad. I've deleted my Li account after a crazy frustration upon their wanting me to become a paid member just for me to send a message to a member! No need to link to a doomed site such as that. That's all.
vavoida 14y ago
reminds me of this classic Ronald Coase - The Nature Of The Firm, 20 pages http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1468-0335.1937.tb00002.x/pdf http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1468-0335.1937.... summary http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Nature_of_the_Firm http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Nature_of_the_Firm btw. great design!
- brunooo 14y ago
  Indeed, linked it in http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/the_long_march_from_crowdsourcing_to_a_global_meri.php http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/the_long_march_from_cro...
  - vavoida 14y ago
    interesting rww post & comments furthermore http://www.avc.com/a_vc/2012/03/the-nature-of-the-firm-and-work-markets.html http://www.avc.com/a_vc/2012/03/the-nature-of-the-firm-and-w...
kamakazizuru 14y ago
so how exactly is this any different from vworker, odesk, elance etc?
- lucahammer 14y ago
  We aren't in the listing business. You define the results with the editor and we make sure you get them delivered.
  - wanderful 14y ago
    So you manage outsourcing? Might I recommend saying that? I've noticed throughout the comments that you tend toward drawn out explanations. Make it simple and then people will fill in the missing details. If they miss a few, no worries, because they get the gist. You don't need to give them all of the details up front, because that makes it complex, hard to understand and boring. Try and fill in as many details as you can with imagery and the structure of the site.
- brunooo 14y ago
  No bidding: We match tasks based on profiles and continuously expand circle of people we show it to, thus avoid http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Market_for_Lemons http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Market_for_Lemons Not time based: A perfect work.io task is something that takes you a few minutes / hours but is of high value to the client Ability to work around & offer standardized products, instead of open-end engagements (similar to the previous point but other implications as well)
olefoo 14y ago
This looks very good. But I can tell it's still early days yet. One UX/UI bug you should fix is to make it possible to see draft offers in one's profile. I did a save and continue, and had to dig through my browser history to get back to my draft offer. I also got a 403 notice in the UI when I clicked the Save and Continue button. I do agree with some of the posters here that you need to clarify the value proposition to first timers. I'm excited to see a marketplace for consulting products like this opening up, and intend to make use of it.
- brunooo 14y ago
  Your drafts should be in the "Buy" menu, and your offerings in the "Provide" menu as well as on your profile. Hunting down the 403, shouldn't happen here... Thanks, get in touch with any of us at any time, happy to get more direct feedback & support you in any way we can.
crntaylor 14y ago
I created a profile (which was quick and easy, well done). I wanted to connect it to my LinkedIn profile, but apparently you require access to 1. my profile 2. the email I use for my LinkedIn account and 3. my connections. I can understand 1, but not 2 or 3, and I'm not willing to provide them to you without a good explanation of why you need them. I imagine other users will feel the same way. Why not just require access to my profile? It's much less threatening that way, and you'll get more people connecting their LinkedIn accounts.
dalehurley1 14y ago
I am sorry but I am confused to what your site does. It looks good, but what is it that it does as I am confused. This is not to slam you. I hope to help you. "Global Expertise, On Demand & Delivered Online" is just buzzwords and does not concisely tell me what you do or what benefit you provide. For instance I go to planscop.io and I am told "Project Management for Contractors - Planscope is a simple tool that helps you build better client projects and close more deals.". I know it is for contractors for managing projects. NewRelic.com - "A DEVELOPER’S BEST FRIEND - See how we help 25,000+ customers monitor their apps." I know it is for Developers and it monitors my apps. Risks.io - "Track Your Project's Risks, Assumptions, Issues and Dependencies Online" Basically I think work.io does is "Work.io connects employers and knowledge-workers together for highly-skilled one of projects."
- dalehurley1 14y ago
  "Work.io connects employers and knowledge-workers together for highly-skilled one off* projects."
  - brunooo 14y ago
    Dale, Thanks! Work in progress, skipped the tagline & extra text on the frontpage as long as we didn't see a clear winner yet...
krisj 14y ago
I think the problem here is that you're doing EVERYTHING. If you tested out a single vertical (e.g. legal work for startups), and connected it with a market of, say, well credentialed lawyers who're interested in working for themselves, then I would know exactly what your site is for, and how/when I might use it. If you tell me that I should use you for everything, I'm probably going to use you for nothing. Give the verticals their own websites.
- lucahammer 14y ago
  Landingpages for verticals are already planned. Thanks.
geuis 14y ago
All of your fonts are too small. All of your text colors are too gray. I'm in my early 30's with fairly good eyesight, and its just way too hard to read anything on your site. I tried signing up and going through the Sell services bit, but just gave up because the whole thing gives me a physical headache trying to read anything.
- andersbreivik 14y ago
  After zooming in a couple of levels I found the site pretty readable. Then again I'm using ClearType which looks horrible but at least has high clarity for old farts/cheap monitors like the one I use at work. Related point. The navbar text looks terribad on Windows. Zooming in a couple of levels makes it pretty decent. Catering towards bad software sucks but is necessary in the face of market share if you're running a business.. :/
- lucahammer 14y ago
  We will work on that. At the moment the highest priority is to create great processes. Design improvements will follow. (Some small ones are already in testing as they are part of the process too.)
julienmarie 14y ago
The design seemed really familiar to me... is there any connection with http://www.systemone.net/ http://www.systemone.net/ ?
- lucahammer 14y ago
  Yes. Can you find it?
mbesto 14y ago
As many others have pointed out, I'm confused. Here's a good starting point for your pitch/value proposition: 1. What problem are you trying to solve? (It seems like you're trying to solve many problems at once, but state these with more clarity) 2. How are you solving this problem? (What part of your solution solves the problem and how?) 3. How is this different from the competition? (When describing how you are solving the problem what do people do today that you do differently for the customer) Also, it appears there are two sets of value propositions - one for Buyers and one for Providers. You'll need to clearly explain both to each audience. Edit- Oh and good luck! The technology itself is extremely impressive and good job looking for feedback....now iterate!
nkuttler 14y ago
Which browsers did you test your layout in? There's overlapping text in the boxes on the frontpage in FF, Chrome and Opera. That's all I tried.

135 points by sushimako 14y ago

Great domain name you have there!

Holy buzzwords, Batman! Seriously, I hate them. It makes it seem like you don't have anything substantial when you use them. They appear as filler for a weak product. Talk to me like a human. Given that I'm trying to find other humans for work, I would rather trust something that felt honest than something peppered with marketing-speak.

hucker 14y ago
It doesn't really help that 'please' is categorically misspelled as 'pls' either...
- hnriot 14y ago
  That isn't a misspelling, but a very common shortcut. I fail to see how this in any way detracts from the readability of the text. Other shortcomings notwithstanding, "pls" is fine for the vast majority of internet users.
  - trafficlight 14y ago
    It's lazy and unprofessional.
  - bdunbar 14y ago
    Using 'pls' in formal communication indicates sloppiness and imprecision of thought. It indicates that one is not serious. A mental flyweight. Shorter: spelling counts.
    - gojomo 14y ago
      Generally in my life I've shared the same opinion... but are you sure that if A/B-tested, 'please' would outperform 'pls' in the context of Work.IO's goals? For example: when soliciting user participation, it often helps to lower user anxiety that what is written needs to be perfectly crafted/grammatical. 'Txtspeek' can send a signal: it's OK whatever 'u' want to type here.
      - bdunbar 14y ago
        a) A/B testing grammar is a lame idea. b) Please isn't perfectly crafted, it's just the right way to spell that word. c) Text speak is a signal, but only a positive one for functionally illiterate Eloi.
  - anonymouz 14y ago
    That's ok on a forum, but not on a site that tries to appear professional and elegant (and buzzword-y). Personally, I also think the font used on the "About Us" page for "What you need" and so on does not mesh all that well with the rest of the site.
  - grey-area 14y ago
    Love the idea for the site, and though it may be ahead of its time, it is an ambitious project and deserves to do well - one day a lot of work will be distributed this way. However using txtspk like pls for talking to potential customers is not quicker or cool - it shows a lack of respect. Also, this error from zephyr has been on your home page for the last few hours: Obvisously you want to keep your site and app secure, but who is really good at this? Zephyr comes from MIT and is the perfect interface to the Noisebridge community. Simple spelling and grammatical errors on your site home like this will cost you credibility and customers; best just to fix them and move on. Your initial text, by you and your users, will set the tone for everything that follows.
    - sushimako 14y ago
      Also, this error from zephyr has been on your home page for the last few hours: [...] Thx & (hopefully) fixed!
brunooo 14y ago
OK, the templates have to start somewhere, pretty much everything else was written by users, check https://www.workio.com/b/Y2NlMTY5MDYt/security-assessment https://www.workio.com/b/Y2NlMTY5MDYt/security-assessment for example. Or is the About page that puts you off? Guilty regarding the Pls's...

matlock 14y ago

The editor is pretty fancy, dragging stuff around when you create a new document works really well. Will give it a try

sushimako 14y ago
thx! Btw, to anyone who wants to try it out: there's no signup needed. Just start a new document from any of the Templates or create a copy from a landing page (e.g. https://www.workio.com/b/Y2NlMTY5MDYt/security-assessment https://www.workio.com/b/Y2NlMTY5MDYt/security-assessment ) by clicking the "Customize and order" button.

michaelbuckbee 14y ago

A few things: 1. Congrats on launching! 2. You have an explanation video hidden somewhere on the site (like literally I saw it then got back to the homepage and couldn't recall which link I had clicked to find it). Having that front and center would really help. 2a. Don't use the robot voiceover for the video. If you're not comfortable doing it yourself find somebody on Fiverr.com to do it for you. 3. It would be very helpful to have some extremely simple examples of what you are providing. Along the lines of: "Jim wants to boost sales, instead of hiring a costly salesperson he can request getting leads." (which is something I think you do). Looks like you're off to a good start.

brunooo 14y ago
Thanks Michael, we're working hard on Topic / Industry specific landing pages, where it's just the video, 5 best products (without the detour of you having to customize them by hand) and 5 great people providing them. Voiceover was Voicebunny or Bodalgo, very close decision, but there are definitely artifacts from the Mercedes GPS she did left over, but you (gladly) haven't heard the timing test we spoke...

cyphersanctus 14y ago

Great design.

subnet 14y ago

the replay-mode of the editor just rocks :) I'm offering consulting-serives about Facebook-platform there, + you can ask me a free question about platform as well :) https://www.workio.com/u/NTU0MT/michael-kamleitner https://www.workio.com/u/NTU0MT/michael-kamleitner

jaggs 14y ago

I'm sorry I found it all very confusing. For me personally it failed the 5 second test - what is the site primarily about, and how can I extract 80% of its functionality quickest? I clicked on the Buy button and was no further forward. The design is very slick, but there's too many words on the front page, no obvious action button/s and no immediate examples of how this could benefit me.

lucahammer 14y ago
May I ask you to try the 5 seconds test with my profile? https://www.workio.com/u/MjA3ZD/luca-hammer https://www.workio.com/u/MjA3ZD/luca-hammer Does that work for you?
- mengine 14y ago
  Not really. What problem are you trying to solve and what are the benefits to me? This is a much better splash page but the copy is still pretty bad - https://www.workio.com/about/ https://www.workio.com/about/
  - lucahammer 14y ago
    We want to streamline work processes. If you need something done you have to find someone who is able to do it and has time. work.io takes care of this. You define what you need, say how much you want to pay and get the results. You don't need to interact with the providers. Less overhead and better results are your benefits.
    - jaggs 14y ago
      You see that there is a bit of your problem. No-one really understands what 'streamline work processes' actually means. Does that mean you can help me serve my Big Macs better in my day job? Jargon kills (and I mean KILLS) marketing effectiveness.
      - lucahammer 14y ago

deleted 14y ago

[deleted]

natrius 14y ago

There are many grammar errors throughout the site. Pay someone to copy edit it.

brunooo 14y ago
Yup, embarrassing indeed in some places, wip, but not yet easy to simply extract all current data to easily hand it to someone. Thanks for pushing it up the "damn,we gotta take more care of that" list.
- wanderful 14y ago
  Take screenshots or print the pages. They don't need to look at the code to review the copy. Change the mindset to look for solutions rather than problems.

Zak 14y ago

Pretty design, and nice concept overall but there doesn't seem to be any way to add certain kinds of information other than connecting social networking sites. I don't want to do that.

lucahammer 14y ago
Thanks for the feedback. We wanted to make it harder for people to add topics and industries only to get certain jobs. We will look into ways for user who don't want to connect their profile to social networking sites.
- Zak 14y ago
  A way might be to simply limit the number of topics and industries a person can list, though that has its own downsides. Just thinking of my own case, you won't get much of use from Facebook (I post pictures of kittens and cookie recipes), twitter (It's been nearly a year since I've tweeted anything) or Linkedin (I barely use it). You'd get more of use from HN, reddit or (especially) github, but it might be harder to extract useful information from those sources.
  - lucahammer 14y ago
    We will definitely add more services in the future and you are right that these three were the easiest to start with and give ok results for many people. You could still provide buyers with awesome cookie recipes!

chrislomax 14y ago

Like the others have said, the design is good but I just don't know what I am getting from the site on first approach. I also don't like how the home page main call to action is Sign In, what am I signing into and why should I? I expect the homepage to tell me how you are going to help me, not for me to find out how you can help me?

lucahammer 14y ago
Here is an older version of the homepage: https://skitch.com/lucahammer/eagkm/workio-hompage-old https://skitch.com/lucahammer/eagkm/workio-hompage-old

cinbun8 14y ago

This is what I understand 1 minute after perusing your website. 1 - This is some sort of a marketplace where you can buy and sell expertise. Kinda like a Air bnb for odd jobs. Reminds me of a similar startup that tried that, but I cannot remember their name. 2 - The landing page's layout is a little confusing. I clicked on a couple of links and landed on your about page[1]. When you have a 90 second video explaining what your product is, why would you not put that on a landing page ? The call to action would be very easy for me. Click on the video and know more about you. 3 - Although you meant for people to click sign-in on the landing page, that action was not very obvious to me. You should look to prioritize 'Sign-up' not sign in. The fact that they are both green buttons that look alike does not help. 4 - Your key customer sign-up categories appear to be a buyer who gets services and a seller who markets his / her services. You might want to streamline signups to reflect that. 5 - The text overlay on the image is not very visible / readable. Have you considered switching the images to color on mouse-over ? 6 - Where is the submit button for 'Suggest a feature' under watercooler ? 7 - I don't quite get the watercooler part. Is it meant for users to share insights and that becomes part of the news ? 8 - What is your pricing ? Where can I see what cut you take and what I get in return ? What are people signing up for ? 9 - When I sign up, its not very clear to me that something happened on the screen. Its great that I am logged in, but the UI needs to do more to inform me about what just happened. 10 - A short tutorial on signing up would be great. The app asked me to add funds and I don't understand what for. I like the idea. The presentation and the user flow could use a little work. Gather the feedback you get here and fine tune your site. Nice work. [1] - https://www.workio.com/about/ https://www.workio.com/about/

brunooo 14y ago
Hey, thanks a ton for the detailed feedback! 1) Solvate and many others. 2) Went with the current one to see what appeals to people, but like mentioned the industry specific landing pages will be a lot like you suggest. 3) Sign-In is both Signup & Login, the redundant one is just as backup (just to explain the thoughts behind it). 4) Still fiddling with this, most sites like oDeks et al do it, but nt yet sure if it's more effective (considering that you only have to sign up in the very last moment, eg order a job or offer a service) 5) 2 of the people just had this ones in B&W, will switch once we have a broader pool. 6) Right, submit on \n is still no good practice. 7) Highlight whats happening on the platform, bit of a placeholder now, but think more lively statistics, stories, industries, rankings here in the future. 8) 15% cut, we take care of the whole payment, landing pages etc. 9) Right, not all callback messages there yet. 10) This only happen if you "made up your mind" eg clicked "order" on a product, but a nice generic tutorial video combined with 9 would be nice. Thanks again for taking the time, all the feedback, and the chance to start thinking about it while typing this.

bravura 14y ago

Could you please explain how you will address: * quality: How do I know the quality of the work will be good? What happens in the case of disputes? * reputation: How will you keep track of reputation of the workers? Odesk, Vworker, Ebay are marketplaces that do a decent job at filtering out spammers and bad guys. Where they lack is determining the difference between good and great. Everyone gets FIVE STARS or close to it for every job, unless it's completely bungled. This also creates a perverse pressure on the contractor. If an employer complains about the contractor publicly, the contractor quickly lose all work. Workers are thus pressured to satisfy out-of-scope employer demands so they get a five star rating and maintain their sterling reputation.

lucahammer 14y ago
* quality: Matching the task with the right providers is crucial. At the moment we do a lot of manual vetting, making sure each task gets to the right people and everyone is happy. Over time we will collect more data to improve matching. Disputes are handled by ourselves right now and we want to have humans in charge for these things in the future. * reputation: We also have a rating system in place which is used to give the provider feedback on their work and also helps us with matching future tasks. Buyer will get rated too. At work.io the buyers don't have to choose the provider but only defines what results they want to have delivered. There is the option to buy services directly by someone but these deals are normally done because of the reputation someone has outside of work.io
- brunooo 14y ago
  In addition to what luca said: We take a lot of pressure out of the marketplace by not having a biding mechanism in the first place, so better matches in terms of budget / skills etc are likely (happy to go into more depth on this) and we also collect tons of implicit data, so once we should get some traction, it should be easier to model the current manual work we do behind the scenes into corresponding algorithms (also happy to expand on this).

slashedzero 14y ago

I think the design of the site and the product conflict. The design looks like you're selling the person, not their expertise, especially from the front page. I'm sure any of these people can do multiple things, but I don't care about that, if my goal is to set up shop in Asia, mention that. I am in no way able to know that just seeing Sophie Song's face on your front page. Also, for sellers to solely use social media as a verification system just rubs me entirely the wrong way. I really like the idea though, good luck!

lucahammer 14y ago
We had no faces on the homepage when we started. Usertests showed that people were unsure who will fulfill the tasks and therefore didn't want to give us their money. At the moment we show some faces and some tasks which may be even more confusing. Sorry for the social media verification thingy. It works for most people and so we choose to start from there. We will look into alternatives in the future. Thanks! If I can help you with anything let me know.

krapp 14y ago

Interesting, and nice design. I'd like to be able to add my github and behance.net profiles as well if I can. Those would reflect my skills a lot better than would my facebook. Also I don't really like that my username seems linked to whatever my email address was -- I should be able to display my real name, and if I can change that I haven't found where yet. What is the user ID for and why is it listed in my profile? I would like to know a bit more about how you're handling payment, and dealing with conflict and arbitration. Can I connect my paypal account? Is there some kind of escrow thing like elance uses?

sushimako 14y ago
Thx for the feedback! Your should already be able to connect your LinkedIn account on your profile page. Github, behance and other identity providers of specific industries will be added in the future. Right now we fetch your name from the identity providers that you connect (e.g. linkedin) and fall back to the user part of your e-mail address if none connected. Being a little experiment, this is the only way to set your name for now (i.e. no manual input). Of course we will change this, if that's what the users want. Re: payment: Upon ordering a job the buyer transfers money to work.io (via creditcard, paypal or purchase order) and after the job is completed and accepted, all participating users will receive their share in their account-wallet. This earned money can then be payed-out via paypal, check or ACH. Right now, we're handling disputes/conflicts ourselves and will rely on human support in the future as well.
- krapp 14y ago
  Couple more things. Why is it linked to my facebook account? I don't remember ever opting in for that. How do I unlink it now because my facebook account is not a business account. For that matter, how much control do I actually have over what you pull from my accounts? - Can I delete anything you add and unlink any accounts I link? - Can I opt not to synchronize my accounts or lock my profile at a certain state? - Can I delete my entire workio account if I want, and if so, what if anything does workio retain of my data?
  - 14y ago

aurora72 14y ago

just 3 spontaneous impressions: 1- The site (front page) is not bad. Anyway it addresses the one big problem of buying and selling the desired jobs. 2- The name and position of "Watercooler" is interesting and invokes curiosity about the site. 3- The presence of Linked-in as a login option is bad, because the Linked-in is bad. I've deleted my Li account after a crazy frustration upon their wanting me to become a paid member just for me to send a message to a member! No need to link to a doomed site such as that. That's all.

vavoida 14y ago

reminds me of this classic Ronald Coase - The Nature Of The Firm, 20 pages http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1468-0335.1937.tb00002.x/pdf http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1468-0335.1937.... summary http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Nature_of_the_Firm http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Nature_of_the_Firm btw. great design!

brunooo 14y ago
Indeed, linked it in http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/the_long_march_from_crowdsourcing_to_a_global_meri.php http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/the_long_march_from_cro...
- vavoida 14y ago
  interesting rww post & comments furthermore http://www.avc.com/a_vc/2012/03/the-nature-of-the-firm-and-work-markets.html http://www.avc.com/a_vc/2012/03/the-nature-of-the-firm-and-w...

kamakazizuru 14y ago

so how exactly is this any different from vworker, odesk, elance etc?

lucahammer 14y ago
We aren't in the listing business. You define the results with the editor and we make sure you get them delivered.
- wanderful 14y ago
  So you manage outsourcing? Might I recommend saying that? I've noticed throughout the comments that you tend toward drawn out explanations. Make it simple and then people will fill in the missing details. If they miss a few, no worries, because they get the gist. You don't need to give them all of the details up front, because that makes it complex, hard to understand and boring. Try and fill in as many details as you can with imagery and the structure of the site.
brunooo 14y ago
No bidding: We match tasks based on profiles and continuously expand circle of people we show it to, thus avoid http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Market_for_Lemons http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Market_for_Lemons Not time based: A perfect work.io task is something that takes you a few minutes / hours but is of high value to the client Ability to work around & offer standardized products, instead of open-end engagements (similar to the previous point but other implications as well)

olefoo 14y ago

This looks very good. But I can tell it's still early days yet. One UX/UI bug you should fix is to make it possible to see draft offers in one's profile. I did a save and continue, and had to dig through my browser history to get back to my draft offer. I also got a 403 notice in the UI when I clicked the Save and Continue button. I do agree with some of the posters here that you need to clarify the value proposition to first timers. I'm excited to see a marketplace for consulting products like this opening up, and intend to make use of it.

brunooo 14y ago
Your drafts should be in the "Buy" menu, and your offerings in the "Provide" menu as well as on your profile. Hunting down the 403, shouldn't happen here... Thanks, get in touch with any of us at any time, happy to get more direct feedback & support you in any way we can.

crntaylor 14y ago

I created a profile (which was quick and easy, well done). I wanted to connect it to my LinkedIn profile, but apparently you require access to 1. my profile 2. the email I use for my LinkedIn account and 3. my connections. I can understand 1, but not 2 or 3, and I'm not willing to provide them to you without a good explanation of why you need them. I imagine other users will feel the same way. Why not just require access to my profile? It's much less threatening that way, and you'll get more people connecting their LinkedIn accounts.

dalehurley1 14y ago

I am sorry but I am confused to what your site does. It looks good, but what is it that it does as I am confused. This is not to slam you. I hope to help you. "Global Expertise, On Demand & Delivered Online" is just buzzwords and does not concisely tell me what you do or what benefit you provide. For instance I go to planscop.io and I am told "Project Management for Contractors - Planscope is a simple tool that helps you build better client projects and close more deals.". I know it is for contractors for managing projects. NewRelic.com - "A DEVELOPER’S BEST FRIEND - See how we help 25,000+ customers monitor their apps." I know it is for Developers and it monitors my apps. Risks.io - "Track Your Project's Risks, Assumptions, Issues and Dependencies Online" Basically I think work.io does is "Work.io connects employers and knowledge-workers together for highly-skilled one of projects."

dalehurley1 14y ago
"Work.io connects employers and knowledge-workers together for highly-skilled one off* projects."
- brunooo 14y ago
  Dale, Thanks! Work in progress, skipped the tagline & extra text on the frontpage as long as we didn't see a clear winner yet...

krisj 14y ago

I think the problem here is that you're doing EVERYTHING. If you tested out a single vertical (e.g. legal work for startups), and connected it with a market of, say, well credentialed lawyers who're interested in working for themselves, then I would know exactly what your site is for, and how/when I might use it. If you tell me that I should use you for everything, I'm probably going to use you for nothing. Give the verticals their own websites.

lucahammer 14y ago
Landingpages for verticals are already planned. Thanks.

geuis 14y ago

All of your fonts are too small. All of your text colors are too gray. I'm in my early 30's with fairly good eyesight, and its just way too hard to read anything on your site. I tried signing up and going through the Sell services bit, but just gave up because the whole thing gives me a physical headache trying to read anything.

andersbreivik 14y ago
After zooming in a couple of levels I found the site pretty readable. Then again I'm using ClearType which looks horrible but at least has high clarity for old farts/cheap monitors like the one I use at work. Related point. The navbar text looks terribad on Windows. Zooming in a couple of levels makes it pretty decent. Catering towards bad software sucks but is necessary in the face of market share if you're running a business.. :/
lucahammer 14y ago
We will work on that. At the moment the highest priority is to create great processes. Design improvements will follow. (Some small ones are already in testing as they are part of the process too.)

julienmarie 14y ago

The design seemed really familiar to me... is there any connection with http://www.systemone.net/ http://www.systemone.net/ ?

lucahammer 14y ago
Yes. Can you find it?

mbesto 14y ago

As many others have pointed out, I'm confused. Here's a good starting point for your pitch/value proposition: 1. What problem are you trying to solve? (It seems like you're trying to solve many problems at once, but state these with more clarity) 2. How are you solving this problem? (What part of your solution solves the problem and how?) 3. How is this different from the competition? (When describing how you are solving the problem what do people do today that you do differently for the customer) Also, it appears there are two sets of value propositions - one for Buyers and one for Providers. You'll need to clearly explain both to each audience. Edit- Oh and good luck! The technology itself is extremely impressive and good job looking for feedback....now iterate!

nkuttler 14y ago

Which browsers did you test your layout in? There's overlapping text in the boxes on the frontpage in FF, Chrome and Opera. That's all I tried.