Ask HN: bring on the feedback (especially if you like gear)
5 comments
When seeing a new site, my first two questions are "What does this do?" and "Why do I care?"
The answer to question #1 was a little unclear to me at first. I read the FAQ but I don't believe that a casual user would take the time for that much investigation. I think the site could improve by explaining on the home page that the site is like metasearch for gear deals of specific types.
Things became a lot more clear to me after I clicked through the catalog and view a specific product. The copy about, "Our friendly robots have seen 19715 gear deals. Follow the CamelBak Better Bottle Hands Free Adapter and we'll alert you when it goes on sale" and "How does it work? We monitor sites that put gear on sale for short periods of time. If you follow this product, we'll tell you the next time it goes on sale. It works and it's awesome." made it perfectly clear to me what's happening on the site. I didn't get that conclusion from the home page. Again, I believe that a casual user will give the site very little time before making a decision to continue within it or continue searching on Google.
The site handles the answer to question #2 pretty well. I like gear. I like deals. I like letting someone else work for my gear deals. Nice.
Also, the logo confuses me a little. At first I thought it was a cow, but now I think that it might be a fat horse. I'm still not sure.
The answer to question #1 was a little unclear to me at first. I read the FAQ but I don't believe that a casual user would take the time for that much investigation. I think the site could improve by explaining on the home page that the site is like metasearch for gear deals of specific types.
Things became a lot more clear to me after I clicked through the catalog and view a specific product. The copy about, "Our friendly robots have seen 19715 gear deals. Follow the CamelBak Better Bottle Hands Free Adapter and we'll alert you when it goes on sale" and "How does it work? We monitor sites that put gear on sale for short periods of time. If you follow this product, we'll tell you the next time it goes on sale. It works and it's awesome." made it perfectly clear to me what's happening on the site. I didn't get that conclusion from the home page. Again, I believe that a casual user will give the site very little time before making a decision to continue within it or continue searching on Google.
The site handles the answer to question #2 pretty well. I like gear. I like deals. I like letting someone else work for my gear deals. Nice.
Also, the logo confuses me a little. At first I thought it was a cow, but now I think that it might be a fat horse. I'm still not sure.
From the FAQs - "It works and it's awesome."
No argument there- great concept, cleanly executed. What plans (if any) do you have to expand the product range?
No argument there- great concept, cleanly executed. What plans (if any) do you have to expand the product range?
thanks - glad you like it. we'll likely focus on outdoor gear for a while. hunting, fishing, etc. electronics could be a good area at some point but we're trying to stay focused.
I think focused is the right move - better to have 100 outdoor gear fans who swear by your service than 1000 people with no common interest who think you're kinda neat.
Also, if you're going to focus on outdoor gear, you might want to update your copy to something with "outdoor" in it. Maybe "Custom Outdoor Gear Alerts to Your Inbox" or something like that.
http://gearburger.com