I don't comment on Hacker News very much -- in fact, extremely rarely, but I do remember this more than a decade ago and its awesome that you've stuck with this for this long.
Congratulations to you and all the work that you've done and the impact that you've had. That's pretty cool and something I think many of us aspire to. Cheers Chase!
Ride (Uber for commuting) just launched yesterday. Given the size of their team and funding, I'm surprised that they'd pull something off like stealing an image from Apple's support page and replacing a logo.
This is very cool! makes me want to take a vacation... if I didn't have a 5 month old!
I like that i can almost 'sketch' out possibilities with the tool. reminds me almost like a vacation planning version of hipmunk in that sense. I like UIs that are flexible like this.
Hmm... I don't completely agree that adding Show HN would be a replacement for Product Hunt. It feels like the two communities are pretty different, and creating a separate community for product launches gives you the flexibility to incorporate new social protocols (like the AMA) more easily, and add in visual elements like mockups.
Congratulations Ryan, I feel lucky to be an early part of this (user #3 baby!) when you just sat down to think about doing it. It's come along a long way already, I can't imagine where this is going to end up in a year.
It’s a shame that this post can even be deemed heretical when in fact it’s the normal mechanism for completing tasks by the vast preponderance of developers for overcoming technical challenges.
Understanding the ways in which technical people find answers, and can fully grok and socialize those answers internally with options is invaluable in a technical interview.
Products fall into multiple categories based on patterns of usage and intended audience.
Some products are daily/heavy use products which should optimize for the expert user. These products need to be designed such that, once the user has an understanding of how to navigate and understand the product's functionality, they can perform regular actions with ease.
Examples: A Todo list, a weather app, or an app for sports scores and the news on a mobile phone. A POS (Point of Sale) system where the operator has some sufficient time for training [Keep in mind that POS systems are designed for fast transactions to keep lines short and moving smoothly].
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Other products are used many times by different users, infrequently. These interfaces need to be designed such that they're intuitive, require as little handholding as possible, and should offer 80% of the benefit for 20% of the effort. Additionally, that 20% of the effort should be possible by almost all of the people who enter into the experience.
Examples: a photo kiosk at the local drugstore, a fast food ordering counter with an iPad or self-checkout system at a grocery store.
What does this have to do with UI walkthroughs? Because the first class of products are not designed to be intuitive on first usage, they need scaffolds (extreme way of conveying this is a "crutch") for the user to understand their operating protocol. Once the user understands how the system works, then they will be able to use the product quickly and effectively on a repeated basis.
We used all of these: Rasmussen Reports, ABC News/Washington Post, Investors Business Daily/TIPP, Gallup, Monmouth/SurveyUSA/Braun, CBS News, NBC News/Wall St. Journal, Washington Times: JZ Analytics, Politico/GWU/Battleground.
This is a great thing for startups to exploit who really care deeply about all of their customers. They can easily take business away from large, monolithic companies that don't really care about losing one measly person.
Many of our big wins come from doing something better that Microsoft or Google already might do, but doing it 10x better AND offering great customer support.
Thanks, I'm sure you mean that with the best intentions and not to be a troll. I'd love to hear your ideas to build a useful tool that we could 1) use for ourselves on our own startup (http://lizi.ai) during a Rails competition as a way to have a quick creative diversion :)
All that aside, I'd love to hear your worthwhile project ideas, Moe! [email protected]
Exactly - Changing copy via a tool like the now-defunct but open sourced CopyCopter, small tweaks here and there could completely be within the scope for a non-technical analyst to deploy once deemed ready.
It's also nice for a consultant who manages many clients, which we included in the copy in other places.
Thanks David! We found that out after deploying for the competition (RailsRumble 2012). We can't quite fix it now, but it should be changed after the judging.
Congratulations to you and all the work that you've done and the impact that you've had. That's pretty cool and something I think many of us aspire to. Cheers Chase!