Ask YC: Feedback on usabilityfeedback.com

I think you need to put more effort into selling yourself as a usability expert. I'm not going to pay $450 to have just some guy look at my web site. But if you can justify to me why you're an expert whose opinion I need to hear, then you'll have better luck selling to me.

One idea I've had for accomplishing this is to do free or reduced-cost reviews for a few (prominent) sites, then post their testimonials along with their reviews.

And your credentials are? If you expect people to fork over $450 for 20 min of your time, you better be:

1) an expert in usability and have few papers written on it

2) have many years of actual usability studies and design

3) have designed interfaces yourself and have examples of UIs you've designed.

Just getting testimonials for 'reduced pricing' won't cut it. What you need is a resume/cv. All these big usability experts sell themselves first and their work second. You need to sell people on why they should trust you.

This startup is basically just selling of your services. Here's some ideas. Start by writing whitepapers & studies of other sites. Do them for free. Just pick any known site and say what you'd do differently. Do this for a lot of them. Make a blog and do a study every day. Make a wiki with usability practices. Start recording videos of random users using some site and criticize them.

In short, work on your credibility since that's what you're selling.

Thanks for the input. I should point out that it's not 20 minutes of my time. I spend around 15 minutes recording the video, then go through the site and reflect on some of the issues I initially encountered, and explore the site in greater depth (I realize that this isn't mentioned on my site). Then I organize my thoughts and findings in pages that are meant to be easily referenceable. After that, I talk to the client for 20 minutes as well.

The fact is, I am not a big usability expert. I have given a couple talks on the subject and written a few blog articles on the subject (one of which A List Apart was interested in publishing). I've also done a number of usability tests for companies that I have worked for. Therefore, my thinking is that a more feasible approach in the short term is to show that I actually produce good results. Establishing that I'm an expert is something that will take time. Thankfully, I enjoy usability and will enjoy establishing expert status. In the meantime, if you have any suggestions for otherwise convincing people that they should go with me, I would appreciate it.

It's interesting to me that nobody really cares about the "usefulness guarantee".

Maybe you should put it above the fold, or at least before you name your price.

But hey, I'm no usability expert either.

Yeah, the order of elements is something I'll have to play with.

Your usefulness guarantee isn't reassuring because it says, basically, "If you find my help completely useless you get a refund," rather than, "If you find my help not worth $450, you get a refund."

Also the block on "how usability helps" basically says nothing. It might as well just say, "Usability is good!" You're going to have to fork over a lot stronger value proposition than that before getting someone to pay for the service. Don't just get reference customers; get reference customer numbers. "With Really Cool Customer Foo, signups went up by 128% within two weeks."

The selling yourself bit, I'll be a little harsher (in hopes of helping), it basically says, "I've done this for some of my buddies sites and they think it's neat." Again, not a strong value proposition. Just cut that part out if you don't have a better case to make; that portion actually makes you sound less qualified that I would have assumed by default.

>> This startup is basically just selling of your services. Here's some ideas. Start by writing whitepapers & studies of other sites. Do them for free. Just pick any known site and say what you'd do differently. Do this for a lot of them. Make a blog and do a study every day. Make a wiki with usability practices. Start recording videos of random users using some site and criticize them.

I didn't notice this at first. It's very useful advice. Some of it I've already started (writing whitepapers & studies). My friend and I have been talking about putting together a wiki with usability practices.

In the mean time, I have had a few people request the service because their web developer (whom I showed the site to) recommended it to them. Hopefully word of mouth will continue to bring in business and increase my cash flow. Over time it will be great to build my credibility in the ways you mention. In the short term, it's also pretty important to me to start gaining paying business.

That's not a bad idea, just make sure that a positive testimonial isn't a prerequisite for getting a free review.

I think your site would work much better as a blog highlighting other people's usability. I think it would be a great idea to review other people's sites and make comments about them. Don't portray them as low cost or free, just do it. No one wants to see an average review though, thats no fun. Find sites with HUGE usability mistakes and highlight them and why. Some of the better rants on http://demogirl.com/ can be used as an example.

Having a blog also makes you an authority, which gets you to expert status where people are comfortable paying you for your services. I know blogs are a lot of work, but once you get going and have been doing it for a while it really pays off.

Hi YCers, I've finished putting together a home page for a service I'm starting at http://www.usabilityfeedback.com , and would really appreciate any feedback on it. (Incidentally, if you're interested in the service, please email me and mention YC and I will take 33% off the price.)

For a couple years now I've been doing usability reviews for people just for fun. Then two and a half weeks ago I was laid off because the startup I was working for is nearly out of funding. I had had the idea for usabilityfeedback.com for awhile and decided to run with it in a way that would be quick to implement, enjoyable, and that could start generating cash immediately.

So far the response has been very positive, with other web developers I know recommending it to their clients. I'm really hoping it will do well enough that I'll be able to do it full time and have time left over to improve and add more services. Or at least stay off the streets.

Thanks!

interesting but people seem to be using great communities like HN for free, and high quality, advice. and not to mention, coming from more than one person.

Yeah, that is one of my worries. The response I've gotten from other developers / web dev shops has been enthusiastic, though, so I'm still hoping there's room for me in the market. Just doing one review each business day would be enough for me to cover expenses and begin adding services and reviewers.

I'm not sure if just doing a video and giving detailed, easy-to-reference documents is enough to set me apart, but for now it's a place to start. I also think that being a small shop and giving more personalized service could set me apart, but I haven't emphasized that on my site.

If that doesn't work out I've considered trying to start a usability feedback community. In fact I had one for awhile at http://www.hallwaytesting.com (now a defunct blog), but it seemed like most people were interested in just getting feedback and not giving any, or just in advertising their sites. So I'm not sure how to make a community like that work.

I also like the idea; but, again things like Hacker News or even if you wanted the video sites like usertesting.com you could get 21 users for the same price.

One thing I'm wondering is if I should mention usertesting.com and explain how my service is different from theirs. For example, you could indeed get 21 users for the same price, but they you would have to watch something like 210 minutes of video and read 21 feedback forms, a lot of it covering the same ground. As opposed to ~15 minutes of video and a summary document which clearly points out problem areas and gives possible solutions.

Part of me really thinks Usability Feedback could do well if I just market it well. I'm just not sure what I should do differently. A/B testing would probably help.

If I were you I wouldn't mention competitors and how you differ, as you are then 1) promoting competitors and 2) branding yourself vs. the competition, rather than just defining yourself.

Having said that. my quesion was specifically, how many people are going to be reviewing the site for $450?

Different people take a different view of websites/apps, so having a small group of users is a huge benefit, vs. being reviewed by just one person. I wouldn't want to watch 210 minutes of video, but for $450 would expect the video (or whatever else you supply) would be shortened to the most important feedback, and maybe have the full video available if a client wants to watch it.

I would have said that I might have been a potential client, but with only one person reviewing the site, I don't see the value being inline with the cost.

Thanks for your feedback. Having a video highlighting the most important feedback is definitely ideal. In fact, it would be great to have relevant video clips on the summary pages as well.

For $450, how many different reviewers would you want? Right now I can easily get up to 3 people to do a review. Alternatively, how much would you pay for a review by a single person? If you're interested, I'd like to work out something that you'd be happy with.

Some people have expressed surprise at the price because they thought it was inexpensive, which was actually surprising to me. Thanks for giving me a better sense of how I should price the service.

If you want we can continue this conversation over email: daniel@usabilityfeedback.com

> ...you would have to watch something like 210 minutes of video and read 21 feedback forms, a lot of it covering the same ground.

How about you partner with usertesting.com (or just quietly use them). YOU watch the 210 minutes of video and give me an edited and analyzed summary report. I'd pay for that. You could hold the record for "Most User Testing Videos Ever Watched by a Single Person". There's your credibility right there! Where your sanity will be by that time is anyone's guess.

One review each business day? What brings up your costs so much?

I have a chronically ill partner, and medication is expensive. I'd like to be able to do this full time, and it would therefore have to cover those expenses.

Sorry to hear about your partner.

If you are reliant on that expense and at the same time trying to start a business -- you might consider finding traditional employment while trying to get this business going.

Starting a business can be rough at the beginning. And you may not want that stress in your life.

Thanks for the advice, and the sympathy. I am indeed looking for traditional employment and doing a contracting project while I search. With Usability Feedback, I could pretty quickly put something together and figure out how viable the idea was, so there's not a huge amount of risk and stress involved.

Many people would prefer private critiques over putting their new site out to fry. Myself included.

Avoiding criticism is a good recipe for failure in the long run...

Both is best.

There's a significant difference between avoiding criticism and avoiding public criticism. There'd probably be a whole lot more people asking for HN feedback if the comments were only visible to them. That's a good market to go after.

Depends on your background. I mean if Im paying you 450$, I would do little bit of research on your background or your own UI work. 450$ is not much, iff I would expect quality feedback. Inorder for me to be convinced that I would get quality feedback, unfortunately known names or past work play a big role.

I get better value watching over many people's shoulders (for free or cheap - maybe not always cash) and listening to users.

My only suggestion: if you're not exploring the set of all target users (just the 'git' guy), why not list what kind of applications you're most fit to test? I would hope to know you're not interested in SVN functionality before forking over $450. Exploring Assembla's SVN functionality could have revealed deeper flaws in their Trac integration. At one point, I was asked to re-enter my username and password in an ugly HTTP authentication dialog.

Offtopic, but for anyone interested in a serious look at UX, I recommend Indi Young's 'Mental Models'

Thanks for the feedback. It looks like, on the site, I should clarify what actually goes on when you request feedback. For example, with the Assembla site, if they requested that I review their SVN functionality, that's what I would do. We would have a pre-review conversation going over tasks to perform.

Also, did the "usefulness guarantee" not catch your eye? I mention there that you get your money back if the review isn't useful.

(That's funny that you mention "Mental Models" - I just bought that two days ago.)

It caught my eye. I couldn't remember it after watching the video. Thanks for clarifying your workflow.

great idea

i saw the sample study about assembla.com. smart comments. however, what i'd really need, as a web app developer, is more substantial advices on how to significantly improve the usability of my web app. maybe you need to post online a usability framework. or maybe a usability redesign of assembla.com.

(i understand you already did a lot of work, just throwing my 2 cents here. if you can do the things above, i'd pay... and even pay much more than the list $450. It's just that I have the impression that I only got 2 pages of comments for $450)

Thanks - what did you think of the HTML summary pages? Also, what do you have in mind by usability framework? My friend and I have been considering creating a kind of usability encyclopedia.

The video squeals with a high-pitched noise in the background which makes it very hard to watch. Also, some more editing might be worth it: cut out those uhm's and ah's, get a decent mike and make it sound nice and professional. I like the click and typing effects, although I cannot read the text of the site you're clicking on in that video at all.

Thanks. I hadn't noticed the high pitched noise until late last night. It is pretty unfortunate and it looks like I'll have to redo the whole thing.

looks like audacity was able to remove the high pitched noise :)

Frankly, I think the idea is fundamentally broken. Having a "usability expert" click through a site won't give much more insight than reading a bunch of Nielsen's top 10 usability mistakes and then looking for them in your site.

If you want a truly usable site, you actually have to do real usability tests with a bunch of real users.

Great idea, great site but $450 is too much.

Thanks for the feedback. How much do you think the service is worth?

Don't listen to anyone who talks about price. Price is immaterial. Provide amazing value and you can pick your price.

Wow, thanks, that's very encouraging :)

I agree, and I'd link that to why nobody is paying attention to the "usefulness guarantee". You really need to think about who you are selling to. For a corporate client the time and expense and the risk of dealing with you will equal or exceed the $450. Think about the project manager that is going to have to order your service: $450 is not a lot but they are going to have to explain it to others and it's going to look embarrassing if you turn out to be just some random dude on the internet who takes their money and then sends them a bunch of 'duh' statements about their web site. They have a very CYA mentality, which like it or not you have to deal with.

To get started perhaps you could think about a 'first taste is free' model where you do a review of part of their site (say, 1 page) with no obligation and then based on that they can go to their manager and justify the expense.

Thank you, that's very helpful.

Write a book / famous blog and it'll be worth easily tens of thousands. "Usability Consulting" =)

Too much for whom? $500 is a drop in the bucket for a corporate client. In fact, they might find it too low to take seriously.