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Comment by pedalpete | Hacker News Reader

The first test I give any 'Rate my start-up' is to go to the homepage without reading the submitters post.

The question I ask my self is 'do I know what this is and how I'd use it just by looking at the homepage?'.

Unfortunately, your description isn't on the homepage. "see, scan, connect" may mean something to you, but it doesn't mean anything to me.

On the homepage, I get that the barcode has something to do with app scanning, but it doesn't tell me much more. What do I get if I scan the image? What am I supposed to get? Do I want it?

Your 'faqs' page isn't a whole lot better. I'd suggest getting something on that homepage which is a quick "we're making the world a better place by..."

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Thanks for the feedback. I've struggled over a number of iterations to come up with a concise description for the homepage. So far, I've either come up short (as it is now), or needed way too much text to get the message across.

I've been taking the approach of trying to get new visitors to try the service, without requiring an in depth explanation first. The demo page, http://www.getaquirk.com/demo , which I should probably give a prominent link from the home page, is my attempt at that.

I'm starting to wonder whether it can be explained clearly with a good graphic. I'll be exploring wording options and potential visuals today to try to deliver the message more effectively.

I'm concerned that the FAQ page isn't effective at getting the message across. I would have thought that, in the least, the first question http://www.getaquirk.com/faq#what-is-quirk would explain what the app actually does. Is the FAQ page just the wrong place to be delivering that message? (I've been debating that over the last few days).

Thanks!

If the description is too long, I suspect you may be focusing too much on the how it work.

I think the initial 'what or why' is both more important, and should be shorter.

For example facebook would say 'we make it easy to be in the loop with your friends. Google would be 'we help you find the info you're looking for'.

You might be in the neighbourhood of 'we connect your virtual and physical worlds'. or something like that. Unfortnately, I don't even understand it to that level, so I can't really help. But don't get into how. If people care, they'll look deeper into how.

Check out simon sinek's "start with why" http://www.ted.com/talks/simon_sinek_how_great_leaders_inspi...

Thanks for the link. That's a great presentation.

Distilling Quirk into something simple has been a challenge since the start, especially overcoming the novelty (for most people) of QR codes, and emphasizing its use in connecting businesses and customers, without disregarding connections between individuals. That's not to say it can't be done - it's just something we need to focus on.

I'll be giving alot of thought to the 'why' instead of the 'what,' as I go forward. That's a great approach.

Good points. My take on it would be that the QR code is a technical feature that people don't need to know about until they are interested.

Email wasn't sold by 'you can send smtp messages to people and businesses'. It really helps to try to put things in context of comparing it to an activity that people currently do, and how it makes it better or different.

Cirque de Soleil is a circus without animals.

An iPhone is a phone, a web browser, and an ipod.

An iPod is like a walkman for mp3.

etc. etc. best of luck

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