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Show HN: Blanqd – Gamifying the News

7 points by bayonetz 12y ago

bayonetz 12y ago
Author here. Would love to get some feedback.
- wrangular 12y ago
  This if sort of cool. I am guessing you are generating the questions via some kind of smart substitution? One thing that would be good is a way to skip or dismiss the tutorial pop-ups tips you get when you first open the app. I didn't need them; it was pretty obvious what to do.
  - bayonetz 12y ago
    Correct. Hand creating the questions would be quite a task! I'll have to wait until the investment comes through...that's how QuizUp works I believe, they unscalably pay people to curate the questions. Probably why they are trying to go the crowd sourcing route now as paid minions can't create them fast enough. About the tutorials, in user testing there was always something any given person couldn't figure out without the tutorials. However, when I added the tutorials with an option to skip, Nobody would bother to read them. I'll need more time to make it perfectly intuitive - in the meantime I wanted to ship so forced tutorial is what I went with. Thoughts on that?
valarauca1 12y ago
Installed the App. Honestly love it, its a fun game :) The color scheme is almost too vibrant. It feels like it should be slightly toned down/masked a touch. I feel like I'm stuck in the barbie toy isle if anyone remembers physical toy stores from the 90's. The UI is very nice and clean other then the color complaint. The fact that there are tips also seems slightly amiss. I found myself annoyed by the tips since I could just pick up and run with the app. But I understand why they are there. The fact the name is dead center and always un-click-able seems to be a waste. Put all the icons in a single bar at the top or bottom (piggy bank, x, stats, etc.) Saves more screen real estate.
- bayonetz 12y ago
  Thanks for checking it out. Good points you make and I'll add 'em to the queue. This has been a good exercise in shipping something despite my tendency to want to tweak it endlessly before launch. Yes, the color scheme is risky...I guess I just went for it! I get bored with many of the color themes I see out there, especially for news related apps.
Mandatum 12y ago
Unavailable outside of the US? Am in NZ..
- bayonetz 12y ago
  It should be available. My dev phones are U.S. based and I didn't know how to test/verify it running on a non U.S phone. Any ideas out there?

7 points by bayonetz 12y ago

bayonetz 12y ago

Author here. Would love to get some feedback.

wrangular 12y ago
This if sort of cool. I am guessing you are generating the questions via some kind of smart substitution? One thing that would be good is a way to skip or dismiss the tutorial pop-ups tips you get when you first open the app. I didn't need them; it was pretty obvious what to do.
- bayonetz 12y ago
  Correct. Hand creating the questions would be quite a task! I'll have to wait until the investment comes through...that's how QuizUp works I believe, they unscalably pay people to curate the questions. Probably why they are trying to go the crowd sourcing route now as paid minions can't create them fast enough. About the tutorials, in user testing there was always something any given person couldn't figure out without the tutorials. However, when I added the tutorials with an option to skip, Nobody would bother to read them. I'll need more time to make it perfectly intuitive - in the meantime I wanted to ship so forced tutorial is what I went with. Thoughts on that?

valarauca1 12y ago

Installed the App. Honestly love it, its a fun game :) The color scheme is almost too vibrant. It feels like it should be slightly toned down/masked a touch. I feel like I'm stuck in the barbie toy isle if anyone remembers physical toy stores from the 90's. The UI is very nice and clean other then the color complaint. The fact that there are tips also seems slightly amiss. I found myself annoyed by the tips since I could just pick up and run with the app. But I understand why they are there. The fact the name is dead center and always un-click-able seems to be a waste. Put all the icons in a single bar at the top or bottom (piggy bank, x, stats, etc.) Saves more screen real estate.

bayonetz 12y ago
Thanks for checking it out. Good points you make and I'll add 'em to the queue. This has been a good exercise in shipping something despite my tendency to want to tweak it endlessly before launch. Yes, the color scheme is risky...I guess I just went for it! I get bored with many of the color themes I see out there, especially for news related apps.

Mandatum 12y ago

Unavailable outside of the US? Am in NZ..

bayonetz 12y ago
It should be available. My dev phones are U.S. based and I didn't know how to test/verify it running on a non U.S phone. Any ideas out there?