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Show HN: BoldCanvas – a DIY Website Builder my parents can use

17 points by mkbhd 12y ago

mkbhd 12y ago
Co-founder here. My best friend and I quit our jobs a while back and have been working hard and bootstrapping this. This is an early version - we'll be adding more templates and features soon
kitwalker12 12y ago
looks good. nice and simple. One issue though. If I chose a subdomain that already exists I'm taken back to the start of the process. would be great if I could correct it right there Also like the collection of content blocks and SEO settings
- mkbhd 12y ago
  Thanks! I agree completely. We'll implement that soon - I'll reply back here once it's fixed/deployed
michaelbuddy 12y ago
my recommendation, show me what's going to happen before I do it. I don't want to make a subdomain and go through the process just to look over the builder itself. Maybe show the youtube videos on the main page or some nice screenshots? I like the page operations though, being able to edit and remove modules was quite smooth. I would recommend on that sidebar instructional panel to put the hide button on the top right corner, not on the side.
- mkbhd 12y ago
  Hi, thanks for the feedback. I like the idea of placing the hide button at the top instead of the slide. We'll experiment with both. Regarding the "show me what's going to happen before I do it." Absolutely agree. Our real homepage is: http://boldcanvas.com/ http://boldcanvas.com/ - the link in the headline is just a demo page I created so HN users wouldn't be forced to create an account just to try or product
arcadius 12y ago
On multipurpose-template-one, the hover-over text color change for the first row of content is not quite right. Also I'm sure it's just in the works but the homepage doesn't seem to quite have received the design love that the templates have. Looking good!
- mkbhd 12y ago
  Thanks for the feedback! Really appreciate it. You are right. I posted a temporary demo homepage I created 10 minutes before the post - this way people wouldn't have to create an account to try it out. The real home page is http://boldcanvas.com/ http://boldcanvas.com/. Regarding the hover over text color - we'll experiment with some options. Would you suggest using something with a stronger contrast?
  - arcadius 12y ago
    The color is fine, it's just the way it only highlights each line instead of the entire header. Here's an example: http://i.imgur.com/hQLoUwd.png http://i.imgur.com/hQLoUwd.png
    - mkbhd 12y ago
      Got it. I hadn't noticed that earlier. Will look into it - you are right that the entire header should highlight instead of one line at a time. Thanks!
anilgulecha 12y ago
This looks good. BTW -- I really liked the initial 7 steps -- convention over configuration of various things. But my heat sank once I selected a template and I found a fully configurable page. There's no way my mom would be able to use that (she would have gotten past the initial 7 steps). Perhaps you want to add more steps, and ask for details lile: top level pages, would you like a contact form included someplace?, a map/location?, etc. You really could get more milage from the initial wizard, and automagically setup a site. Good work so far!
- mkbhd 12y ago
  Thanks! Appreciate the feedback. Getting more mileage out of the initial wizard is definitely a really interesting idea. We've thought about that a lot and it's potentially the direction we might go. Part of what worries us is whether users would feel overwhelmed by too many steps upfront without seeing their progress. Another idea that is similar that we are playing around with is replacing the current sidebar (that has instructional videos) with a sidebar that acts like a wizard, but with many more steps.

17 points by mkbhd 12y ago

mkbhd 12y ago

Co-founder here. My best friend and I quit our jobs a while back and have been working hard and bootstrapping this. This is an early version - we'll be adding more templates and features soon

kitwalker12 12y ago

looks good. nice and simple. One issue though. If I chose a subdomain that already exists I'm taken back to the start of the process. would be great if I could correct it right there Also like the collection of content blocks and SEO settings

mkbhd 12y ago
Thanks! I agree completely. We'll implement that soon - I'll reply back here once it's fixed/deployed

michaelbuddy 12y ago

my recommendation, show me what's going to happen before I do it. I don't want to make a subdomain and go through the process just to look over the builder itself. Maybe show the youtube videos on the main page or some nice screenshots? I like the page operations though, being able to edit and remove modules was quite smooth. I would recommend on that sidebar instructional panel to put the hide button on the top right corner, not on the side.

mkbhd 12y ago
Hi, thanks for the feedback. I like the idea of placing the hide button at the top instead of the slide. We'll experiment with both. Regarding the "show me what's going to happen before I do it." Absolutely agree. Our real homepage is: http://boldcanvas.com/ http://boldcanvas.com/ - the link in the headline is just a demo page I created so HN users wouldn't be forced to create an account just to try or product

arcadius 12y ago

On multipurpose-template-one, the hover-over text color change for the first row of content is not quite right. Also I'm sure it's just in the works but the homepage doesn't seem to quite have received the design love that the templates have. Looking good!

mkbhd 12y ago
Thanks for the feedback! Really appreciate it. You are right. I posted a temporary demo homepage I created 10 minutes before the post - this way people wouldn't have to create an account to try it out. The real home page is http://boldcanvas.com/ http://boldcanvas.com/. Regarding the hover over text color - we'll experiment with some options. Would you suggest using something with a stronger contrast?
- arcadius 12y ago
  The color is fine, it's just the way it only highlights each line instead of the entire header. Here's an example: http://i.imgur.com/hQLoUwd.png http://i.imgur.com/hQLoUwd.png
  - mkbhd 12y ago
    Got it. I hadn't noticed that earlier. Will look into it - you are right that the entire header should highlight instead of one line at a time. Thanks!

anilgulecha 12y ago

This looks good. BTW -- I really liked the initial 7 steps -- convention over configuration of various things. But my heat sank once I selected a template and I found a fully configurable page. There's no way my mom would be able to use that (she would have gotten past the initial 7 steps). Perhaps you want to add more steps, and ask for details lile: top level pages, would you like a contact form included someplace?, a map/location?, etc. You really could get more milage from the initial wizard, and automagically setup a site. Good work so far!

mkbhd 12y ago
Thanks! Appreciate the feedback. Getting more mileage out of the initial wizard is definitely a really interesting idea. We've thought about that a lot and it's potentially the direction we might go. Part of what worries us is whether users would feel overwhelmed by too many steps upfront without seeing their progress. Another idea that is similar that we are playing around with is replacing the current sidebar (that has instructional videos) with a sidebar that acts like a wizard, but with many more steps.