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Ask HN: Can I help you be more awesome today? (No strings. Inquire within.)

33 points| mikegreenberg | 14 years ago | reply

Hi. Every once in a while, I like to offer my time to help other passionate people be a little more successful with their goals. If there's anything I can help you with, just ask here. No strings.

If you'd like my help: Be specific about what you're trying to fix/solve/accomplish. The more details you provide, the better I can help you out. Also, I should be able to do your request within 10-15 minutes (a soft time limit so I can spread the love a little quicker).

I've done this before, and it's worked out well for everyone. Check out some of the previous "No strings" sessions I've done to get an idea of how I can help. (http://news.ycombinator.com/submitted?id=mikegreenberg)

Cheers

80 comments

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[+] mrbonner|14 years ago|reply
Hi Mike, In my career as a software engineer I've spent a lot of time with front-end technology. I admit not an artistic person but whenever I go I tend to be the guy who knows more about html,css,javascript than anybody else in the team. So I often end up coding the UI as well. Not that I hate coding UI stuff but I think I am not an artistic person -> I can't be a great UI developer. I'd like to hear from your opinion for reluctant UI developers out there. Thanks
[+] mikegreenberg|14 years ago|reply
So I'm actually in a similar position. Most of my company does lower-stack development (MAC protocols). But we still have to provide a lot of user facing technology. When we do, I'm that guy. I'm not traditionally a UI guy, but I find interfaces really interesting. I end up getting a lot of opportunity to try new things and play with large amounts of data. But enough about me.

If you're really not interested in doing UI work, you should reconsider your current professional station and see if there are options which are better aligned with what you're interested in. There's no reason you should be dragged into projects that don't have any appeal. I'd be willing to bet that in the long term, you will grow miserable.

If, in fact, you enjoy these UI opportunities, I wouldn't worry about your lack of expertise getting in the way. If they're willing to let you tinker around with projects like this knowing your skill level, I think this can only improve your skillset and help you be a more well-rounded developer. (It's hard to deny that a good knowledge of how interfaces work will pay of with good design decision during initial development.)

There are amazing resources out there to help you learn good UI practice. I've mentioned some in other answer here. I have more if you're interested. (Or checkout my bookmarks at http://pinboard.in/u:mikegreenberg )

[+] civilian|14 years ago|reply
+1 looking for an answer. I'm trying to shift my career into more back-end web dev or non-web software development, but I keep getting pulled towards html/css/jss.
[+] jfsantos|14 years ago|reply
I think I have a little problem with focus. I've recently graduated, and I'm very interested in a lot of different areas. For some of them, the interest is because that area is fun, for others it is because it will look good on my resumé. It's not that I could not make a career based on the things that are fun, but sometimes it looks more risky.

The problem is that I oscillate my focus through all these areas. You can't exactly call it focus :) It is hard to develop further in one area or another.

Do you have any advice for me? Thanks!

[+] adriand|14 years ago|reply
I know you're not asking me, so I'm going to give some totally unsolicited advice (which everyone knows is the best kind).

Ship something. Either commit to someone that matters that you will finish something useful to them (e.g. a client, a partner, a spouse, etc.), or commit to releasing something to the general public (e.g. an open source project), or commit to showing off something you built at a democamp or conference.

Like you, I am interested in many different areas. I also tend to start a lot of projects that I never finish. However, because I am a web developer by trade, I also have a lot of projects that I must finish, and many times it is the last, difficult, 20% of a project where I gain the most understanding and knowledge.

To truly grow you have to commit to do something hard and then you have to follow through on it. There is no substitute for that. The great thing about being interested in computers and programming (because of this forum I assume you are) is that it is very easy to combine multiple interests into single projects. If you are interested in biology and robotics, for example, it will not be difficult to conceive of a programming project that includes both.

Good luck. I look forward to hearing about your launch.

[+] mikegreenberg|14 years ago|reply
Focus is a funny thing. I think those with brilliant minds are the ones that are most consumed and distracted. (I'm alluding to you, here.) I think each person is driven by different things. Personally, I find accountability to be a huge motivator. To that end, I work with partners on projects and try to find people who are just as passionate as I am. My partner never let's me drop the project so I continue to make progress despite whatever is distracting me at the moment. Some people use mental tricks for motivating their progress. (Like making games out of tasks. Or using systems to influence taking decisions that yield the greatest net personal gain.)

Here are some of the resources I frequent to help mold my thinking and personal refinement. Maybe something below will help.

http://the99percent.com/tips/browse/3/Action-Method

http://www.oninnovation.com/videos/detail.aspx?video=1251

http://changethis.com/

http://zenhabits.net/

[+] mcrittenden|14 years ago|reply
I would appreciate any feedback on your idea for the direction to take my file hosting site http://fileslap.com. Sales have been slow (though lots of people are using the free account) and I've been considering trying to find a niche to target with it. Does any industry or space come to your mind that could benefit from a service like http://fileslap.com?
[+] mikegreenberg|14 years ago|reply
File hosting is pretty much commoditized. Your value-add is previewing specific types of files in-browser and without downloading. The breadth of your supported filetypes is pretty good.

The file hosting part of your service might SEEM like a natural combination, but I don't think it necessarily needs to go together. I think in-browser previews is a more interesting problem (of the two) and would probably be more interesting to find useful ways of connecting a "quick preview" solution to what already exists on the net. I'm thinking browser extensions which tie into the API for specific sites. Like a "Preview" button for Dropbox web interface. Or for Gmail attachments (for the ones Google doesn't already support).

IMO: Start exploring the area around instant previews of anything on the web. Consider how you might improve the interactions. Look in that general direction. Unless you can think of some compelling way to improve file storage/hosting, I'd drop that part completely or piggyback on someone who is already established.

[+] Random_Person|14 years ago|reply
Actually, I have a stupid question that I've been afraid to ask because... well... I dunno actually. I suppose because with a few minutes of Googling, I could figure it out. But, here goes anyways:

I'm actually in the market for becoming more awesome. I just sold my first Board/Card game to a publisher, and it's time for me to start working on my brand. What I need: a space on the internet.

I'm currently teaching myself HTML/CSS so I can code up a site. What I need, but haven't even started figuring out:

-what is my best option for registering my domain name? namecheap comes up a lot... I'd like whois obfuscation as I don't have an actual business location/phone.

-who should I register my DNS with? Do I buy this in a package when I register the domain?

-since I'm doing plain HTML, should I look at a host that offers basic web-hosting or a vps for future proofing? Who should I go with for hosting?

-I'm expecting a very small amount of traffic. Should I just go with a service that does all of this on the cheap?

It's almost crunch time for me to start doing press releases... so, I've been putting this lesson off until after I have a site coded. Thanks!

[+] mikegreenberg|14 years ago|reply
I'd use Dreamhost for buying and handling your domain names. They offer private WHOIS for free. I'm migrating the remainder of my GoDaddy domains to them as we speak. They've been handling my domain names for 6 months and I'm happy at this point. They also handle hosting (which I've used in the past) and would suit your purposes pretty well. I'd recommend them to my mom. (If you'd like to use my referral code, I'd help pay for my hosting.)

- Don't worry about getting anything too big or too small. You don't need to lock down hosting for longer than a month at a time. Hosting is cheap so even if a web host is disappointing, you aren't typically out so much.

If you want, consider an all-in-one solution with publishing functionality. Something like http://squarespace.com. I haven't used them (but mainly because I'm not their target customer). I think you would do well with them and can put something together that's really professional looking.

[+] civilian|14 years ago|reply
Woah! I have a couple friends who want to do board/card game development. Any tips for them? How did you break into it?

My thoughts: --I have my domains registered with Namecheap.com and it works fine. Avoid GoDaddy, I've heard some nonspecific bad things about them.

--My hosting is off of webfaction, but I'm also using Django. Even though you're doing plain HTML, you should find a host that could support Ruby or Django

--Cheap is great and all, but you'll only be saving five bucks a month. For the hassle, just go with something in the normal market.

[+] Omnipresent|14 years ago|reply
I would like some insight into the design/look&feel of my site: http://citybee.heroku.com

I plan to change the deal page that currently looks like livingsocial. Also, I'd like some external thoughts on whether or not to pursue the daily deal site. We plan to give the deal for free, customer pays the merchant direclty, we charge the customer in the end a 15% of all total sales and we further commit to spend 50% of that 15% to sponsor an event at their location. This event will act as a promotional event where our site's users can come for free. This way we are further helping the businesses to build their brands.

[+] mikegreenberg|14 years ago|reply
- First thing I noticed was a sluggish scroll. Not sure why it's like this on your site, but take a look at LivingSocial or similar to see how they get their page scroll smooth. (http://livingsocial.com/deals/123805-20-to-spend-on-grocerie...)

- I think the layout is lacking. There no isolation of different parts of the page. There's no way for me to subconsciously divide the content. Look at Groupon for a good example on how they "divide" content.

- There's not much else to the layout here, but with deal sites going like crazy, ever effort you can take to differentiate your look will help you out. (Since there's not much else you can do, aside from...)

- Your business model! I actually like the idea of reinvesting part of your profits back in the company. However, I'm not clear how this works. The merchant handles sales and you ask for a 15% cut from the merchant? Then use 7.5% of that for a promotion at their place? Do business need help building their business in this way? Do they want promotional events? I think this has potential, but I'm not clear how this works from what you described.

[+] CharlieA|14 years ago|reply
I'd be totally rapped if you could help me get some more people to come experience wicked beats with me at my new turntable.fm-like site: Vye VJ -- (http://vyemusic.com/vj/#/Astral-Hellcat/) -- or even if you just check it out yourself :)

Any feedback you have on the idea/design/execution would be incredibly helpful and greatly appreciated also.

HN Post: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3004684

[+] mikegreenberg|14 years ago|reply
Overall, Good Job!

I have some gripes, but on the whole, it seems solid. Here are some of my issues:

- Some of the user experience things surprised me. For example, the chat feature isn't obvious. I didn't know it was there, what it was for, where my text went (because it didn't show at the bottom for some time). These shouldn't be questions the user is asking.

- Consider a brief interface tutorial. Something like javascript pop-ups that user can close sequentially when describes specific parts of the screen.

- There should be a way to kill a song, remove songs from your own queue if it's not playing.

- The heart the bottom is a meter, but that's not obvious at first. And the "YES" and "NO" is not clear how that affects the room's state. Does it down vote a song? Does it stop their next song from playing? Will it stop the song eventually?

I think you're on the right track! :) And awesome that you pulled this off in 48 hours.

[+] zipstudio|14 years ago|reply
Is there a way to add or contribute music to the current music list? I like this site, but if I'm going to be a VJ then I want to be able to upload some of my own beats/songs to mix in the room.
[+] brianbreslin|14 years ago|reply
could you add a search to add in music videos from youtube/vevo?
[+] chetane07|14 years ago|reply
Hey Mike, thanks for the offer. I'd like your feedback on the design of the landing page of my site: http://www.myzeek.com/

- What do you think of the design? (I'm not a designer) Does it looks cool/boring? - What do you think of the structure of the content? - Do you understand the product, and would you be tempted to sign in for the beta?

Any feedback is very useful and highly appreciated :) Thanks.

[+] mikegreenberg|14 years ago|reply
Quick note: In your header line, remove the "s" in "any devices".

The design isn't bad. It's simple and straightforward. There's nothing special about it and it's not going to turn any heads. There's not much content and I don't think you could present the information much better than you already do. I'd consider making your call-to-action (beta signup) a little more obvious. And maybe move the "login with dropbox" to the top and make it less "in your face". You want new signups to be top priority.

I don't like that I have to keep my music in the Public folder. I think Dropbox might not like this on my account because they will perceive this as sharing my music publicly. How do you intend to handle this? Do you think this could be in a private folder instead?

I don't think I'd necessarily go for this. My reason is probably something you should be concerned about as well. As cloud services become more prevalent, and online music streaming services do a better job of managing large catalogs, users will no longer need to maintain a large library for themselves. This is my scenario.

While I'm a self-proclaimed audiophile, I've retired my MP3 collection some years back in favor of services like Pandora, Grooveshark, Spotify, and Amazon MP3 which do a decent job.

If you're going to continue developing this product, I'd focus on finding something to differentiate yourself in a big way. Hope this advice helps. :)

[+] revorad|14 years ago|reply
Mike, thanks very much for this kind offer, really appreciated.

Could you please have a quick play with my new site http://giniji.com? I would like you to answer a few simple questions:

  How fast/slow/responsive is the site for you?

  Is it clear what it's for?

  Would you recommend it to a friend? 
  If yes, why? 
  If not, why not?
Thanks a ton!
[+] mikegreenberg|14 years ago|reply
My pleasure. :)

- The site, on a cold start, took 5.95s before onLoad() fired (as reported by webkit). Most of that was spent loading your jQuery core and plugins and jQueryUI. See if you can minify and concat all of that together.

- I like the simple UI. It seems like it's a buying assistant. I assume you'll ask basic questions and spit out some results. Let's see.... PS: a weird character showed next to the currency symbol (£ )

- Your images load up pretty fast! Quite happy with the snappiness of the UI. (You even did some planning for smaller screens...nice.)

- It might be nice to have a way for the user to browse laptops without having to scroll all the way down the page to select a different one. (Might even be nice to have images in the results on the right.)

- Now sure about the search bar across the top. I'm assuming eventually I'll be able to shop for other items and this is a placeholder for when it is complete?

Would I recommend it to a friend? As it is today, I'm not sure. I don't immediately see any value here. Sure the site is pretty quick. But I think the way online commerce has come along in the past decade, you're going to have to bring a lot more to the party than just a fast web page. Not to mention that people go to different websites for very specific buying experiences. (Newegg handles laptop buying very differently than BestBuy...even though they both have similar gear.) Unless you're going to specialize on just one product or a VERY specific type of individual, I think it'll be hard for you to compete with that. I'm curious if anyone has said this to you yet, or if this is something you've considered.

[+] MatthewPhillips|14 years ago|reply
Not Mike but my 2 cents. Very fast for me. I was playing with the price slider control was actually slower to move than the new options were to render, pretty remarkable. I'd recommend using html5 sliders (<input type="range") and then falling back to whatever you're using here (should still be able to style it).

I think it was a good decision to only ask initial price on the first screen and then switching to a price range on the second. It was a bit difficult to adjust the min and max because they're so close together. Not sure how to fix it. Maybe have them be 2 separate colors so you know which is which.

I'd like more than 1 option. Being able to page through the choices would be nice.

On the front page the price renders as: £. Not sure what you were going for there.

I'd use this to shop if I could page through results.

[+] adriand|14 years ago|reply
Hey Mike, thanks for the offer. I want to start selling more consulting services in addition to web development services at my company. I wrote a draft that describes those services today and I would love to have you review my draft and tell me how you would change it. This ought to take less than 10 minutes. If you're in, email me at adrianduyzer [at] gmail.
[+] chexton|14 years ago|reply
I would love to know the approach you are going to take for expanding to include consulting and the specific things you plan on targeting to consult on...I am also a web developer and have considered expanding to do the same but am not sure where to begin :)!
[+] chetane07|14 years ago|reply
Hi Mike, thank you for taking time to answer. I made a website (http://www.letschattr.com) which lets Facebook users anonymously chat with other random users wanting to connect. My question is how do I go about launching such a website, where I need a minimum amount of people simultaneously on it to work?
[+] mikegreenberg|14 years ago|reply
These sorts of sites are hard, because you really need to have a steady flow of traffic to make them interesting for anyone. These sites will typically have a way to ping their users when there's something interesting on the site instead of requiring them to sit around and wait.

Also, you'll have to work really hard to make sure the site attracts people stay as long as possible... maybe with some game element involved.

Maybe when the site is dead, users can be contacted and meetings arranged out-of-band. Or arrangement specific times when users can come to the site for a specific reason or event. I'm really not sure. :(

[+] oppositionradio|14 years ago|reply
Can you share a few thoughts about trends that are coming macro or micro which we all should be watching both for disruption and opportunity? Within tech, broader socio-economic changes, global changes etc? To help us better "future proof" ourselves and our passions.
[+] mikegreenberg|14 years ago|reply
I am personally interested in online identity and something I've been watching very closely for the last few years. I think the opportunities here are going to be the next "thing" this decade...such that I've started developing some ideas I've had.

(I also think currency and government are seeing huge change right now as well. I'm most hopeful about the potential change here.)

[+] civilian|14 years ago|reply
Could you do a code review of ~140 lines of python code? civilianjones <at> gmail.com (I've already submitted the code as part of a technical interview-- but if there are any mistakes or tough questions, I'd like to be ready to talk about them.)
[+] mikegreenberg|14 years ago|reply
I'm not so great with python, but I'm happy to look. Email it to me at <initials> at nobulb.com. Or link me to something here or via @mikegreenberg on Twitter.
[+] jasonwiener|14 years ago|reply
i'm not mike (obviously). but if you'd like eyes on the source still, i'd be happy to help.
[+] Macshot|14 years ago|reply
Could you tell us what you think about the concept behind NoBadGift.com (kickstarter for gifts and events) and flaws you can see in our approach. Also any suggestions for our home page to draw in users. Thanks a lot
[+] mikegreenberg|14 years ago|reply
Sure. Before the thoughts. Consider skimming through this book. It has a lot of helpful thoughts and practices when dealing with web design and layout. http://designingfortheweb.co.uk/book/

- I'm going to disregard your overall design on the site. I'll just say it could use the help of a professional designer rather than go down a laundry list. It's not HORRIBLE, but a lot could be done here to improve readability and visual navigation on the homepage. Consider it seriously before any large-scale launch.

- HOLY RUN-ON SENTENCES! Try to craft more succinct sentences. Get the the point so I can understand it and move on. Your front page suffers from this as well. Don't make me guess what you're doing, sending me through tours and about pages is sure to lose conversions. Never underestimate the power of copy.

- Feature a screenshot or a walk-through of your service in SIMPLE steps on your homepage. People need to get it in 5-6 seconds, or you've already lost.

- I think the videos are a good idea, but you have them buried in the footer of your page. WHY?! Maybe you thought that was where they made the most sense, but don't position them as tutorial videos. They are advertisements. Dub some music/voiceover on it and use it (appropriately) on the home page "below the fold".

- There's no reason why all of your "How it works" couldn't just be on the homepage. Use a slider or a fun interaction to invite users to switch between "Gifter" and "Giftee" steps.

- Get rid of the huge login box. Or at least make it smaller. You could use that real estate for something better.

[+] jawns|14 years ago|reply
Hi Mike,

Would you mind giving a shout-out to Correlated (http://www.correlated.org) on your social networks?

[+] mikegreenberg|14 years ago|reply
I don't do promotions but I will offer some criticism if you'll have it. I think your project is interesting (from an implementation perspective), but I think you need to find a more interesting way of collecting your data. (I don't see myself visiting yourself to see one stat and answer one question once a day.) If you found some way of offering more immediate gratification for its use or be able to respond more directly to the user when they provide some resource or data, then I might be more compelled to participate in a novel/curiousity-satisfying capacity.
[+] consultutah|14 years ago|reply
Could you suggest some ways to improve the first impression of http://testplanmanagement.com?
[+] mikegreenberg|14 years ago|reply
Ways to improve on first impression...

- Screenshots are good. But I'm not really sure what I'm looking at. You're only cycling through two shots here, so maybe sit them side by side (or stagger them) with bullets which identify specific ways this interface makes Test Plan Management easier. (Ideally, your "Features" page would be covered here.) Take some time going around and checking out other people's landing pages. Read case studies. Take notes.

- Your primary call-to-action should be sign ups. Make that button the only thing the user sees when they land. Give them NO other distractions other than going toward the action you want them to take. The tour button should be a less visible link. If the user wants more information, they can scroll down to get your Pricing, Contact, etc. The only exception to this might be your login.

- I think your pricing page is a little complicated. The only metric which changes from plan to plan is the number of users. Eliminate this WHOLE THING. Here's how your flow should work: Signup starts a personal account. They can add users if they want and make sure they are aware of the price for the number of users they want. If they add more than 5 plans, then tell them you have to charge at this point. Trial plans, different tiers, etc ALL confuse the user and don't help your conversions at all.

- As mentioned, the name could use work. It doesn't have to be flashy. But it SHOULD be memorable.

[+] typicalrunt|14 years ago|reply
"Choose Account Personal - Our personal plan with a single user account, a single project, and up to five test plans is entirely free!"

This text, where the "Choose Account" is the link to the Personal plan, is confusing. I expected to click on the word "Personal" and be taken to the plan, but not be required to click on the "Choose Account" words.

[+] danvideo|14 years ago|reply
My penny might not be worth much, but the name's quite a mouthful, on first impression.
[+] brianbreslin|14 years ago|reply
Awesome. Was just talking to mike about this last night over beers.
[+] mikegreenberg|14 years ago|reply
He was literally hovering over them the entire time holding his glass of water just so he could make this claim. ;)
[+] pitdesi|14 years ago|reply
Mike - this is really awesome of you to do. Current need: We're launching a payment gateway, called Samurai (http://feefighters.com/samurai) next week. Unlike other gateways (Authorize.net, Braintree, Cybersource, etc) is that it's modern (not clunky), super developer friendly, and cheap. Also other things, like you can route payments intelligently and it'll emulate other gateways. We have over 40 users in the beta- it is doing thousands of transactions per day successfully, and our beta customers love it.

We want to make the launch a success but don't have much planned other than an HN post. Ideas? (I'll drop you a line with a beta invite so you can see it too... anyone else who wants one can drop me a line to move up but please fill out this form beforehand https://docs.google.com/a/transfs.com/spreadsheet/viewform?f...)

We could use your help in thinking about how to gain customer traction... Any tips/thoughts you have would be useful and much appreciated.

[+] mikegreenberg|14 years ago|reply
Off the top of my head, here's an idea: Hopefully, you're involved in your industry's various online communities. Offer them an opportunity to try your gateway with waived/reduced fees for some time in return for using them as a case study. You potentially gain a customer, get free advertising (via their word of mouth), and extra fodder to throw around during your launch. They get reduced rates, personal help with getting your software integrated and potentially have a better experience handling transactions (right?).

Alternatively, you could pull some stunts. I'm sure you're familiar with WePay's shenanigans. I think your FeeFighter's culture would do well with this sort of promotion. Think of something clever. (I've got nothing right now.)

Launching a product like this is tough. You have to literally be in the right place at the right time. I'm certain you've prepared for this. I got your email and will kick the tires over the weekend. If you don't hear from me, reminders are welcome.

[+] gdhillon|14 years ago|reply
Hi Mike, Could you please provide some feedback on our landing page (http://www.diglig.com). Mainly looking for advise on does our landing page explains the idea and what are your thoughts on the UI design look/fell. What would you suggest on improving it.

Thanks,

[+] mikegreenberg|14 years ago|reply
After reading more carefully you're some sort of recommendation/search engine. You take gobs of information about me and find the appropriate resources I need for the task I'm trying to accomplish. You don't make this immediately obvious... but I'm not certain how you might do this without more knowledge about how your product will work. I think the main thing is you need to offer a clearer value proposition. You help me do things, but how are you improving that process from the way I do it today?

Regarding optimization of your landing page, you probably should be spending more time working on the product. The formula for a good landing page is never entirely clear, but as long as you have your basic value-proposition you will attract good potential users. After you have your value prop identified and stated, optimization becomes an exercise in representing it in ways that appeal to the greatest number of people.

The feel of the site is slightly better than average. It's not bad, but the person who designed it either didn't spend much time on it or didn't understand good design principles (or both). But for a landing page (which is temporary), I think this is more than sufficient. If you have the resources to throw away (I'd first ask, why do you have resources to throw away?), then go ahead and do more with this site. But you really should be focusing on getting that product shipped.