Please redesign!

Also try to condense what Juwo is trying to do into a short paragraph. So far, all I can gather by a quick 10 sec browse is that it has something to do with recording/playing back audio, table of contents for audio etc. Leave the demos, instructions, examples for other pages. Give me the story in nice big font and tell it to me like "I'm a 4 yr old." Hope that helps :)

I'll try to look around a bit more once I'm out of work.

If so, then why not just say that; the demos can be simplified to be the raw audio/video clip with the text, as transcribed by juwo next to/underneath the clips.

I read that people dont want to click, but scrolling is ok - I thought that was the lecture at startup school? (I saw a breief note on it here on this site)

the condensation is at the diagrams on the right.

I wasn't at the most recent Startup School, but in general, people don't mind scrolling down; scrolling horizontally is a headache.

But if there is a variety of different types of content on the page, there should at least be a table of contents to do the scrolling for you.

http://news.ycombinator.com/comments?id=14590

The crap about Jesus on the about page turned me off, too. You're welcome to your religious beliefs, but keep them on your blog or someplace more appropriate.

I will bet $10 that if instead, it were a short para on Hinduism or Buddhism (and I dare say, even Islam), no one would have been so hostile.

Honestly, I'm glad that you have the right to spread the good word on your website. But it's so rare I get to interact with a real, live Christian that I delight in the opportunity. Maybe we can both gain something.

So let's talk. Why do you believe in the god of the Christians to the exclusion of all the others?

So why do you believe in the god of the Christians to the exclusion of all the other gods?

The answer lies in the answer to my question.

Still, I believe in mathematics because it works. Why do you believe in the god of the Christians to the exclusion of all others?

Similarly, Jesus is a real person, not an emotional crutch. An absolute truth, not a relative choice. Like 2+2=4 and not 2+2=5.

How do I prove it? Simple. Ask Jesus himself to show that he is real, to you. However when you ask, you cannot have an attitude - otherwise he will ignore you.

"you will seek me and find me when you seek me with all of your heart" [God] (http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Jeremiah%2029%20:%2013;&version=31)

He himself, will checkmate you.

It will not always be in the same way.

http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Acts%209:1-6,%207-20&version=31;

why not?

"Whoever acknowledges me before men, I will also acknowledge him before my Father in heaven. But whoever disowns [is ashamed of] me before men, I will disown him before my Father in heaven." [Jesus]

http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew%2010:32-33;&version=31;

the condensation is at the diagrams on the right.

Should I move the diagrams left?

I am stubborn about Jesus; even though I have lost a lot of good opportunities because of it.

I don't have all the answers ... but try making better use of headlines, images/diagrams, or a quick demo. Somebody should be able to visit your site and quickly know what it is and the basics of how it's used. Juwo sounds like a cool idea, but I don't get that as soon as I hit the homepage.

Some examples of homepages that I like that do a good job of conveying the idea/service in less than 20 seconds (I have no affiliation with any of these): http://writewith.com/ http://basecamphq.com/

1. Messaging.

I am confused about what Juwo really is as well. It seems to be a way to tag audio or video by time? There is way too much text on the page. I know Juwo probably has a ton of features, but you need to nail down your core message and drill it in (and design your product around it). Can you describe what Juwo is in 5 words or less? Now what about 2 words? Anything longer than that and you've exceeded my attention span.

2. Design

Horizontal scrolling plus web design circa 1995 plus religious proselytizing doesn't inspire confidence that this is something I want to use and would enjoy using. I strongly recommend looking at other websites featuring downloadable apps such as Skype.com or Trillian, etc to see how they are approaching this. This is compounded by the lack of a clear message as to what your product is.

From what I understood of the core idea, it seems useful, but I can't see myself downloading a standalone app for this functionality. Btw, Have you checked out http://www.veotag.com? Seems like a competitor.

More features does not a better product make. More importantly, you can have 100x times Veotag's features, but it won't matter unless you can make people understand, instantly what your product is.

Now I imagine I'm a random stranger on the internet stumbling across your site. You really have less than 5 seconds of time before I click off back to YouTube or something. I just don't have that much attention.

The location of the diagrams on your website is the least of its problems - it is almost irrelevant. I would suggest first getting rid of about 90+% of the text on your frontpage.

Paul Graham's suggestion to take a look at wufoo.com is a great one. That's one of the best homepages you can find on the net. Simplify simplify simplify and reduce reduce reduce.

Thanks for continuing to engage!

(1) What is Juwo?

(2) How do I get it? (Or get access)

(3) How do I use it?

(3) What can it do for me?

Here's what happens when I visit the site:

(1) What is Juwo? After scrolling up and down trying to make sense of the page, I gave up and just started reading from the top. After the first two sections I still am not quite sure what it actually is. I feel I have to try to piece it together from all the little clues in the text.

(2) How do I get it? As far as I can tell, there is nothing to get. I can't find a download area or login box anywhere. Halfway down the page I see some demos, but I can't tell if that's the actual software or what.

(3) How do I use it? This question is answered, although I had to scroll down to find it and I don't really understand the explanation because I don't know what Juwo is (1) and don't know how to get it (2).

(4) What can it do for me? This question isn't important for me, but it is for some people. A lot of the page is devoted to talking about how the product can help me, however because (1) and (2) haven't been answered, I feel like I'm wasting my time.

Thanks for your feedback! I have added a line at the top.

Note: When you click on a demo, NP will automatically download and install. NP can be run both offline and also connected to the internet. (see Technical Requirements)

I have reorganized the page.

Aim for this: http://wufoo.com

I have reorganized the page so that the simple explanation with the diagrams comes first.

I have to also say this. Your recommendation, wufoo.com; "Online HTML forms" means nothing to the layman. Similarly, I think the layman will not understand anything by "juwo is...

A "Swiss Army knife" piece of software that gives more power to consumers to structure snippets of audio, video and text as a bullet list, to more easily index and annotate them, and to share the lists with others. Its benefits extend to multimedia as related to more enriching broadcasts, collaboration and organizing".

Yes, it may look like I have put the Help manual there. That is intentional. For a new concept, I believe that if people cannot get help easily with the details, then they will stop using it. Help manuals tend to be secreted away in software like a squirrel hides nuts.

Of course, it can be argued successfully that I have already scared even the geeks away!

I am not justifying, but explaining my rationale. I hope everyone at news.YC will continue to engage with juwo.

Anil Philip juwo.com

Right now even though you have glimpses of trying to show how it can help me, the overall tone of your site(confirmed by your posts here) is on features rather than practical use.

Any tool can be used to do dozen things. Our site can be used to post music, lectures, pranks, cries of your first child and literally hundreds of other things. But it has its few primary uses and you have to pin them down and focus on those DEFINED audiences in the BEGINNING stages. Otherwise you end up confusing EVERYONE as you seem to have done here.

I'll help you get started if you're interested. This should make for a good mini guide too for folks in your position Answer the following questions for me in LESS than 20 words each:

1. What is the problem? 2. Who is it a problem for?(note: everyone isn't an answer; think age groups, job profiles of people MOST likely facing the problem you describe in #1) 3. How do you plan to solve this problem? (theoretically, not what Juwo is) 4. How is Juwo solving this problem

Use these guidelines: - Be as specific as you can be. - Use as simple words as you can use.

Thanks for replying.

1. What is the problem? 2. Who is it a problem for?...

is a very basic exercise. In fact it is on the first slide of my investor presentation. I have thought through this in depth.

I will feel comfortable discussing one aspect of it on this board.

1) "I cant skip to the important parts when viewing AV" 2) Both publishers and consumers.

thanks, Anil

Best of luck with your presentation.

publisher: ABC, BBC, CNN, youtube etc...

consumer: you, me, joe, jane, hari, harry.

By "powerful", I am talking about how it can ease problems first, and scale second.

http://abstractnonsense.com/juwo.png

thank you for taking the trouble to get the screenshot. I shall run it from firefox on Linux

http://validator.w3.org/check?uri=http%3A%2F%2Fjuwo.com

I'm glad you're a Christian, but a company-about page is probably not the best place for pro/con links. It's distracting.

What is a pro-con link?

People with ADD like me will start reading the news ticker or some of the other stories (seriously, I had to back up twice to figure out what I supposed to click on!).

Also, for people not running XP and using Java plugins in their browser (I'm one of them!) can you prepare a version that will still convey what the demo does?

Or should I draw the link for the demo in large font?

Actually, juwo is great for people with ADD. you can sit in a class and record lectures - and then review only the important parts.

I have some kind of ADD myself - and use juwo in important meetings.

For a while there, I thought I was at bbcnews.com and I started reading all these extraneous links and photos.

were you able to install/run juwo? the BBC demo?

Could you produce a demo in flash instead of java?

Flash is a must-have browser plugin, whereas java has fallen off the map in that regard.

or is there another tool...

1. Take this demo OFF now! People are going to develop a SUPER BAD bias of your product that will be hard to overcome even in the future should you improve the UI.

2. Hire or partner with a UI designer who knows usability and design!

3. I'll hypothesize that most people that visit your site will leave without any clear idea of what your product is.

For a sample look at Mosoto: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SpuU4l_4Nr0&eurl=http%3A%2F%2Fmosoto%2Ecom%2F

You don't have to be anywhere near as crisp as these guys. If you can answer what's the problem and how juwo solves it in 2minutes you'll have fewer confused minds.

However, as you suggest, I shall create a screencast and see which is better.

Also see: my reply is here: http://news.ycombinator.com/comments?id=14590 Thanks for continuing to engage!

"Juwo LLC was founded by Anil Philip in December 2004, and is based in Olathe, Kansas.

We are"

... 'we' ?

Also, the religious stuff probably belongs elsewhere, on your own home page, for instance.

It could be single founder + employees (but unlikely given the site design) or just him.

But he could always say he's using the royal we.

So the 'we' is wife (advisor)...

(Actually, I had an informal advisory group which I dissolved. The 'we' comes from there. As you fellow entrepreneurs will learn, advice is of little use - you want someone to help with the work to be done).

I followed it! Please help juwo improve.

Thank you! I am grateful to you guys, news.YC and PG for this forum.

An error occurred while launching/running the application.

Title: Nodepad Vendor: juwo LLC Category: Unexpected Error

Unexpected exception: java.lang.reflect.InvocationTargetException

It is my major priority to get it working on Linux and Mac.

A "Swiss Army knife" piece of software that gives more power to consumers to structure snippets of audio, video and text as a bullet list, to more easily index and annotate them, and to share the lists with others. Its benefits extend to multimedia as related to more enriching broadcasts, collaboration and organizing.

Did you actually use juwo before stating that your toilet is better?