What should we change on Hubdub's homepage to make it more likely that you would register?
What I would like to know is, as a totally new visitor, what are your first impressions and what do you think we should change to:
(a) make it clearer what the site is about, and
(b) why you would want to register
You can find us here: http://www.hubdub.com
Thanks!
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M$22 Answers
I just visited hubdub for the first time, great site you have there.
I found that when I visited hubdub it wasn't clear what the site was about until I clicked the small 'about' button in the top right.
Once I clicked this, I knew exactly what the site was about.
Many people would not bother clicking the about page to discover this - about pages as often as not just give the address or telephone number of an organisation/company and are normally bland and boring - not vibrant and exciting like yours.
So:
1. Put as much of your about page onto your homepage as possible. At a minimum, the first thing I should read on your homepage is: 'Hubdub makes news more exciting by letting you stake virtual dollars on the outcomes of real running news stories.'
2. Having some stats on the homepage would also be really helpful.
3. Is there anyway to convert hubdub dollars into real money? If there is, tell me this on the homepage.
If these three things were on the homepage, I'd be looking for the registration button as quickly as possible. This is in the correct place - the top right.
Hope all that's helpful. Get in touch if you have any more questions.
David
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M$
In fact, let me summarize everything I'm writing by saying this: the home page needs to have compelling, easy to understand questions front and center for new users.
The home page is just too cluttered in general. One of the first things I have to do is explain to people how to navigate the site, and my usual suggestion consists of "just look at a bunch of questions and see which ones you like."
Ultimately, I think there needs to be some human editorial voice for the front page to keep the typical questions up front. There's probably a publishing schedule that could be semi-automated, as well. For example, every Wednesday, the "what movie will be #1 this weekend", every Tuesday should feature the little box you have on the NFL page that lets you quickly get to all the "win ATS" questions, etc.
This is all from a U.S. perspective, though, and I understand that your team isn't in the U.S. I think that's the other thing I've noticed, too. I get sent challenges for reality shows that are in the U.K. or Europe all the time, and I have NO idea what those are. :) This probably flows into the home page discussion because it would be great if you had a region for each question (worldwide, EU, North America, etc.) and then could customize the location based on simple IP geolocation. For performance reasons you could set a cookie for the region and let people switch it a la CNN.com or other news sites that let you choose your region.
That editorial voice would be a huge improvement for new users, bringing the most common questions forward, I think. The big list is just very daunting, and the 3 featured questions are usually not very compelling depending on region/interests.
Hope that's helpful.
Sujal
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M$1. make it fixed width (like yahoo.com) or else at least fix the width of the second column (like digg or reddit).
2. Make column 2 narrower...
3. Remove useless stuff from the home page - stuff like partner with hubdub, send to friends, etc are just clutter for a new visitor...
4. replace the whole register section with a single join now button... when clicked, use an ajax effect to darken the rest of the page and show the text fields... this will need some fiddling around
4. the tagline is weak... does not reflect social nature of site... should change from 'the world's news forecaster' to 'predict the news' or something similar...
5. too many 'hot' topics. use smaller tag cloud
6. only 10 stories on 1st page
hope this helps...
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M$.jpg){kind=small}
1.Tagline - more like "Predict the news" or "News before it happens"
2. Kill the tag cloud, and most of the other 2nd column stuff
3. Instead of "Try Predicting the News!" call it "Join" or "Register", with a very brief explanation. Make this box visually different from the rest of the site content, and give each text field more breathing room. [While you're at it, make this AJAX, so a user can get right to predicting, rather than going through a registration process. Then, use a gameplay paradigm like LinkedIn to track and give indication of user progress]
4. Cut the top bar (the one with three top stories) and rely on the vertical linear cues of the main column. The top bar looks like ads, and is visually ignored.
5. Sorry, but nobody cares you won some internet award. Put that in the footer if it's important to you, because it's taking up above-the-fold space
6. Embed your RSS in a meta tag, and make the badge take up less space (like 16x16px in the bottom right corner of a given page)
7. The logo has a cool look to it - while it wouldn't really change any function, giving some of the visual elements the 'torn' treatment probably wouldn't hurt.
myself
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M$You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
M$
After reading the "About" section, I realized the true intent, and how it is slightly different. The layout is fine, but the color scheme is tired. Try this site http://www.wellstyled.com/tools/colorscheme2/index-en.html to choose something better.
More importantly, I like the idea of staking virtual dollars, but why not try real dollars? There is a site called moola.com which does something similar to what I'm proposing and it is easy to see how they make the money to afford the payouts.
The money is not easy to earn, but the gambling aspect is addictive to many people, so the prospect of winning $0.03 is actually something people strive for. It would require a lot of changes, but I know I would definitely sign up to a site if there was a possibility of earning cash, even a small amount, and I don't think I'm alone on that.
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M$You should try to 'unclutter' the website for example remove useless information and flashing pictures and animations.
I was able to clearly see what Hubdub was when I opened it but perhaps you could add a paragraph to explain or add a clear link to an about page in the main navigation (next to Home, Leaderboard, Forum etc.)
You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
M$You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
M$You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
M$You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
M$
You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
M$You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
M$You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
M$
1. Its crowded and jammed, so first unclutter the site, give the articles a more tabbed interface. Make the tabs of a brighter colour.
2. HEADER- Give it some nice WEB 2.0 colours and some nice icons
3. BRIEF DESCRIPTION- People will surely get confused as to purpose of the site
4. TAG CLOUD- Give it a better looking tag cloud
5. Reduce the width of the right column - its totally unnecessary
6. Go for a brighter looking register button
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M$I think all it would take is changing the background of the registration area from #e3e3de to something like #e4f9ae with maybe a 1-2px border.
The signup box is in the right place, and it should be where the user looks last after surveying your page (See below: Eyetrack III, What You Most Need to Know)
All you need is a subtle effect to make it pop out over the other content. Based on my experience, I wouldn't be surprised if your new visitor to signup conversion rate increased by 1-2% with this quick fix.
Sure, it seems cluttered, but all of those nicely formatted links benefit from being on your PR 6 homepage :-)
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M$You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
M$
A suggestion:
If a user visits the site who is not logged in, make the top half of the page be a simple statement of what the site is, what makes it special, and a link to sign up. Large, blank margins around this area would be a good thing so that the eye immediately focuses on that part first.
Also, consider ditching the tag cloud. I know that no good Web two-dot-oh site worth its salt doesn't have a tag cloud, but I've honestly never found them that useful.
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M$
Additionally you need a more colorful interface, and a big tagline that explains exactly what your site does, at first glance you have no idea what the site is about. Is it a news site, is it a prediction site, how does it work?
Furthermore you need "Calls to Action" all over the place.
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M$Maybe you should add some kind of DHTML "splash screen" - for first time visitors, have some kind of "Welcome to hubdub" screen first, with links to the about & tour pages. A simple push of an button would then reveal the current front page, if you're not interested in the introduction.
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M$www.hubdub.com, www.digg.com
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M$
You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
M$You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
M$
I agree. This site is overwhelming at first. There are so many news aggregation sites out there, you really have to communicate what makes your site different. Once example that I like is propeller (old Netscape) because on your first few visits, there is a large messaging section that tells you what the site is, what makes you different and what the benefits of using the site are. You have a great concept, and I think with a little clear messaging and some good organization I think you will have many years of success and provide a useful tool for your users.
This guy is right on I thought the same thing, and even wrote a little bit about similar edits, but he did a better job expressing how to go about making them.
Thanks Dona and Jodi! Your support is much appreciated.
Thanks David and everyone else who answered.
This is great advice. I am sure you can appreciate the challenge of improving something for a new visitor when you look at it every day.
Hopefully when we improve it we will post up the new version to find out what you think.