Rate my startup: Simplton
It has been almost 8 months since I was shellacked in the hacker news comments (which I totally appreciate btw) for bad design/ui/ux.
http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1282132
Simplton is back after a total overhaul. I am hoping it is better but don't pull any punches. Please be "that guy" (or gal).
http://simplton.com
and
http://simplton.com/screenshots It's pretty enough in its own way, but do you know what my first reaction was? I first viewed your site in Chrome, then loaded it up in Firefox, and finally IE because I was convinced that something wasn't rendering correctly. Two things stand out in particular: first, my laptop's resolution is 1600x900 and I have to scroll down to see the links on the left; secondly, that's a HUGE amount of empty space on the right hand side, and it looks like it could accommodate the "What is Simplton" text quite nicely. Honestly, I'd advise doing what I do - although I'm not terribly successful, so perhaps you should disregard this advice ;-) Anyway, go to ThemeForest, find a decent sales page theme, and another one for your user area. It'll cost you $30-40, and whilst some will object to what are pretty obviously cookie-cutter themes, you'll find out pretty quickly if people will pay for it. I was in the same place as you a year ago, with a tool whose design was 100 times worse than yours is, and I was signing up 1 trial account per day. Many months later I bought a design for $15 and an admin theme for $20, and that increased free trials to 20 a day! Good luck! :) Hmm, I agree about the links. I am on a desktop and the sign up link is right at the bottom of the screen. On a laptop it would be hidden. Other than that, I like you art and design quite a bit more than a prefab theme. If you do try it, don't throw out what you have :) I recently bought a theme from http://www.mojo-themes.com/html-css/ for $20, and I absolutely love it. The theme I bought was perfect. It saves so much design issues, and time. On http://simplton.com/philosophy I would make the bullet points the only content on the page. Click them and it expands to show your explanation. For something that focuses on simplicity, you sure have a lot of words. If I were you, I'd look to cut 75% of your verbiage. I don't understand what the companies represent on http://simplton.com/pricing. Is that companies that use your service? Am I buying real estate in this imaginary town? I think you're overusing your town metaphor. I like the "small town bug tracker" marketing on the home page, ... not sure if the image depicts a small town tho. clickable http://simplton.com About design, I have only 1 thing to say. Use gradients or don't use gradients, PICK ONE. If you use gradients, then all (or most of) your elements need gradients. I recommend removing gradients, as sometimes gradients are hard to make work.