Review My Startup: Daily Mobile App Deals | Hacker News Reader

Review My Startup: Daily Mobile App Deals

4 pointsbmelton18 comments

It wasn't all that technically challenging, but we've just soft-launched our mobile app deal platform at AppDiem.com.

The premise is simple enough -- it's basically Groupon (or maybe Woot) for mobile apps. There are a ton of warts at the moment, and I'm working on them, but I'd love any feedback from you guys.

The platform is Django, with a tiny little bit of celery+rabbit to move some of the slower tasks into the background.

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I'm curious, how come you went with a whole sign up page (asking for a name, and password) rather than simply putting an email box on the main page like the most deal sites do?

Do you really need to call a person by name in emails? Is the sign up friction worth it?

That's a fair point -- but, by asking for a name and a password (and admittedly, we can forego the name) -- you get an account.

For regular users, this is probably worth deleting. But for app developers, the 'having an account' means that they can add, upload and manage applications that they'd like to have featured.

Right, that's what I figured. I think this dualism is absolutely necessary as you have a chance to have a very simple, one-field sign up for non-developer users whereas right now the friction is pretty high (five fields, separate page).

Fixed. The signup process for the email is now a dismissable 1-field box on the homepage. Thanks for the suggestion.

I like the UI a lot. Curious though, so when i click on Android - it wont let me see the deals?

Does that mean i have to actually sign up and wait for the daily emails - or is there a platform that allows me to go on the site and see what the deal is?

Thanks! It's a one-deal-a-day platform, similar to Woot. The 'android' link on the left hand side is really just there to indicate that it is today's Android deal, and isn't clickable.

There's an android link at the top that takes you to the category, but it's perhaps superfluous at the moment.

The objective is that those categories will also allow for browsing the deals featured in the past, reverse date-sorted.

Oh, I should also point out that we're working on mobile apps for each platform that will let you see what deals are live for the day as well.

I like that. One thing I'd change is the positioning of the OS. I was looking for it in the text and as I was clicking away happened to catch it above the screensnap. Too low in contrast and not where I'd look.

Yeah -- I'm not the greatest designer. I got hooked on that 'design element' and then beat my head against the wall trying to find the perfect place for it, but I'm not really sold on it being where it is either.

I'm working on the concept of an 'info-grid' in the body of the post, so I'll push that up on the todo list.

Thanks!

To ask the better question -- where would you look?

You could maybe try putting it in the top right, like this: http://idea.s3.amazonaws.com/appdiem.png. The problem with that though is if you get a long app name it's going to overlap.

If I could give you 10 points I would, just for the effort.

It was originally there, for what it's worth, but we ran into exactly that issue.

My personal (minimalist) favorite position was just outside the grid, to the left of the picture, with JUST the application icon -- of course, that had to be rethought as soon as we had our first iPad app submitted.

I'll keep playing with options, naturally -- can I pester you again later to get your thoughts on what we end up with?

Yes, outside the grid to the left looks good in a full browser -- but as you mention, that wrecks the mobile layout. I wouldn't worry about it too much -- where you've got it isn't bad, it's just a little hard to read on the busier background. Btw, on an iphone the max-height you're applying to .app_summary is causing a little bit of overlap: http://idea.s3.amazonaws.com/appdiem2.png.

Sure, feel free to email me -- address in my profile -- or just reply here.

For what it's worth, there is a much simpler (and uglier) mobile layout at mobile.appdiem.com (or m.appdiem.com, as soon as DNS catches up) currently -- I just haven't yet implemented user-agent detection.

If I go left of the grid, I'll probably use a vertical indicator, instead of horizontal.

I'd put it between the description text and above the FREE button. EDIT: It doesn't even have to be fancy. Just words are good enogh: Android, iPhone, iPad, webOS (which will come, I hope!).

I hate to sound cynical, but I am genuinely interested in how you see a "deals" arrangement being successful in a market where the majority of the products (or viable alternatives) are free already.

We're working with app developers to arrange for high-value deals, similarly to how Groupon does.

From a user perspective, at worst, it's perhaps the easiest way to discover new apps you may not have heard of. We do have 'free' apps that are featured, and we don't discriminate, so long as we think the app is worthwhile.

At best, we have arranged deals that we've arranged for '1 day discounts' that will be exclusive to AppDiem. So, whether or not there are free alternatives, I believe there's value in getting an app at a discount. There are plenty of invaluable apps worth paying for. Who wouldn't want to get them at a reduced price?

clickable: http://appdiem.com/

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