Ask YC: Opinion of new startup Simplist? | Hacker News Reader

Ask YC: Opinion of new startup Simplist?

mysimplist.com

8 pointslucasoman34 comments

I couldn't find what I was looking for in a list-manager-slash-organization-tool, so I started working on this a couple months ago. I'd love to get some feedback!

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I visited your site, looked around the front page, and wanted to leave. Don't make me click to find out what your product is about. Use all that wasted banner space to explain what the product is with a few images to give me an idea of what I'm dealing with. That banner image looks a bit cheap and doesn't even come close to explaining to me what's going on. Anything in my life can be simpler. Keep it down to one nice looking logo, and widen the site up so you get more space to show images/demo.

After careful manipulation of the front page, you'll be able to fit all the content from 'what's a simplist' and 'how does simplist work.' Incorporate your links nicely, not just a stack at the bottom, too.

Why not...or how about todoist.com

Let possible users get a taste of using it before requiring registration. As is, I would never sign up.

I would put the 'what can you use it for' stuff on the front page, to give people an idea who it's for.

...

Also - is this really a startup or just kind of a cool project? With all the other list things out there, how are you going to emerge enough to make money at it?

I searched through the many list things out there, and none of them gave me the flexibility I wanted. This is something I wrote for myself, and I decided to make it something everyone can use.

Most other list apps are one-dimensional. You have a shopping list and a to-do list. This is a tree that lets you make lists of lists of lists. You can put your entire life into your Simplist and it won't be overwhelming or difficult to manage. My Simplist is seven layers deep in some places, which I didn't even realize until I counted.

Another question would be - why would you want your shopping list inside a to-do list?

(www.protopage.com has great to-do list functionality)

I guess that's the real problem here: people assume this is a to-do list. It's a tree that can contain any type of list. Do I need to make that more clear in the docs?

I use it for everything--to-dos, favorites, projects, priorities, packing lists, shopping lists...

You can make any kind of list with tadalist as well, and the interface is much cleaner. You could argue that yours has more features, but to me, they're just unnecessary clutter. I don't want to have to guess at what your little icons represent when my needs are so uncomplicated. All I want is someplace online where I can put lists of text. I like what you've written, but none of it would compel me to use it over tadalist or other established sites.

If you're the only person behind simplist, why are you referring to yourself as "we" throughout the site?

Along those same lines, I'm not sure how this qualifies as a start-up as such. It's nifty side project, but it would do you better to present the thing you've created in an honest way.

1. Explain what it does on the main page - if I'd seen the link somewhere else, I never would've gone past the front page.

2. Maybe some screenshots of the embeddable widget - it sounds cool but I'm not exactly sure what it does.

3. A bookmarklet or something might be a good idea, so I can tag/add stuff as I browse other sites.

Overall seems pretty good, the UI looked really complicated at first but the help area was pretty good at explaining that.

Thanks for the suggestions! I put a screenshot on the home page and basically moved the "what" page content there, too.

You should have a confirmation email in your inbox in just a few minutes.

I found a bug.

Nope. ;-)

I understand why you don't like this, if you're highly security conscious or mad about the spam you get. But my privacy policy is very simple and clear, and it's linked right next to the text input for the email. Some site features use your email address, and future features will, too.

What percentage of users do you want to turn away automatically? It's not a privacy issue.

Ok, how would you suggest I change it? I would really like to have a valid email address because, as I said above, some site functionality depends on it. Should I allow them to immediately use the Simplist and just disable email-dependent features until it's confirmed?

yes. Only ask for stuff when you really need it.

Or trust them, and let them change their email later (or verify it later), if they decide they can't live without the features that need a valid email.

I've found that the vast majority of users enter a valid email to start with. Those who are really security-conscious might use a one-time email just to register, which won't work later on anyway.

Watch Fitt's law in your design for the icons.

The smaller the icon, the harder it is for the user to click on it. Expand/collapse is realllly small -- too small for users to click on, and probably too small to make them want to.

The other thing from a visual standpoint you should watch out for is too many horizontal lines of alignment. (tab stops) The eye is hardwired to want to scan for order -- but hierarchical ordered lists like that make it hard for users to absorb the most important thing about your lists-- the content.

Your site put a lot on weight keyword ‘simple’ and fail to tell the user what it’s all about. I understand as your building the product you are convinced anyone should get it as much as you do; I’ve been there too, I think you must find people, have them try it and get usability feedback.

Also I think it has a lot of TV-commercial-like aspect to it with the oversized banner; I think it people don’t like overkill signs. Make it a bit user friendly, use colors and a bit of style.

Overall I think the idea is pretty cool.

I would really like to see OpenID authentication. Clickpass would be ideal, but any OpenID would work.

I'm sorry but the product advertised SIMPLE and when I looked at the image on the right I could not see simple. I'm sure in use it is, but the image you had promoting it looked a bit like too much information and hard to keep track of

For pete's sake, screenshots! I have no idea what this thing does. sounds like a todo list, but the interface is the differentiator in this market, so you need to SHOW us what it looks like!

Even better - let us create them without registering as people said earlier. One idea is to make them expire within 24hrs if they don't register.

1. I think your app is awesome 2. A browser window around your screenshot would make it easier to get (I started clicking on it ;-) 3. Drag and drop would make rearanging easier

Solid design. Don't necessarily get the value prop. in a world of Google Docs/wikis - try to make that more obvious. Good start though.

Simplist is old is it not?

edit: ahh..i was thinking simpy the social bookmarking site

You might want to look into why www.mysimplist.com doesn't work.

...and I miss a dedicated stylesheet for printing

Confirmation emails just puts me off ;(

Notepad + tabbed indenting, anyone? ^^

Tree expanding/collapsing, emailing, Quicklist (like bookmarks), widget, mobile version... No, notepad can't do all that! At least Vim could do folding ;-)

Now if I could only get Vim on my cell phone...

"No, notepad can't do all that"

That's why I like it. To each his own I guess. There's nothing like a blank white page that is lacking any UI clutter at all

Folding is already borderline for my tastes ^^

why not put the sample widget on the front page? And make it a realistic list too.

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