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perucoder

61 karma · joined October 1, 2010

allen.loayza(at)gmail(.com)
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perucoder··on Offer HN: I can review your web app usability and UI
On the subscription page, the border of the text fields is very light and makes it hard to see the text field. Can these be darkened a little?

Also, both FF and Chrome say their is unsecured content on these pages.

I think your site might be a good candidate for gradual engagement. Chech out this article: http://www.lukew.com/ff/entry.asp?1128

Regarding the above, perhaps the subscription offers could be combined, so I can just start using the site and get everything for 2 weeks and then once 2 weeks is over, the site changes for me and presents me with subscription form if I come back. Right now, its hard to judge the quality of content before I sign up, even if its free for 2 weeks. Its still a barrier and makes me not want to.

On the about Us page and home page, I'd like to see more about the contributors. Quality of content on a site like yours is key, so I need to know more about who is contributing in order to get me to sign up. If you're just launching with no prior reputation, this is very important. As you get established and more known, this could probably be de-emphasized.

Think about possible redesigns for home page. Probably a good half of the page above the fold is taken up by the large Track image and the Track offers.

perucoder··on Offer HN: I can review your web app usability and UI
Site looks great. Is there a way that you can combine the sliding copy on the home page. Its great, but I have to click 3 times to see your guarantee. Its below in smaller text, but easily overlooked. Always the best price, gimmick free pricing, and satisfaction guaranteed could be combined as they seem redundant.

On the get started now page, why does it say to enter 4 or 5 numbers for zip code. Should be 5 and with no default zero added. It just makes it confusing as I have to think extra and only enter the last 4 of my zip code when I'm used to entering all 5 digits.

Model of cars should be alphabetized on step 2

On step 3, can you reverse the order of Google Checkout and PayPal. PayPal is the most popular option and should come first. I've also read articles about how Google Checkout doesn't help much and lowers conversions in some cases. You might want to research this more and possibly get rid of this option.

perucoder··on Offer HN: I can review your web app usability and UI
On home page, copy above try it now button is misspelled. Should be prioritizing, not prioritize.

Overall, I would clean up home page as it looks like too much is crammed in there. A cleaner look would help to focus on the most important things. Some suggestions: Get rid of the big image of 3 phones and replace with the gallery of images. The 3 phones really doesnt provide any useful info to me, but the gallery does. Take the Find out more page, rewrite and condense what you have there and put it on the home page. Make sure to be more specific about what problem this solves for me.

Everything below the gallery should be moved to a secondary page. If you have more testimonials, give them their own page.

The comparison between your product and Archer definitely should be expanded and on its own page. Include more info if possible about differences, including screenshots.

Its confusing that About Us link goes to your twitter page. I was expecting a page with info about your company. Same with Contact Us link, and blog could be a link of its own.

perucoder··on Offer HN: I can review your web app usability and UI
Button design seems disorganized. I see 3 different button styles on home page.

Only the latest news should be shown on home page with a link to the rest on another page.

The wording "There is a free plan" seems confusing. Does this mean that there other plans I have to pay for? I didn't see any on the site, so I'm assuming its all free. Maybe reword or get rid of it.

I answered my own question once I signed up. It would be better to put a link to all the plans up front, rather than showing after I sign up. It might even be better to combine the basic membership and 5 day free trial. Make it so they automatically get the 5 day trial and then have it revert to a basic membership.

On the personal ww.com home page, the icons seem amateurish. Can these be replaced with more stylish icons? There are a ton of free icon sets that would look better than these.

top nav links are confusing, as they all lead to an upgrade page if I'm not an elite member. These should be combined into 1 page with a title like "Benefits of upgrading to an elite membership"

Overall, site design needs to be upgraded as I get the sense this is a scam site. Look for some free templates that can give it a more professional look. Not trying to be harsh, but wanted to give honest feedback.

perucoder··on Offer HN: I can review your web app usability and UI
Here are some quick thoughts, although I didn't get too far:

The demo video audio didn't work, so I couldn't figure out exactly how to use product. There's also no help section or features section, which left me guessing on how to use product and what problem it would solve for me.

Minor UI issue I noticed, in Chrome, the background images on the signup page show a light grey background instead of the darker page background.

If you can fix the audio issue, I'll take another shot at reviewing.

perucoder··on Please review my Format Phone Numbers API (maziesoftware.com/api)
So its just about creating trust at this point?
perucoder··on Please review my Format Phone Numbers API (maziesoftware.com/api)
Thats very true about whether I'll be around later on. It's one of the things that I guess must be built over time.

Regarding your points about a local lib, I'm not sure you're aware of how complex it is to format phone numbers. Numbers change depending on whether you're dialing within country, out of country. Sometimes there is a prefix that needs to be dialed when dialing from one city to another, within the same city, the same prefix would not need to be dialed.

Thats just for dialing numbers. Every country also has their own standard way of formatting numbers and other countries are a lot less standardized than the US, so for example, a phone number can have anywhere from 5 to 11 digits in Germany.

Basically, its a lot more work than just whipping up something locally. Thanks for the input though, its much appreciated.

perucoder··on Please review my Format Phone Numbers API (maziesoftware.com/api)
I chose an API as I thought this would be the best way to offer this. Formatting phone numbers is incredibly difficult and is something that changes over time, so the code needs to be updated. What would some of the benefits be of doing this as a Library vs API?
perucoder··on Please review my Format Phone Numbers API (maziesoftware.com/api)
This is my first attempt at creating an API and would appreciate any feedback. Thanks!
perucoder··on Should I leave my startup?
Could it be that you're burnt out from this startup plus your other commitments? Is it possible for you to focus on the startup full time?

Since you're one of the founders, can you get rid of your current team and build the team you want to work with?

perucoder··on Offer HN: free design work.
http://maziesoftware.com/

Please help! I'm always hard on my own designs but I dont think my current one is good at all. My product is a meeting management web app.

perucoder··on Ask HN: What do you drink?
No. I'll have to check it out the next time I'm picking up some rum.
perucoder··on Ask HN: Do you consider a 13" laptop usable as a main development machine?
It's usable but far from ideal. A pen and a pad of paper is usable to write some code in, but I wouldn't recommend it either.
perucoder··on Ask HN: Is it possible to capture webcam output and store directly on server?
Check out this example someone posted awhile back. I think it could be modified to do what you need:

http://www.xarg.org/project/jquery-webcam-plugin/

perucoder··on Ask HN: How do you know when to stop working on any given day?
I agree. I've had marathon all night coding sessions, but the next day is almost always wasted. I find now its better to step away once I find myself losing my train of thought.
perucoder··on Ask HN: What do you drink?
Coke Zero for programming and for relaxing, a good rum and coke. I found a nice rum called Barcelo. It has the best taste.
perucoder··on Offer HN: Will Work For Karma
Great idea! I just sent you an email to review my site at http://www.maziesoftware.com/
perucoder··on Not in the Valley? How do you find co-founders?
I agree, build something, put it online, and promote the hell out of it. That's what I'm doing now and it constantly amazes me how open people are to giving advice and sharing experiences. I haven't met any co-founders yet, but I am making a lot of great contacts and getting the word out about me as a developer and my product. Good luck with what you're doing.
perucoder··on Is it possible to make a enterprise website using PHP still?
Facebook uses PHP for the user-facing portion of the site. Here's a link where they discuss some of what they do

http://blog.facebook.com/blog.php?post=2356432130

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