Hi, I would love to get feedback on our new visual search app, Zappen.
The demo lets you upload your own images and create a “visual hyperlink.” In practice, it has about the same match rate as a QR code. Let me know what you think of the demo page and process flow – visually it is pretty barebones, but we wanted to just get something up there and let people play.
Assumption1: The website should get people interested in Zappen and ideally make them use Visual Domains. Assumption2: The target audience focuses (but is not restricted to) relatively tech savvy people, web designers, programmers etc.
I seem to be on… wait, there is no logo top left. Hmm… OK, mid-right there is one
They seem to offer a… well, there is an app. The main text is on visual domains.
What does the girl with the smart phone have to do with it?!
Reading the intro text:
Talks about DNS. I have a vague idea of what that means. Something with domains.
Something relatively abstract about what a visual domain is
“Visual Domain images may be logos, signs and posters, photographs, emoji, or custom consumer packaging” OK, that is more graspable…
I like the basic idea of using image instead of QR codes. This is something I can imagine and relate to.
Summary:
Make the intro text less abstract. Cut words.
Imagery: Reduce, only show images that have a clear meaning.
Design:
The design seems to combine flat and 3d-ish elements, of round and rectangular ones – I suggest to make that more coherent.
Colors: Both branding colors have about the same lightness. This constraints your design options: If you squint-test the design, both colors blur into each other which makes using the colors together difficult.
Also: Financing and posture: I feel unsure of how Zappen is positioned business-wise.
Is it a business that open-sources some parts of it’s infrastructure? (the website suggests this to me: The way it is written, the roles in the team etc.). If yes, how does the open source part fit in the infrastructure? Is it useful on its own? Or only if used with a proprietary system together?
Is it a research project or an open source experiment (not much suggested by the website)
Thank you, this is great feedback. I am not certain we will have time to
act on your recommendations immediately, but I will forward to the entire
team so that we can begin discussion.
FYI Zappen began life as a for-profit startup incubated by my company, Yes
Exactly. We have chosen to make it open source.