Ask HN: Help test our new signup process

[csallen]

Our product (https://www.siasto.com) is a project management tool. It competes with Basecamp, and focuses on integrations with other web apps.

We recently revamped our homepage + added an intro tutorial, so it'd be great to get feedback from you guys. What do you think of the signup process? What about the product, UI, and features? Do they make sense? Did you run into any bugs? etc

Thanks!

[ChrisNorstrom]

You have alignment problems. I talk about it more here:

http://www.chrisnorstrom.com/2011/05/quick-fix-up-redesign-o...

Also your call-to-action button ("Try it free") and the text above it need to be on the right, not the left. On the left you should have a screenshot of your service or a video.

Actual product wise, I like the look. Love the yellow, like the header. Unique and different yet predictable and usable. There's something odd about having breadcrumbs up there on the right and the tab bubbles centered but I'm going to give it a chance to grow on me.

I really like the guided tour. The first tutorial though, "We created a team for you", "Yeah", "Go ahead and rename it" should all be in one speech bubble instead of 3. And I suggest avoid casual lanuage like that. I've seen other startups do it and it just looks really awkward and forced. One startup had a "People kind of like us" header with testimonials underneath. "kind of" like you? I just don't think language like that belongs on something as massively used as a tutorial or landing page.

On the project task page I really think you should switch the placement of the "New Task" button and the search box. Search boxes are always expected to be on the right and I feel the new task button naturally should be the first thing you see. The average user without a doubt will create new tasks MUCH more often than searching through tasks. So naturally new task should be seen first. All the "add new ____" buttons and associated buttons should be on the left I think. That's usually the default place where they are.

Lastly when I uploaded a picture of myself, my picture wasn't completely square and it ended up being re-sized incorrectly and now looks squished. It should be center cropped.

When I hover over different date boxes on the calendar my mouse arrow should turn into a hand and that date box should subtly highlight.

Amazing job though. I really like the simplicity. I wouldn't pay $25/month but it is a very nice service that's easy to understand.

[csallen]

Great feedback, thanks for going into detail on everything.

It's funny that when you've been building (and using) a site for a long time, everything about it starts to feel natural. I've never even considered moving the "New Task" button to the left before.

The good thing about asking others to check it out is we can get a fresh perspective and draw a line between what's actually good and what we've simply gotten used to.

[jchung]

Nice fixup on tap11, btw.

[diggan]

Looks very nice. Previously, I've used Trello but this feels more streamlined. However, keyboard shortcuts! You must have shortcuts to do different things.

Also, I don't want to invite any teammates like the tutorial says, you should be able to skip that one. Especially when there is no way to stop the tutorial.

[csallen]

Thanks for the feedback! We've got some limited shortcuts in the tasks and docs view, but nowhere else yet. We'll definitely put up a blog post once they're everywhere.

Good point about the last step of the tutorial. I'll change that right now.

[officialchicken]

Pretty brilliant, I like the seamless tutorial intro, the only turn-off being some of the grammer in the tutorial. The text in the bubbles should be a bit less, umm, "programmer-ish".

Nice to haves:

-An "Expand All" button for docs when viewing

-Ability to choose a destination folder for your uploaded doc (or at least a "coming soon" and a note about dragging)

-Expose the activity somehow (RSS feed?)

-Task editing is crammed on the side, needs to breathe

-Task details should be textarea, not a single line, and perhaps support markdown or html

-Calendar needs iCal support

-Tasks need grouping / color / tagging / organizing

At some point in the future, I'd like to go to my preferences, and turn off the tutorial.

Edit: fixed formatting of wishlist.

[Alex3917]

As a general rule of thumb, I don't sign up for anything like this unless I can see screenshots or a video first. I know there are some on your blog, but they really need to be linked from the front page.

[csallen]

Thanks for the feedback, we were just talking about that today with Garry Tan. There will be some screenshots on the home page in another day or two.

[jchung]

The tutorial process is pretty great. I found the circle visually unappealing.

I like that you don't try to cover too much ground with the tutorial. There are definitely some things I'll get to discover later.

The visual look of the bubbles on the comments do appear near-pixel perfect. For this kind of application, performance is absolutely critical (it's arguably the application I would use more than anything else, including my email inbox, so any delay is incredibly frustrating because it bottlenecks my whole day), so I would caution you to make sure that the tutorial looks incredibly fast. I think you've done a good job with that so far.

The tasks feature does need a little bit of work, but it does look slick. I would need the ability to tag items. In fact, I'd suggest you just look in here: http://help.teambox.com/forums/86927-ideas-and-suggestions (their users have already done all of the voting work for you) for a list of task features people want.

Last comment before I stop: it's unpleasant to browse around and find that you're planning to charge me $99 in 16 days for my business account. Got to tell me earlier that it costs money.

[edude03]

Hey thanks for posting this, I just signed up and noticed two things:

1) If you guys allow signup / login with google why isn't there a sigin with google button right on the homepage /signup section? would have prefered that to entering my username and password and most people have a google account anyway.

2) There needs to be a way to exit tutorial mode, maybe it's there already but if it is, it's not obvious enough.

Otherwise I'm loving the design and ease of use.

[csallen]

Yep, we definitely need to make it possible to sign up with Google. Just haven't gotten around to it yet. Working on the tutorial exit right now, but in the meantime you can just invite a fake email address ;-)

[theandym]

Clickable: https://www.siasto.com

-----

I like the single page intro, but feel it could contain a little more information on the feature set. I agree with blakeperdue that a screenshot would help as well. The signup process is super simple, which is a big plus and makes it trivial to get started / explore the product.

[skrish]

I like the way you have placed sign-up text boxes & button right below the pricing, so I don't have to navigate. Neatly done.

The guided start process is very helpful. Did you use any tool for this?

You could allow adding (new) people at task level with just email id. This will make it easier for user adoption.

[blakeperdue]

Love the design. Clean, interesting and informing. One thing I would suggest is add a screenshot of the product somewhere. I find that seeing the product helps really draw me in and want to sign up.

[kappaknight]

"Help test our new signup process"

I see what you're doing there... =)

[danoprey]

The "GET STARTED" link on the homepage just seems to be a span wrapped in a button with no link. Not working for me in Chrome 18. Too many of your links seem to be javascript dependent. Whilst it can make nice fancy effects, it can easily go wrong or the user may not have it enabled (>3%).

[jchung]

Kudos on making a feedback form that's an actual form (rather than an email link in disguise).

[duaneb]

Can't really see what the site does before you sign up - that's a major problem.

[rpicard]

The "learn more" link doesn't do anything for me on Chrome (works in Firefox).

[danoprey]

Working for me in Chrome 18.

[WorldMover]

The tutorial is a brilliant touch, and very useful!