Ask HN: Review our brand spanking new web designer mockup tool, Clickdummy.com | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Review our brand spanking new web designer mockup tool, Clickdummy.com

6 pointsjqueryin11 comments

https://clickdummy.com

We'd love any and all feedback on our newly launched (not quite yet SaaS) application to help web design firms, freelancers, and UI designers alike speed up the process of prototyping with client feedback. There's a number of tools in the market, but we would like to thing we have a unique take on the problem at hand and some elegant and useful solutions. Here's the gist of the app:

"A 'clickdummy' is a mockup, evolved. Dummies let users navigate your mockups as if they were live websites or applications. Simply upload mockups you've created offline and draw clickable areas to let users navigate between them. The result is a very convincing simulation that does a much better job of communicating user experience than mockups alone."

Here's a blog post a fellow employee created regarding the difficulties of building the app in node.js:

http://skookum.com/blog/building-a-non-trivial-app-in-node-js/

There's been a ton of man hours spread across five buddies to get this thing out the door in 4 months. The whole project was bootstrapped and our team resides in Charlotte, NC.

We'd love any and all feedback you can give us. Feel free to either reply here or if you find a glaring issue, please please don't hesitate to add it to our Zendesk account at http://help.skookum.com/

I think that the application itself has a lot of potential; however, there are two things that distract me from the actual content. Although I find the design agreeable, I feel as though the color scheme is reminiscent of security, perhaps Norton AntiVirus even. Although this could be seen as a positive, I think it is too much business/professional given the concept and would benefit from a more design/art feel. Additionally, I agree with mryan that the name does not do the application justice and quite possibly gives the wrong impression to potential users. Below are some available domain names I just brainstormed if you are interested. I am not suggesting that these are necessarily any better, just offering some suggestions. I hope that this does not come off as too negative, as I am honestly impressed by the application thus far. Nice work.

clickrelease.com

clicklayers.com

clickskinned.com

My first impression is that the name is bad. If I was working with a web designer and they asked me to use "clickdummy" to collaborate, I would wonder who the "dummy" is supposed to be. Although you go on to explain what dummies are in the FAQ, the damage would have already been done by then. The first time I read the phrase, I assumed it was an instruction - "click [on this], dummy!".

Perhaps I am being overly-sensitive on the naming issue, but it seems that using what can be a pejorative term as part of your company name could backfire.

The home page took 25+ seconds to load - hopefully this is because lots of other HNers are currently checking it out.

I do like the idea overall, and the site design is nice and understated.

Sounds pretty cool. Are there any examples that you can share? I'm sure a lot of people would like to see a working demo/example before signing up.

Here's a publicly shared url for you of a Hacker News mockup. Hover over the HN navigation on any of the pages and click through for testing.

https://clickdummy.com/shared/E883012B-5B89-4AA3-AB7B-1FB1A9...

I like it. Will definitely be using it for my next project.

Is it really necessary for me to create an account before trying it?

This is really a more general point, but why do more sites not use StackOverflow's system, wherein you can use the site provisionally, with your identity being tracked by a cookie, and the user can choose to convert to something with a bit more persistence later.

This problem will be addressed in an upcoming release with live demo functionality so you can get accustomed to the application and determine if it suits your needs. Thanks for the feedback!

My advice would be to further explain the 'add pages' concept. It confused me.

Another little gripe is the lack of an instruction video. It'd help.

(Just spend about 6 minutes on the site)

Thanks for the feedback. We're definitely looking to improve the user experience wherever possible. A video is something we've been looking into post-launch.

Do you mean the "add pages" concept on the homepage, or inside the app?

clickable: https://clickdummy.com

Reply on news.ycombinator.com