Ask HN:Review My Updated Side Project - ShelfLuv.com (250 invite codes)
http://www.shelfluv.com ↗ (250 invite codes) use: HN
I initially submitted this project to HN back in September/October last year. At the time, it was a hackathon project that just did instant search on Amazon. It received great feedback so I decided to build on it.
Although it took a really long time since the hackathon, the new ShelfLuv is finally here and I would love some feedback. It is far from done, but as they say, if you are not embarrassed by your first version, then you've released too late. There are still many glaring holes in the functionality but those are coming.
I would love to hear your thoughts and feedback. What do you love about it? What confuses you? What would bring you back to the site. If you want to contact me personally it's pek at shelfluv dot com
Thank you
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I like the layout - the landing page looks pretty good. A few suggestions:
- While I like the script font in your logo, I think it's a little too hard to read. The letterforms of the "u" and "v" are very similar and could use some slight modification to differentiate them. The kerning is also off - the letters are suppost to connect, but the tracking is too wide.
- I think there's too much movement on the home page. There are three sections that animate (the slideshow, press, and recent activity). All that movement distracts from your call to action. Think about what you want a new visitor to focus on when they first see the page. (This is admittedly not as much of a problem for people with smaller monitors, but I can see below the fold)
- Why not make your search bar in the header wider? Longer titles are cut off.
- I'd shorten your overview sentence ("Share what you read with your friends and discover new books?") and maybe set it in a different color or font to help it stand out. I think this is a very important sentence.
Overall it looks great! Good luck!
Some random comments:
- the front page loads slowly (FF4).
- in ?
- I expected the image to change if I moused over the buttons below; I needed to click. I usually hate "active" mouseovers, but it's still something to think about
- the 'log in with Facebook' text crosses the grey/white border, which is jarring
- I wouldn't use this anyway, but there'd be no way I'd sign up for Facebook to use this.
- do the "as seen on" logos do anything for your readers? I only recognized LifeHacker, and I've almost never read anything of theirs.
- the bar at the top is annoying; then again, I always find a bar at the top annoying.
- the per-book pages (e.g. http://www.shelfluv.com/ASIN/1430219483 ↗) contain a summary, but it's somewhat hard to find and the text is set in too narrow a column. Maybe place a sentence or two above the comments/recent activity, with a "(more)" button to expand?
I like the design and idea. One thing you might think about is letting people put their own amazon referral id (for a cost or something). I recently asked Hacker Newsletter subscribers what books they were reading and had a great response, so I created a page to display the results (http://www.kaledavis.com/2011/03/25/hnl-book-list-vol1.html ↗). Amazon astore's are just not what I was looking for, but something like this would work pretty well.
Love the design and use of the patterns in the background. What is the business model behind this? Amazon Affiliate commissions?
edit: Added my profile http://www.shelfluv.com/brianbreslin/ ↗
you have some css errors with the inputs and hover states over buttons in chrome 10 mac (borders showing, etc)
I really like the design, and the idea is nice. One suggestion I have is making some way to add books from your My Shelf page. I didn't see a way easily, and ended up just going to the browse page. I'm assuming that's probably the flow you want, but you may want to have a plus button or something on the shelf UI that links to the browse page for books.
Here's an example of what a profile page (your bookshelf) would look like: no login required
http://www.shelfluv.com/pek.pongpaet/business ↗