[IxDA Discuss] Signup screen as the first screen?

[Steve Baty]

Jeff,

I'd generally treat as 'epic failure' any Web app that didn't at least
provide some basic overview in support of asking me to register. In this
example, even a simple "Don't know about Buzzword? Read the
overview<http://about.buzzword.com>and find out why it's the best
darn-tootin' Web app thingie in the world."

Might take about 3minutes to add to the page and takes care of a whole lot
of baulking potential users.

I was one of them, despite Dave's recommendation - which I trust. But at the
time I was too busy for a fishing expedition, and had better things to do
than sign up blind. There's now a much slimmer chance that I'll go back and
give it a try.

[Also: props on getting 'discombobulated' into a sentence. Not something I
see every day :) ]

Steve

On Wed, 20 Feb 2008 15:47:54, Jeff Howard <id at howardesign.com> wrote:
>
> Pankaj wrote:
> > Unless Dave wont have recommended it I would have
>
> > given this website a pass...
>
> But he _did_ recommend it. That's why you were there. It's clear
> they expect you to be sold on the value proposition before you visit
> buzzword.com. They're optimizing for existing users.
>
> A bit of context would certainly help, but on the other hand this is
> an application. When I fire up Excel or Omnigraffle, I don't expect
> them to justify themselves to me. I expect the marketing process to
> happen elsewhere--on Microsoft's or Omni's website. In the absence
> of that context a seamless tryout flow becomes a lot more critical to
> draw people in. The application is the marketing.
>
> Things could be a little discombobulated because of the recent
> acquisition by Adobe. Originally you would have learned about the app
> on Virtual Ubiquity's website, or at Adobe Labs. Or a writeup on
> Techcrunch. Those venues would have linked you to the application.
>
> http://about.buzzword.com/
>
> They could probably solve the problem simply by swapping the
> subdomains around. Make the www the marketing site and put the app on
> a subdomain.
>
> // jeff
>

----------------------------------------------
Steve 'Doc' Baty B.Sc (Maths), M.EC, MBA
Principal Consultant
Meld Consulting
M: +61 417 061 292
E: stevebaty at meld.com.au

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