Ask HN: Review my startup, pegby.com | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Review my startup, pegby.com

15 pointsgetitdone26 comments

Get stuff done collaboratively, from small tasks to complex projects.

http://www.pegby.com

We're a small team based in Chicago who've built a GTD web app that allows you to manage all your to-dos and projects in a simple visual interface that emulates "pegging" 3x5 cards to a board.

Boards can be customized according to the way you think, scaled to meet even the most robust project management requirements, and shared to get groups of people working together fast and efficiently.

We've learned so much from the HN community over the years. With Pegby now in open beta, we figured the time was right to ask for your thoughts on where we're at, and how best to improve.

Thanks in advance for all your help!

Stephen, Matt and Jerry

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A few thoughts just on the home page:

Love the design overall. Copy is quirky and humorous, but still feels professional. I agree with others that the vertical navigation is probably not the best. For some reason that is probably irrational, I hardly ever play product videos but love screenshots. Maybe that's just me.

In this HN post, you've given the app context. ie "Get stuff done collaboratively, from small tasks to complex projects." and "a GTD web app that allows you to manage all your to-dos and projects in a simple visual interface that emulates "pegging" 3x5 cards to a board." That explains a lot for me. However, that information isn't obvious when landing on the homepage. The "How it works" hints at it, but not as well as what you've written here IMO.

Minor things: Horizontal scroll slightly annoying. I'm using latest Safari (5.0.5) on OS X, 1440 x 990. The lined page behind the Add Cards to Get Stuff Done box doesn't line with the text for me. Slightly harsh on legibility.

That said, I'm looking forward to trying it out when I've got some time!

Agreed - we can do a better job at clarity on the initial page. And the legibility issue, I'll take a look at that. Thanks for the thoughtful commentary.

Design of the front page is quite well-done, I think. Validation messages about required fields in registration form are a bit unfriendly (consider adding `required` attribute), but overall—good work, Matt!

And the video is right in place, IMO. I doubt that the concepts of a product like yours could be explained briefly and clearly enough—submission text above failed for me in this regard. (BTW, Fog Creek's site redesign shows that people do watch videos: http://blog.fogcreek.com/our-marketing-is-up-fog-creek-and-w.... Yes, I believe that also applies to videos without Joel.)

Also, the first time I see ‘100% beta’ stamp. Awesome.

Thanks, goblin! 'Twas a labor of love.

Heh, glad you liked the Beta Stamp; it was one of those 2am additions to the design. I will spend some time on the registration section to make some tweaks - we can certainly make it more friendly. Thanks for the feedback.

Above you explain what it does in two sentences, yet on the web page you do not (or not successfully). Instead of a video that most people lack the patience to watch (unless they're already interested in your product), show a screenshot and a very simple (in one brief sentence) explanation what it does. Then if they're interested, link 'em to the video showing your product in action (but cut out the titles and get right to showing the product).

It's about making that first look count - most people won't give you a second one if they're not specifically looking for something like this. So you need to grab their attention right away, show what you're offering and make it easy to find out more.

Thanks, sdf! We'll definitely think harder about getting our "value prop" out there faster.

Your video is ridiculously long and pointless. The product itself is simple and core concepts can be explained in under 25 seconds (not 2 FULL MINUTES). It should be a quick narrated video that explains the differentiations between pegby and flow/basecamp/things/asana/rtm

With regard to the navigation.. look at what getflow.com does with the link at the bottom of the page or look at tumblr.com's "vertical" layout

We could do a better job a explaining the differences, thanks for commenting.

Would love to try it - agree with the others, the visual interface is very very nicely done (I've been reading up on this subject recently...!)

The video makes me want to try it out. If I dare offer one suggestion...the guitar music is a bit bland and seems out of place with the video, maybe I'm missing something. Great job overall!

Exactly! I told Jerry we should use "One Step Closer" because Linkin Park makes everything better. :) But honestly, finding the right music and paying for it can be very time and money consuming, so we went with something that we hoped would entertain the senses without being off-putting. But do take Pegby for a spin!

Some thoughts:

1. The vertical navigation is a complete fail.. I almost missed it and have to tilt my head to read the links

2. Instead of having a video (it's also not apparent that I need to click on the black box to play the video), have some screenshots that show how your app works.

Thanks for the thoughtful feedback!

I remember Joel from StackOverflow writing that they had a lot of luck with a BIG play button on their video in their A/B testing.

Definitely worth adding. Thx, TL.

We definitely need to add some screenshots; likely, I will split the video off to the left and have some screenshots to the right. Thanks for taking a moment to comment.

I love that you give a quick video to show it in action, huge plus. However I wish the video did show a bit more usage. I think almost a quarter of it is someone creating a bunch of cards for the demo. That's a little nitpicky, good work overall.

Great point, Kevan. We'll shoot for "opening the kimono" a bit faster on the next one. Thx!

Agreed. We are planning on having additional demo videos, or more so, just basic functionality videos. Really need to get those done Jerry! And we are working on getting a public demo up so anyone can go in and try it immediately. Thanks for the comment.

Great design, Maybe you could change the "How it works" for a catchy line, like "get things done fast", or "get things done easily"

http://www.pegby.com

Beaten to it, oh well :)

Like it. Good work, looking forward to trying it out.

@ste101, @theradhouseteam

Thanks for taking a look. We'll be in touch. Cheers!

Clickable: http://www.pegby.com

Thank you (both!)

(p.s. -- I'm the Stephen mentioned in the post)

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