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24 Comments

Feedback on MVP please

hey guys,

this past year, we've been developing a web app that helps people to quickly share their favourite things to do in the neighbourhoods they love.

we just shipped a new ux design and front-end, and are looking for feedback from our valued peers within the start-up space.

if you find yourself with 4-5 mins spare, we'd massively appreciate you having a play around with the product and sharing any thoughts you have:
https://bimblehq.com

thanks a mill,
ben

  1. 1

    EDITED: updated my terrible grammar.

    Ben: Neat.

    If I were traveling, I would not want to see where random folks went. I would want to see where my (social-connects) friends and family went. If my friends posted a picture of themselves at the place, perhaps my wife and I would be inspired to take a similar picture just like theirs and send it to them for funzies.

    Best of luck!

    1. 1

      Thanks Ted! Appreciate the feedback.

  2. 1

    Registration page should have only password field, not the confirm password, since you already have "show" button, everything else seems cool, have fun!

    1. 1

      Thanks Uros. We hear you!

  3. 1

    Great Idea, I think you should sit down, think about strategy and roadmap. Determine what's the minimum value prop that would get people use this app. I have similar view with people here as well. UI and Idea is great, but feels like somethings are missing.

    1. 1

      Thanks Jason. We appreciate you taking the time to have a go with the web app and your feedback is very helpful.

      We'd be keen to discuss your last point, about what you feel is missing. Are you speaking from the point of view of a list-maker when you say that? Or as someone that it looking for place information (if so, I'd say that our search functionality is still to be built). Any more insights would be hugely valued.

      I'm on ben@bimblehq.com if that's easier. Thanks again

      1. 1

        from someone looking for information. if I want to keep a memory of where i've been, there are plenty of other social network services like facebook.

        I'll probably have to put my business hat on to think for you guys... let me think about it and get back to you guys

        1. 1

          I emailed you

  4. 1

    Hey Ben - I loved it!
    Its very simple, easy to navigate and I think the UI is sick.
    Creating the list though felt a little like HW. Let me walk you through my experience I was thinking about adding Peets coffee cuz I go there all the time but then I thought "man Peets is a global chain I have to put something more authentic in my list" then I thought about adding a massage place but then I thought "even though I love that place, it's very cheap and beat up from the inside, probably the pics will look bad, I need something authentic that would probably have good pics"
    So I think the conclusion was that it reminded me of Instagram where everything has to be too perfect for it to work. I'm curious what you think about that?

    1. 1

      Hi @taher

      Thanks the kind words and for taking the time to play around with the product.

      You raise an intriguing point. I would probably respond by saying that your favourite places are your favourite places, regardless of how authentic or unpicturesque they might be. Also, the suggested photos might surprise you -- when you add a place and click 'edit', it will (hopefully) load a few pictures for you to choose from -- they might be a little prettier than you expect. In any case, you can always upload your own.

      Thanks again,

      Ben

  5. 1

    Who is it for exactly? Who desperately needs this?

    Great work on the webapp, by the way.

    P.S.: I selected London. Tried to list my favourite places, but couldn't add Tower Bridge (the attraction) only various Hotels, Care Home and other businesses.

    1. 1

      Hey Stoico,

      Thanks for taking the time to have a go on Bimble and for sharing your feedback. It's super helpful and very much valued.

      We are working to build a multi-sided platform for 3 types of user:

      1. Creators (list-makers, or rather, people with place information that are looking to save and organise it and/or share it with others).

      2. Consumers (people looking for place information).

      3. Commerces (businesses that can claim a 'place page', customise it and utilise it to engage a qualified audience in those that have listed their establishment).

      Re: Tower Bridge, I managed to add it my list okay, http://bimblehq.com/top10/5763859801440256, although I did need to do a little bit of scrolling through the search results. Thanks for flagging.

  6. 1

    I agree with a lot of the others. The site looks beautiful. The concept sounds kind of useful for a visitor/traveler, but sounds difficult to get people to list.

    I was expecting more of a map interface. When I travel, I might find one main attraction per day (or 3 or 4 days) that's out of the way, then I want to find stuff close by so I don't have vacation fatigue :)

    Random idea to get people to post lists: Talk to travel bloggers. Allow them to have featured lists or to promote their blog in exchange for creating content on your platform.

    1. 1

      Thanks Andrew for lending your eyes and time to Bimble. We appreciate it!

      The map interface is a great idea and has been in the roadmap for a little while. We're anticipating building that in the front half of the next year (so much to do, so little time!)

      Great idea about the travel bloggers. If you know any, do let me know! ben@bimblehq.com

      Thanks again.

      1. 1

        I don't really know any. Probably best to concentrate on one area to begin with - seems like most of the content is in the UK right now, right?

        You could look them up, and even offer to create it for them based on blog posts or something.

        1. 1

          Good idea. Thanks again! :)

  7. 1

    My first impressions are positive: the design looks polished and the site looks like a good functioning product.

    List and share your favourite places
    Share places you know. Find places you love. In a matter of seconds

    That sounds like work, is very vague and does not sound like a great benefit. I have lots of other ways to find places around me (Google Maps, Facebook etc.)

    Save your favourite places
    Bimble makes it easy to save your favourite things to do, in the neighbourhoods you love

    Now I start getting it better, but still does not sound appealing, as I don't think saving my favorite places is something I want to do or that solves a problem for me.

    Spread the word
    What's obvious to you is interesting to others. So share the love and your local knowledge

    That sounds cool, but communicates what I'll do for other people. Maybe turn it around, what am I getting out of this?

    Discoveries on your doorstep
    Make the most of your own neighbourhood, make other neighbourhoods your own

    I can't even parse the meaning of this.

    Where will Bimble take you?
    See an area through the eyes of its residents, from an architect to a chef to your mum

    Now that is a benefit. Would have liked to see if earlier.

    It took a bit too long to get what the idea is. Your home page, while slick, is way too devoid of text - there is a sentence per screen and the images, except the 3rd illustration, are not adding to my understanding. I would make it more information-dense, at least 2x to 3x times.

    I agree with @Harlem that you need to focus more on 'What's in it for me' and less in how my actions help other people.

    1. 1

      Hi @borisyankov

      Thanks so much for having a look at Bimble and taking the time to share your thoughts.

      We appreciate your comments about the copy on our homepage. As I'm sure you appreciate, these things are tricky to do in a way that appeals to everyone. We hear your point about focusing the value proposition more towards the user themselves, rather than the 'consumers' of the lists. Food for thought!

      Homepage aside, did you get a chance to have a go with the app itself? We'd massively value your critique :) this is just the beginning for us and it's generous people like you (and indeed the others in this thread) that enable us to learn.

      Thanks again.

      Ben

  8. 1

    Congrats!

    Good Stuff

    • Love the product name. Reminds me of nimble.
    • Landing page is clean and maximizes white space.
    • That illustration near the footer is awesome.
    • I get the product. Build a list. Share it. Search for other lists.

    Stuff to Improve

    • I wasn't in any way inspired to create a list. What's the benefit to me investing my time to create a list? I understand that I may be solving someone else's problem. But what problem of my own am I solving?

    • There are so many other "list" sites that I've list fatigue. What makes your site different? More useful? Or more engaging?

    • Wasted real estate. Your second headline echos your first.

    • As much as I love the illustration, I'd lose it. Pick photos or illustrations for experience consistency.

    • The presentation of the images feels disjointed. Only images associated with headlines 3 & 5 feel coherent and connected to your app.

    1. 1

      Hey Harlem,

      Thanks so much for lending your time to play around with Bimble. We hugely appreciate the kind words and the constructive feedback.

      Regarding your stuff to improve on points:

      • our current value proposition for list creators is the ability to easily save and organise your place information, whilst concurrently championing your favourite local businesses. we've spent the last few months trying to significantly reduce the effort required for people to create lists, and we will be spending the next few months maximising the gratification that list creators experience. we do have a handful of ideas about how we can make the 'reward' more tangible for creators (but if you had something specific in mind, we'd love to chat some more!)

      • we hear your re: consistency on illustrations/photos. I think the plan is to lean towards illustrations over photos longer-term.

      • interesting point re: images 3+5 being connected to the app itself and the others not being directly connected.

      Thanks again, really helpful!!

  9. 1

    Hey rufrudeaj,

    I like the concept of your app. I sincerely felt the need for such a thing always when traveling... an itinerary perhaps...

    My thoughts....
    I wish there was a search feature. I didn't quite like the next and previous buttons - could be better with an infinite scrolling list like the "facebook feed".

    Also, I don't wish to create an account just to share a list.

    Thanks,
    Jithendra

    1. 1

      Hi Jithendra,

      Thanks for your message and for taking the time to play around with Bimble. We really value your feedback!

      Nice idea idea re: the infinite scroll! Regarding search -- that is coming soon. Our aim is to enable the masses to find the best bits of any neighbourhood, anywhere in the world, as seen through the eyes of the folks with the first hand knowledge. To do that, we first need to make it super easy for people to share their favourite things to do in the neighbourhoods they love!

      Ben

      PS. We ask users to sign up for an account so that their list can be saved, and it thus serve as a 'living' list (that they can add to, nurture, and continue to share).

  10. 1

    Hey there! I like the idea...

    The UI is easy on the eyes and easy to grasp.

    Was positively surprised when the app showed images for the locations automatically :-)

    Everything seemed to work.

    Social logins would be cool, and is there a possibility to search for lists by location?
    Didn't find a possibility to do that.

    1. 1

      Hi YvesO,

      Thanks so much for taking the time to have a go with Bimble and for kindly sharing your thoughts.

      Search for lists by location is in the roadmap. As with any network built on UGC, you need content before you can build a useful search feature (it's the age old chicken-egg issue). So our focus now is on acquiring list creators!

      Re: SSI, we actually did have that originally, then we decided to remove it as our user testing revealed that only a small percentage used it and we wanted to streamline the UX!

      Thanks again,

      Ben