5 ms·

Ask HN: Your Feedback on www.PlopQuiz.com

14 points by babyshake 18y ago

babyshake 18y ago
As Obama signs the stimulus package in Denver today, I'm launching a preview release of a site I've been working on called PlopQuiz. The site makes it easier to show what you know about subjects of public interest, such as energy efficiency or the economic recovery effort. You'll notice that we now have a handful of community sponsors, as well. While sponsorships don't amount to much more than a badge on your profile at the moment, I'm interested in how a site like PlopQuiz could eventually help students finance their educational careers and avoid crushing levels of debt. Ultimately, this site needs to evolve to best serve the needs of people, HN users included. So lay it on me - if you don't see any utility in PlopQuiz at this stage, how do you think it could be improved to help you?
- DTrejo 18y ago
  Plop makes me think of the toilet. EDIT: The loading took a very long time on google chrome. Is this built with GWT? If the clouds moved really really slowly then they wouldn't be so distracting.
  - babyshake 18y ago
    The site isn't built with GWT, but it is running on Google App Engine. So far, my hosting costs add up to $0.00, as I note in a blog post about PlopQuiz: http://blog.jamtoday.org/post/77146082/the-plopquiz-origin-story http://blog.jamtoday.org/post/77146082/the-plopquiz-origin-s...
  - babyshake 18y ago
    Regarding the potty reference... "Plop" refers to how its easy to make and share quizzes. But when I told a very, very well known developer about PlopQuiz, the very first thing this person said was, "is this a site about going to the bathroom?"
  - jasonkester 18y ago
    Indeed. Just going off the name, I assumed it would be one of those "rate my ..." sites. I'd suggest changing the name ASAP.
JeremyChase 18y ago
babysnake, The graphics are great but I dislike how much you have used animation; it cheapens the site. The quiz itself was pretty fun, but I was confused about how to actually start it. It took me some time clicking, and even then it was cumbersome to get going. Also it would be great to know how many questions are left in the quiz. Then at the end it says "Please sign in to save your quiz." but doesn't show me how to see my results without signing up. So, I didn't. I can tell you have put a lot of work into this, but you have usability issues. It is clunky, and not entirely intuitive to use. I would suggest getting people to use the site and watch them while they do so. Hope this is more helpful than not, Jeremy
- babyshake 18y ago
  Thanks for the feedback, Jeremy. I'm actually doing a lot of logging to see what people do on different pages, but I do agree that its crucial to do some in-person usability testing.
  - JeremyChase 18y ago
    No problem.. Sorry, I just saw that you are babyshake, not babysnake! How much traffic have you gotten from this posting to HN?
joshsharp 18y ago
At the moment I'm getting some strange behaviour, I think due to your Uservoice plugin - the site loads and then abruptly disappears, and subsequent refreshes only bring up the uservoice 'feedback' tab.
axod 18y ago
scrolling up+down is pretty slow. Too much going on.... Simplify.
prawn 18y ago
The name is incredibly awkward. Plop = poop. I suspect you may struggle to gain traction because of that issue (and the design/look&feel of the site).
geuis 18y ago
I'm an american so of course I could be wrong, but isn't "plop" kind offensive in Britain? I heard it's the same as saying "shit".
RK 18y ago
The site brings my browser (Firefox 3 on Linux) nearly to a halt.
- jasonkester 18y ago
  It's 12 Mississippi before it finishes loading in Chrome. I was about to ask why until I saw it was hosted on Google AppEngine. I guess we can consider this a datapoint.
- michaelkeenan 18y ago
  I also have performance problems on Ubuntu 8.10 in Firefox 3. The clouds moved jerkily and the buttons were somewhat unresponsive.
sjs382 18y ago
Is that the jParallax script in the background? Please kill it! Haha

14 points by babyshake 18y ago

As Obama signs the stimulus package in Denver today, I'm launching a preview release of a site I've been working on called PlopQuiz. The site makes it easier to show what you know about subjects of public interest, such as energy efficiency or the economic recovery effort. You'll notice that we now have a handful of community sponsors, as well. While sponsorships don't amount to much more than a badge on your profile at the moment, I'm interested in how a site like PlopQuiz could eventually help students finance their educational careers and avoid crushing levels of debt. Ultimately, this site needs to evolve to best serve the needs of people, HN users included. So lay it on me - if you don't see any utility in PlopQuiz at this stage, how do you think it could be improved to help you?

DTrejo 18y ago
Plop makes me think of the toilet. EDIT: The loading took a very long time on google chrome. Is this built with GWT? If the clouds moved really really slowly then they wouldn't be so distracting.
- babyshake 18y ago
  The site isn't built with GWT, but it is running on Google App Engine. So far, my hosting costs add up to $0.00, as I note in a blog post about PlopQuiz: http://blog.jamtoday.org/post/77146082/the-plopquiz-origin-story http://blog.jamtoday.org/post/77146082/the-plopquiz-origin-s...
- babyshake 18y ago
  Regarding the potty reference... "Plop" refers to how its easy to make and share quizzes. But when I told a very, very well known developer about PlopQuiz, the very first thing this person said was, "is this a site about going to the bathroom?"
- jasonkester 18y ago
  Indeed. Just going off the name, I assumed it would be one of those "rate my ..." sites. I'd suggest changing the name ASAP.

JeremyChase 18y ago

babysnake, The graphics are great but I dislike how much you have used animation; it cheapens the site. The quiz itself was pretty fun, but I was confused about how to actually start it. It took me some time clicking, and even then it was cumbersome to get going. Also it would be great to know how many questions are left in the quiz. Then at the end it says "Please sign in to save your quiz." but doesn't show me how to see my results without signing up. So, I didn't. I can tell you have put a lot of work into this, but you have usability issues. It is clunky, and not entirely intuitive to use. I would suggest getting people to use the site and watch them while they do so. Hope this is more helpful than not, Jeremy

babyshake 18y ago
Thanks for the feedback, Jeremy. I'm actually doing a lot of logging to see what people do on different pages, but I do agree that its crucial to do some in-person usability testing.
- JeremyChase 18y ago
  No problem.. Sorry, I just saw that you are babyshake, not babysnake! How much traffic have you gotten from this posting to HN?

joshsharp 18y ago

At the moment I'm getting some strange behaviour, I think due to your Uservoice plugin - the site loads and then abruptly disappears, and subsequent refreshes only bring up the uservoice 'feedback' tab.

axod 18y ago

scrolling up+down is pretty slow. Too much going on.... Simplify.

prawn 18y ago

The name is incredibly awkward. Plop = poop. I suspect you may struggle to gain traction because of that issue (and the design/look&feel of the site).

geuis 18y ago

I'm an american so of course I could be wrong, but isn't "plop" kind offensive in Britain? I heard it's the same as saying "shit".

RK 18y ago

The site brings my browser (Firefox 3 on Linux) nearly to a halt.

jasonkester 18y ago
It's 12 Mississippi before it finishes loading in Chrome. I was about to ask why until I saw it was hosted on Google AppEngine. I guess we can consider this a datapoint.
michaelkeenan 18y ago
I also have performance problems on Ubuntu 8.10 in Firefox 3. The clouds moved jerkily and the buttons were somewhat unresponsive.

sjs382 18y ago

Is that the jParallax script in the background? Please kill it! Haha