Show HN: Haiku Deck - A Simple iPad App for Making Beautiful Presentations(haikudeck.com)
haikudeck.com
Show HN: Haiku Deck - A Simple iPad App for Making Beautiful Presentations
http://www.haikudeck.com
13 comments
Love this product, but please, please, please get me a web version so I can build decks from a non-Apple device. I'm just not in deck-building mode on my phone or a little tablet.
I could see myself editing a presentation, but I agree that I'd be more likely to use the iPad app if I had it on the web first. TeuxDeux actually has an interesting pricing model. They have a web app for free, but then the iPhone app is paid. That might be something worth considering.
That is the very first thing I thought ... glad to hear that there is a web version coming. Very slick app!
We hear ya! It's on the roadmap, randfish. Thanks for giving it a shot!
Thanks, glad you like it.
Actually our initial plan was to launch the web version and tablet version at the same time, but we decided to focus 100% on the iPad for the v1 launch, and use feedback (like this) to determine the next platform to expand to. We're a team of three so we're trying not to get spread too thin. :)
Actually our initial plan was to launch the web version and tablet version at the same time, but we decided to focus 100% on the iPad for the v1 launch, and use feedback (like this) to determine the next platform to expand to. We're a team of three so we're trying not to get spread too thin. :)
Initial platform choice aside, I think this was the right course of action. For three of you (all technical?), launching on two high-quality platforms simultaneously would be asking for trouble. For those of us that don't have our iPad in front of us at the moment, could you explain the Bento IAP is and what we get for that $15?
The app is free and ships with 5 professionally-designed "themes" that can be applied to customize the presentation with different fonts and image filter options. We included an additional 10 themes that can be purchased for $1.99 each, or you can buy the "Bento Box" pack that includes all 10 themes for $15.
+1 great job on this app! I agree with Rand in a way. I love the ipad for consumption but I went to make a presentation for techstars last night and it was just a bit too much to bite off. Web though I would have used.
Looks very well done! Shameless plug - we are working on something similar for the web: http://pllop.it
I'd suggest changing your name from pllop to just about anything else. Immediately.
Pllop is the sound of a small pebble falling into a pond.
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This looks beautiful. I'll download it tonight and mess around with it. One suggestion from the video and gallery:
Everything looks like very nicely laid out title cards that don't really hold much information. Does the actual app allow for more data if needed? I know we all hate bullet-pointed PowerPoint, but the inclusion of things like charts and graphs, quotes, paragraphs of text, etc are sometimes needed in real business presentations. If the app does allow for this sort of thing, then the video maybe should be updated to show some more variety. Otherwise, it might be something to think about for the next release.
Anyway, it looks great! Good work guys.
Everything looks like very nicely laid out title cards that don't really hold much information. Does the actual app allow for more data if needed? I know we all hate bullet-pointed PowerPoint, but the inclusion of things like charts and graphs, quotes, paragraphs of text, etc are sometimes needed in real business presentations. If the app does allow for this sort of thing, then the video maybe should be updated to show some more variety. Otherwise, it might be something to think about for the next release.
Anyway, it looks great! Good work guys.
Thanks, appreciate the feedback. One of the goals we have is to make you a better presenter. For v1, we researched presentation best practices and built the app so users automatically do things like limit the amount of text per slide, use consistent fonts and text placements, and add emotional impact to words with high-quality (no clip-art!) images. The constraints are intentional, and in fact was the inspiration for the name, as a Haiku is an art form that promotes creativity through constraint.
That being said, I think there are lots of opportunities in the future to help users add features like bullet points and charts, while still keeping it simple and guiding the users towards creating effective presentations.
That being said, I think there are lots of opportunities in the future to help users add features like bullet points and charts, while still keeping it simple and guiding the users towards creating effective presentations.
Exactly what I was thinking as well. Most Presentations are there to present data. I'd need at least bullets, tables and the ability to show multiple images (charts) for comparisons. Even if you only do sales pitches - how are you going to compare features, prices, traction etc. with this app?
This looks very attractive, but I suggest reading slide:ology, Presentation Zen and such. Haiku looks like it will make beautiful backdrops for a talk, but the sharing of "slideuments" is a bug, imho.
There's either too much detail in the slides to keep them from being distracting from the actual talk or too little detail to make them useful as a standalone document.
There's either too much detail in the slides to keep them from being distracting from the actual talk or too little detail to make them useful as a standalone document.
This looks awesome....out of curiosity, I wonder how this handles numbers and graphs.
I imagine the vast majority of presentations do include some presentations of numbers and charts.
I don't see anything on the landing page that talks about it - and maybe the answer is you haven't built that yet (MVP and all).
Just thought I would throw it out there.
I imagine the vast majority of presentations do include some presentations of numbers and charts.
I don't see anything on the landing page that talks about it - and maybe the answer is you haven't built that yet (MVP and all).
Just thought I would throw it out there.
Yep, for v1 we don't have support for charts/graphs, but it's on the roadmap. In the meantime, we do have the option to export to PowerPoint for users who want to include graphs, tables, lens flares, or comic sans.
I like this quite a bit. I had some goofy thing done and upon FB, Twitter, and .PPTX in ten minutes.
It's best described as [Distillate of Keynote: iPad Edition]. The auto-license Creative Commons image siphoner is brilliant. It all looks good without effort. Theme swapping is effortless.
My criticisms as a nobody: the "doodle font" on the overlays showing you what does what is too jaunty and busy for me to read quickly. I had multiple sluggard-hangs on the Deck chooser (iPad 2, ios5) that left me with dead UI requiring a restart. And the first launch experience is just a little too busy to take in. Nothing fatal at all, but I don't feel in control when things are happening with every touch. It feels weird when I can manipulate the screen when the explanatory help overlay is on.
This is really good work, and it has succeeded in making Keynote look fussy. Thank you!
It's best described as [Distillate of Keynote: iPad Edition]. The auto-license Creative Commons image siphoner is brilliant. It all looks good without effort. Theme swapping is effortless.
My criticisms as a nobody: the "doodle font" on the overlays showing you what does what is too jaunty and busy for me to read quickly. I had multiple sluggard-hangs on the Deck chooser (iPad 2, ios5) that left me with dead UI requiring a restart. And the first launch experience is just a little too busy to take in. Nothing fatal at all, but I don't feel in control when things are happening with every touch. It feels weird when I can manipulate the screen when the explanatory help overlay is on.
This is really good work, and it has succeeded in making Keynote look fussy. Thank you!
Thanks, glad you like the image search (it was a lot of work!) :) Sorry for the issues on the deck chooser, I've been meaning to re-write that for a while and will bump it up the list. I actually just added in a new first-launch experience, and I'm cleaning up a bug with those overlays, will be available in the next update.
Overall nice.
"Me too" on the multiple hangs requiring restart. Also seemed to have trouble making the help overlay go away: no tapping/swiping/pinching seemed to work; if it's timeout based it's too long.
"Me too" on the multiple hangs requiring restart. Also seemed to have trouble making the help overlay go away: no tapping/swiping/pinching seemed to work; if it's timeout based it's too long.
This is stunning. But I found a couple issues.
- Crashes if I try to delete the two default presentations (unless I make one first) - Text in title and description boxes is always capitalized, and I need to hit shift on every keypress, very annoying.
- Crashes if I try to delete the two default presentations (unless I make one first) - Text in title and description boxes is always capitalized, and I need to hit shift on every keypress, very annoying.
Very nice app. Here's my wishlist: http://www.haikudeck.com/p/wpf2bbxWk9/haiku-deck-wish-list
I love this, thank you. :) I added a bunch of these ideas to our Trello board.
I came in preparing to hate, but must admit they beauty and simplicity pretty much won me over. It's like Prezi but for humans :)
You guys gotta download this app and check it out...this thing is amazingly cool!
Looks awesome! Good stuff!
This is really well done.
We built Haiku Deck because we hated boring PowerPoint presentations. We stripped out most of the features of a traditional presentation software and built it from the ground up to be optimized for content-creation on a tablet. Decks can be shared online, and also exported to PowerPoint or pdf for offline viewing.
To get a sense of what a typical deck looks like, here's a sample presentation that showcases some of my favorite quotes from the amazing @shit_hn_says twitter account: http://www.haikudeck.com/p/aP4taPvt7w/shit-hn-says
Would love to hear what you guys think.
To get a sense of what a typical deck looks like, here's a sample presentation that showcases some of my favorite quotes from the amazing @shit_hn_says twitter account: http://www.haikudeck.com/p/aP4taPvt7w/shit-hn-says
Would love to hear what you guys think.
That looks like a pretty cool looking app. I really like the design of your web site & app. You say you're not focusing on 'boring PowerPoint presentations', it seems that most of your examples are more like photo slideshows. It might help to show some more traditional style presentations in there as well.
Thanks, that's a great suggestion. We're getting some pretty diverse decks that our users have started to create, we'll start featuring those in the gallery soon.
I found out about you guys from the last "The Best Thing This Year" email. Really awesome app!
Beautiful app - it's an inspiring way to share ideas and forces you to refine them. Death to Powerpoint and long live Haiku!