The Ring Video Doorbell
ring.com
ring.com
Web site feedback -- there's a bit of a trend in startup/product websites to not share enough detail. Here's a few questions I had, since I see company folks replying, I'll just share here.
On the website, I'd consider addressing do doorbell notifications happen without the application open (i.e. can it send text messages?), I assume video is uploaded into s3, how can video be browsed and how is it retained, and how do replacement batteries work? What is the average cloud recording cost for a year? Is there a notification the battery needs tobe replaced?. I'd also be interested in what happens if ring goes out of business or if it depends on any cloud services - does the device still work, etc. With cars frequently driving in front of the camera, do those get recorded as new events (or worse, send events, or still worse, text alerts?), or can the "zone" be configured in the camera? Also, how is the device mounted? What does it do in the event WiFi blinks out (will it reconnect)? Can it do WPA?
EDIT: see some install instructions here: https://ring.com/installation
1. Battery that lasts for one year (5,250mah) 2. Infrared night vision with a IR cut filter 3. Advanced, programmable motion detection that can detect people up to 30 feet out at 180 degrees from the device. 4. Powerful WiFi antenna
Each one of these drives a certain amount of the design. I say this not as a excuse but just to give some background that the design did have some physical drivers behind it.
I am very happy with how the device looks and also the feedback from the customers.
I fully understand that this is your baby, but to me, as someone with a strong liking for good industrial design, the product looks like it wasn't pushed all the way through. This is, basically, not a Nest- or Lacie-level design. It lacks polish. This is Home Depot, it merely doesn't look ugly.
To be concrete with the nitpicks [1] -
* Multiple grooves in the top/black part that add nothing to the design and only fracture the overall look. They would've been a bit less intrusive if the camera lens had a bit of vertical padding around it, but that too is missing. The whole top part looks like something that was driven entirely by the engineering constraints. It just completely neglects rudimentary visual balance.
* Rounded vertical edges. Very large radius has no chance of stylistically matching anything on or near a typical door. It would've been less of an issue if the horizontal edges too were rounded, but they aren't, so the design is not even self-consistent. You have an exaggerated smoothness on the sides and blade-sharp edges at the top and bottom.
* Rounded edges wrap behind the device. This implicitly detaches the gadget from the surface it sits on and makes it stick out that much more. This is probably my biggest gripe with how the whole thing looks when mounted.
* Thin black ledge at the bottom that doesn't stretch the full width. It's also missing on other images, meaning probably that some of them are renderings.
* The logo. How would you like to have a branded door or even a door handle? Same here. If you feel like doing some cross-promotion, put the logo on the top side of the device. Those who are interested in learning what the device is will find it.
http://www.amazon.com/Doorbot-Wi-Fi-Enabled-Smart-Doorbell/d...
http://techcrunch.com/2014/09/29/doorbot-ring-home-security-...
We did do a $99 upgrade for everyone that had bought a Doorbot .
Not sure if you personally read them, but customer service unresponsiveness is a common theme in those 1-2 star reviews.
Have you done anything to address this problem? DoorBot was your first gen product; you HAD to expect problems and made sure people were being responded to.
Edit: forgot a word.
Ring has been a little better, but still get a black screen far more often than I'd like, and 3-5s latency on audio for a local wifi device is rather frustrating.
I felt like it was a bait and switch. They got all these people to crowdfund the 1st product, delivered something that was mediocre at best and never iterated on it. Then they changed the name and are selling a similar product. Feels a little shady to me.
I would be really weary of backing them at this point.
Push notifications are way more consistent, but I get a black screen instead of video way too often.
We had already been doing a lot of direct business before we changed the name to Ring (we were formally Doorbot).
I basically made the assumption that if Ring.com increased our direct sales by X%, how many years would it pay back. It turned out that even at a very high price for the domain it did not have to increase sales by a lot (single digit) in order to pay itself off over just a few years.
We launched Ring.com in October and so far it appears that the benefits are happening however it will never be something that we can 100% be sure of.
I am actually not a big fan of domains anymore but I think a extremely marquee one like Ring.com was worth stretching the budget for.
http://techcrunch.com/2014/09/29/doorbot-ring-home-security-...
This is one of the many reasons I'm wary of kickstarter-like activities. I think my money is going to go to delivering a product, but it may just end up used for marketing/branding I don't agree with, which may or may not detract from the actual product because $slick_marketing_firm knows make a geeky firm do their bidding. "Of course you need our gold star domain and SEO package!"
Frankly, it seems excessive. I'm pretty much the target demographic and am salivating at replacing my existing video doorbell with this (non-wifi). If it was still named Doorbot I would be just as excited. If anything, I'm wary of generic domains as they often seem associated with shady or uninteresting companies.
You won't believe the nonsense that goes on around your home when you aren't around. Trespassing, package delivery theft, lost/stray animals, etc. and of course burglary.
I'm pretty sure you would be aware of package delivery theft and burglary without a $300 security system. And the other two categories are uninteresting at least.
I'd turn that around: if you live somewhere where there's a high chance of theft and burglary, invest in a security system.
But it is weird to advice peple to buy a system just to find out if their house was broken into.
That does not give me high hopes for their handling of security in general. Does it also use proprietary crypto and protocols for security?