Show HN: SpotCapitan is the Airbnb for parking (want to join beta?) | Hacker News Reader

Show HN: SpotCapitan is the Airbnb for parking (want to join beta?)

3 pointscapitan3 comments

SpotCapitan ("Cap-ee-tahn", not "Captain") is creating the world's largest marketplace for parking online.

Hundreds of millions of parking spaces are unused for most hours of the day, or when they are needed most. When you're away from home, why not monetize an asset that people are clamoring to pay for? Scheduling, distribution, real-time analytics, and exceptional customer support make SpotCapitan a pleasure to use.

When is the last time you had to drive in circles looking for parking, and finally settled on a parking lot and paid an exorbitant price? Why not arrange the parking ahead of time, for a lower price, directly from somebody like you?

We're currently in late alpha testing and will be opening up to a select number of beta testers shortly, launching in San Francisco, Chicago, and London. We love Hacker News and would like you to become the first Capitans. Stop by http://spotcapitan.com and provide your email and we'll be in touch shortly!

Your website is pretty but not usable. On load, there is no call to action but a cryptic "Choose a direction". The wheel doesn't turn when dragged, but after clicking on the side of it the entire page moves around before a call to action appears. It's pretty, but the "Find a space" and "List a space" boxes should be visible as soon as the website loads. They should also link to a page allowing visitors to do exactly that - or to a page explaining that you're still in alpha and asking them to leave their email address.

Yes, you're in alpha, you can be a bit cryptic. But the focus of the page is a giant ship's wheel. If you absolutely need to keep it (because you've already spent so much time getting it right), there should be some indication that clicking on different sides of it gets different results, there should be somewhere on it that users can click to get both calls to action, when a call to action is visible the wheel should become smaller, and if the page is open for more than ten or twenty seconds you should slide both calls to action in, as clearly the user is trying to figure out what the point of it is.

Also, why "capitan" instead of "captain"? It's a distinction that most users aren't going to get, and you seem to own spotcaptain.com as well.

clickable:

http://spotcapitan.com

hilarious sea turning motion -- what web technologies did you use?

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