4 ms·

Show HN: Feedial v0.1, a next-generation news reader. Any thoughts?

12 points by emma_b 12y ago

detaro 12y ago
For me, the grey bar with the hamburger menu is nearly in the middle of the screen, and to the right is a large white space that isn't used for anything (I expected a preview to go there, but clicking news items opens them in a new window) Front page: "secure HTTPS connections" would maybe be better than "secure HTTP connections", because HTTPS is the word one is scanning for in that context EDIT: Chrome 40.0.2214.111 m on Windows 7, 1366x786 screen
- emma_b 12y ago
  Hi. Thanks for the comment. There's an option to 'auto scale', which might be worth a look
scrumper 12y ago
New title suggestion: add Show HN
- dang 12y ago
  We added Show HN to the title since this is a good match for it.
  - emma_b 12y ago
    Thanks. We weren't sure it was appropriate going by the Show HN guidelines
joshuaheard 12y ago
Looks good. I would try some changes: People read from left to right, so I would put the text on the left and the image on the right. Also, you have lots of white space; I would condense things a little so I can scan quicker. Look at the news app Circa. I really like their format.
- emma_b 12y ago
  Thank you.
striking 12y ago
Mobile-optimized pretty well but it's a pain to try to read a column all the way to the left of my screen on my computer. Auto-scale doesn't fix it. I like how you can turn off the "dial" but the setting was somewhat hidden, perhaps the setting for it should be accessible from the feed switcher itself. (Also, I get that the name is Feedial, but the dial is really not a useful UI piece. I know you like it, but I don't. Sorry.) "Mobile" shouldn't be an option, use CSS Media queries instead. Also, when not in mobile mode, the feed switcher isn't accessible anywhere except for at the top of the page. Why does it disappear? It would make a set of your users happier if you offered email-based authentication. I know, I know, sending the emails is annoying, but at least I'd be a little happier. Tooltips that describe which buttons do what would be really nice. I like the images on the left. I don't know, it just feels right. Also, I thoroughly enjoy the fact that you don't try to just pull stories from webpages and host them on your site, you just link to them. Like a good RSS reader. After a few more minutes with the site: I really like this. However, I think some of the news outlets that don't have as many posts are being completely drowned out by ones who post often. Instead of being all BBC News and ABC News, you should make sure that you give equal share to all websites. Otherwise all you get are "X killed Y" articles while articles about world economies and imprisonment and airlines all get crowded out. If this offered recommendations as to what news I could get and delivered personalized sets of news stories to my inbox, I'd totally use it. Adding arbitrary RSS feeds would be even cooler. Otherwise, I'll stick with switching manually between HN, Ars Technica, Boing Boing, and Slashdot. (Also, I've noticed multiple stories covering the same thing showing up separately. Maybe invest some time into algorithmically grouping them?)
- emma_b 12y ago
  Thanks for the feedback. Email-based login is definitely high on the list.

12 points by emma_b 12y ago

For me, the grey bar with the hamburger menu is nearly in the middle of the screen, and to the right is a large white space that isn't used for anything (I expected a preview to go there, but clicking news items opens them in a new window) Front page: "secure HTTPS connections" would maybe be better than "secure HTTP connections", because HTTPS is the word one is scanning for in that context EDIT: Chrome 40.0.2214.111 m on Windows 7, 1366x786 screen

emma_b 12y ago
Hi. Thanks for the comment. There's an option to 'auto scale', which might be worth a look

scrumper 12y ago

New title suggestion: add Show HN

dang 12y ago
We added Show HN to the title since this is a good match for it.
- emma_b 12y ago
  Thanks. We weren't sure it was appropriate going by the Show HN guidelines

joshuaheard 12y ago

Looks good. I would try some changes: People read from left to right, so I would put the text on the left and the image on the right. Also, you have lots of white space; I would condense things a little so I can scan quicker. Look at the news app Circa. I really like their format.

emma_b 12y ago
Thank you.

striking 12y ago

Mobile-optimized pretty well but it's a pain to try to read a column all the way to the left of my screen on my computer. Auto-scale doesn't fix it. I like how you can turn off the "dial" but the setting was somewhat hidden, perhaps the setting for it should be accessible from the feed switcher itself. (Also, I get that the name is Feedial, but the dial is really not a useful UI piece. I know you like it, but I don't. Sorry.) "Mobile" shouldn't be an option, use CSS Media queries instead. Also, when not in mobile mode, the feed switcher isn't accessible anywhere except for at the top of the page. Why does it disappear? It would make a set of your users happier if you offered email-based authentication. I know, I know, sending the emails is annoying, but at least I'd be a little happier. Tooltips that describe which buttons do what would be really nice. I like the images on the left. I don't know, it just feels right. Also, I thoroughly enjoy the fact that you don't try to just pull stories from webpages and host them on your site, you just link to them. Like a good RSS reader. After a few more minutes with the site: I really like this. However, I think some of the news outlets that don't have as many posts are being completely drowned out by ones who post often. Instead of being all BBC News and ABC News, you should make sure that you give equal share to all websites. Otherwise all you get are "X killed Y" articles while articles about world economies and imprisonment and airlines all get crowded out. If this offered recommendations as to what news I could get and delivered personalized sets of news stories to my inbox, I'd totally use it. Adding arbitrary RSS feeds would be even cooler. Otherwise, I'll stick with switching manually between HN, Ars Technica, Boing Boing, and Slashdot. (Also, I've noticed multiple stories covering the same thing showing up separately. Maybe invest some time into algorithmically grouping them?)

emma_b 12y ago
Thanks for the feedback. Email-based login is definitely high on the list.