30
98 Comments

I'll give you brutally honest feedback on your design

Feel free to share your landing page, website or logo. I'll tell you what I think. If you wonder, I have a strong background on branding and design in general. Maybe I can help someone today.

Disclaimer: I'll be honest and straightforward, but respectful, as I always try to be. I understand it's easy to get offended but please take my comments as just my unbiased opinion.

  1. 5

    Stock Alarm - Please let us know if you can immediately figure out what we do.

    1. 1

      Great idea and product!

      No, I didn't know right away what you do. It took me a glance at the hero image and then having to scroll to get the full picture? Why?

      1. No need to say "Stock alarm" in the most important area of your page. You already say that on the logo. Also, I already know what you're called because of the domain. Tell me what it is immediately (ie. "SET ALARMS TO TRACK PRICE MOVEMENTS LIVE.").

      2. Love "Wake up when it matters most.", but it sounds more like a slogan.

      3. The illustrations are awful. Really. They're generic and even worse, not consistent (ie. the first one is line-based, the other two are not and have different color palettes). I think your product loses some credibility because it makes it look amateurish.

      4. The "Download Now" link is too weak. It doesn't appeal nor makes users want to click. Make it bold, like a button.

      5. The FAQ aligned to the center don't look ok / are terrible to read.

      6. The footer headings (NAVIGATION, DOWNLOADS, etc) are not properly left aligned with the text below.

      1. 1

        I agree with @typologist 's points

        1. on your lander, have you considered adding a live demo, video, or animation "above the fold"?
        2. Agree - Love "Wake up when it matters most.", but it sounds more like a slogan. You make something so simple and necessary, easy. Your product has such potential. The right copy will take it to the next level.

        When writing headlines, subheadlines, copy, subject lines etc. I write up to 25 versions and pick the best one.

        Keep these in mind when writing copy:

        1.Survival, enjoyment of life, life extension.
        2. Enjoyment of food and beverages.
        3. Freedom from fear, pain and danger.
        4. Sexual companionship.
        5. Comfortable living conditions.
        6. To be superior, winning, keeping up with the Joneses.
        7. Care and protection of loved ones.
        8. Social approval.

        Source: https://www.amazon.com/Cashvertising-Secrets-Ad-Agency-Psychology-Anything/dp/9386215055

        The cover makes it look like a sh$tty free downloadable pdf, however, it's the best book ever on writing copy IMO

  2. 4

    https://dorik.io - A landing page to receive some early users for one-page website builder.

    1. 3

      This one is outstanding! It definitely looks professionally designed.

      1. Great brand!
      2. Great hero shot
      3. Fantastic design
      4. I find the animations too distracting because everything moves. Use it sparingly to attract attention to the parts that matter most.
      1. 1

        Thanks! I really appreciate your comment :)

        1. 1

          No problem, it's really well done. Props!

  3. 4

    https://syften.com - could you please tell me how long does it take you to figure out what it does?

    1. 1

      Super awesome idea!

      1. The name / typography / color combination on your logo make it sound "too IT". The "Sy" reminds of "System" (like Symantec) which does not make a really good fit for your target customer. Black is a strong color as well which doesn't work well for this purpose. The icon doesn't help either. It screams "photography".

      So, my suggestion:

      a) Pick another name (yeah, I know it's hard, but it's IMPORTANT). But something that better expresses what you brand is about: like "brandmonitor", "mentionly", "brandspread", (I don't know, just quick thoughts, don't take them too seriously).

      b) Use another brand color (blue, red, green, purple, etc), more appropriate to marketing.

      Or even better, both.

      1. The beige / green combination in this context, makes it look dated. "An old app from the 90's", that's the impression I got.

      2. Your hero video is hard to digest. Nobody is gonna play it. I played it and you start explaining the software but without context. What IS the product? What can it do for me? Say the "what", then, explain the "how".

      Better to use an image that in 2 seconds tells the user what the software does.

      1. The main header could be stronger, like "Be the first to know when someone mentions your product". Got it! In 2 seconds I know what the product is.

      2. The testimonials are too long to care. Make them short with a "read more" link and that's it.

      Best of luck!

        1. 1

          No problem, man. I love what you did. It's a fantastic idea with incredible market potential, I think. Consider hiring a pro designer, once you are in the position of doing it.

  4. 3

    Remote Leaf - Appreciate your feedback.

  5. 2

    onetool.co Do you get what we do? What problems do you see? Why would you or would you not use this?

    1. 2

      This comment was deleted 3 years ago.

      1. 1

        Will do. Thank you!

  6. 2

    gtmhub.co - Find fast-growing companies to do business with

  7. 1

    Can i get a roast too please? 😁

    Mowned.com

  8. 1

    Spend less time on email and get more work done. Get through your emails faster than ever before. Take back control of your inbox. Turn wasted time into productive time.
    https://www.darwinmail.app

  9. 1

    leadstr.io - dont be shy its only my 1st try so please be brutal and let me know how i could improve it or if i should just sack it off and go back to bed for 3 months

  10. 1

    https://www.mymyriad.ai --- we're all mostly backend developers so don't hold back as we can use all the help we can get...

  11. 1

    Would love feedback on our landing page
    https://www.dinote.co/

  12. 1

    https://dogger.io - a host for Docker based applications, and a GitHub app (called Pull Dog) for automated Docker test environments when opening pull requests.

  13. 1

    http://targetaudience.app

    Is there anything I can do in return?

  14. 1

    https://grbusinessforum.com/

    The first business forum in Greece

    Would love to hear your feedback regarding the design, as i have neglected it, due to heavy developement workload

  15. 1

    Would love to hear your thoughts about the Design aspects of this chrome extension - http://lifetimo.com/chrome

  16. 1

    opensourcecapital.co - Any initial feedback it welcome :) Is it initially clear to you what we do?

  17. 1

    incubatorlist.com - Please roast my webpage brutally as I will renew the design very soon, thanks!
    (Current design was the simplest and I didn't want to change it so much as I was focusing on the functionality - but now it is time to change :)

  18. 1

    www.octopulse.io -- we spent a lot of time on the design, hope you'll like it !

  19. 1

    https://besttime.app
    Please let me know if its quickly clear what this website does? :-)
    Thank you very much for your effort.

  20. 1

    https://polyui.com/ - hi @typologist, thank you for your offer, would really love to hear what you think

  21. 1

    http://with-a-view.com/
    Not writing anything about the project to avoid any pre-knowledge :)

  22. 1

    https://www.owlstown.com

    Thanks in advance for any insights you could provide about the landing page and website.

  23. 1

    https://www.beeinformed.app
    Feel free to switch to 100% brutality mode, not offended easily these days about it.

  24. 1

    Thanks for offering this! Here's our game's website: https://hexiconapp.com.

    What do you think about our logo + landing page?

  25. 1

    https://www.valist.dev
    Thanks in advance. I am grateful for any feedback

    1. 1

      Hey @adamringhede! Clap clap, for this idea. I don't think it's clear enough, though (took me about half a minute to "Ah, I get it, deploy every pull request? Awesome! we need this").

      Here a couple suggestions:

      1. The best investment you can probably do if you wanna improve your design is your hero image. The one right now is weak and plain. A stronger illustration or UI example / story will help tons to understand or appeal to your product quickly.

      2. Your "Try it for free" button is too small and not catchy.

      3. Try a different font for headers. The current one is "too safe", aka. same as everybody else and feels common.

      4. There's too much blank space in-between the features. It makes it feel like the product is incomplete.

      5. White on yellow is a terrible combination (yes, I'm talking about the newsletter button).

  26. 1

    One designer to another, would love your thoughts on SoVisual.co.

    1. 1

      Nice job, man! I really like the product too, it's a clever idea with a huge market need (myself included once I launch). Regarding your design:

      1. I love the isotype (based on your favicon) and the risk you took using an unusual accent color. Why don't you use your logo on your header? It'll help people remember your brand.

      2. Your hero image is eye-catching!

      3. I like the check mark on your header, it adds to the concept, but it's probably twice as big as it should be.

      4. The top bar links are too small.

      5. The links on the footer look bad with the underline and in 2020 people don't need this visual hint to know something is clickable.

      1. 1

        Thanks @typologist! And only a fellow designer would understand the "risk" with the unusual accent color. lol - goes against my more conservative branding nature, but I thought I'd go for it with this project.

        Check mark is an actual emoji and is only that large because of the font size assigned to the h1... haven't found a simple/elegant way of resizing it without removing it from the text.

        Will take your other feedback into consideration.

  27. 1

    loney.dev I did barely minimum design, would like to hear any suggestion you have. Thank you!

    1. 1

      Simple and it works.

      1. The "Weekly topic" in the top bar, should be moved down a couple of pixels, so it aligns better with the logo on the left

      2. The "Join our lonely dev community..." is a little hard to read. Make it font-weight: 500, instead of 700 to create better visual hierarchy.

      3. The "Get Started" text should be a little bigger.

      4. Reduce a little the line height of the headings in the "Week of x" boxes.

      1. 1

        I take all your suggestions. Thank you! Will you be interested in joining our community? If not, may I know what's your biggest concern? Thanks again!

        1. 1

          I love your concept, I think it fills a need in the market! Personally, I'm just too shy to go on video because I'm not very social (last time I posted on FB, for example, was like literally 8 years ago).

          1. 1

            Haha, totally understood. Thanks for your candid feedback 👍👍

  28. 1

    Hope I'm not too late to this.

    What do you think of this design for a digital agency: https://hiddenlink.invisionapp.com/console/Hidden-Link-Studios-ck9kqj90e081x018ehhx2wn3m/ck9kqjmqz13o5017cp2ajdoua/play

    Thanks in advance!

    1. 1

      Overall, it looks good! I think the main miss here is:

      1. Font selection. The design would play so MUCH better if headings used the same font as "SCHEDULE FREE CONSULTATION", instead of the other one. And secondly:

      2. All paragraphs could probably be a little bit smaller and increase their line height.

      1. 1

        Thanks man! Will definitely make these changes!

    1. 1

      Good start, props if you did it yourself! :) But to be honest, it needs a lot of work still to get the professional look, but it's a good start. . My suggestion would be to start from a professionally designed template and modify it, it'll be a good learning experience. I'll just list a couple of things to help you get started (there are too many!):

      1. Get rid of the gradients or probably the blueish background altogether. They make it look cheap.

      2. Simplify the logo. No outer border. The animation is simply too distracting. Find another font (more unique).

    1. 1

      Well done, sir! This one looks professionally made. There's not a lot to add without being nitpicky, but here a couple things:

      1. The Join padding of the JOIN button in the footer is not equal left/right. Same issue with vertical alignment.

      2. Top menu: Are "Blog" and "Pricing" supposed to get underlined on hover? Atm, it's only a tiny line that doesn't underline the whole word. Unless it's intentional?

      3. The 3 testimonial might look better with some margin at the top. They're too close to the previous blueish section.

  29. 1

    An HTML/CSS theme I will sell for in the future.

    1. 2
      1. It's right on track, but everything is too big and seems unfinished from a design's perspective.

      2. You probably need a logo

      1. 1

        Okay, thanks for your time!

        Hey, I like brutal feedback! I hope there is more posts like this in the future of IndieHackers. 😉

  30. 1

    Hey, let me know what you think: sendblue.co

    1. 2

      You may already be aware of this, but sendblue.co sounds very similar to sendinblue.com and they do SMS marketing. You should research this to make sure that there isn't any brand confusion or trademark/copyright concerns.

      1. 1

        I was not aware of this, thanks for pointing it out!

    2. 2

      @coozamano this one is really well executed, clap clap! Some tips:

      1. The logo could be a tiny bit smaller, so it "breathes" visually speaking and make it look more professional. Also move the menu more to the right. It's too close to the logo.

      2. The "JOIN WAITLIST" needs more padding to the left / right, for the same reason above.

      3. The "We're obsessed with..." paragraph is too wide to make it possible to read comfortably. Make it narrower.

      4. Fantastic illustrations. The one on the "One powerful Command" panel, looks different style than the rest. No big deal, though.

  31. 1

    Logo draft for a framework for easy development. Thanks in advance!

    1. 1

      Hey @williamzmorgan, great name!

      1. I like its simplicity and the fact that the brand is easily portable in different formats, media. That's always good.

      2. I'd explore color options. You can always have a B&W version of your brand, even if the main corporate color is another one.

      3. The kerning (spacing in-between characters) is bad because it's not consistent. This is one of the differentiators between a professional design and a cheap one (ie look the spacing between the "i" and the "t" it's too tight; compare to between the "o" and "w"). Ask your designer to make it look more even.

      4. First option is the best, in my opinion. It's clean and the font is unique enough so it doesn't need the extra slab decoration.

  32. 1

    https://pyre.gg/ - We don't exactly have a landing page, but I would love a brutal feedback on your first impression.

    1. 1
      1. Fantastic name. The extension, not so much, but I'm not here to question that.

      2. The logo is bold and effective. Well done.

      3. The font size of the blog posts should be bigger.

      4. The font size of the comments, smaller.

      5. Might be worth exploring having a stronger header, at least for first time visitors. Look at Facebook, for example, before logging in, you get an overall splash page explaining a little bit. In your case, it could just be a bigger header "Pyre is a community for gammers" with strong red background.

      Try to create a more memorable experience with your brand.

  33. 1

    bignotyet.com (newsletter landing page)
    bignotyet.com/newsletter/003 (sample newsletter issue)

    Many thanks in advance!

    1. 2

      Nice @elies, I really like the uniqueness in this one!

      1. Thumbs up on your color combinations!

      2. Your UI is really different as well, which I think will play well with your target customers, but...

      3. Be careful, because the "Submit" button is weak (same color, I had to pay attention to notice there was a submission on the page).

      4. "FRESH MUSIC FOR YOUR EARS..." should be much bigger. It'll help to a) draw attention and 2) make the design have a better visual hierarchy

      5. What is the brand? Where am I? The logo at the footer is too easy to miss. I'd try having it first thing at the very top. I had no idea where I was.

      1. 1

        Hey @typologist, thank you very much for checking it out and your feedback!! I'll definitely try to apply all the tips you suggested, really appreciate it!

  34. 1

    Hey—

    I'm building a blogging platform called Imprint, which consists of a main feed https://imprint.to, and individual blogs https://roland.imprint.to. Would appreciate any thoughts!

    1. 2

      Overall, it looks great!

      1. Lovely color combination!

      2. Your logo is too plain, it has nothing memorable. Why not using the triangle you have on the favicon?

      3. There's too much padding above the right boxes (ie. Featured Blogs).

      4. On "Editor picks" you should use the numbers as bullets, in other words, the text shouldn't be aligned right below the numbers.

      5. Your footer links are in an unusual place (right col). Why? Is it because it'll be an infinite scroll website?

      1. 1

        Thanks so much for the response! Totally agree that I should put together a logo. Have been sketching things out for a while but haven't found one that sticks. And yes, footer links are on the sidebar because infinite scrolling will be implemented later on.

    1. 1

      Hey @WeirdoWizard!

      1. Nice contrast and grid layout! It helps visually separate areas and it's easy to follow.

      2. Your logo font is too generic. Try to find an alternative slightly more unique to make it more memorable. Also, it seems like the PD inside the square could be bigger (for example, it's impossible to read it on your favicon). Making it bigger will help.

      3. The "selected" blue color on the left is really bad. It's hard to read and does the opposite of highlighting the selected area, which is the intention. Try one of your other lighter colors or maybe the a few shades lighter.

      4. The font on the left sidebar could be smaller so it "breathes" visually speaking.

      5. The font size of the paragraphs below the headers should be 1 or 2 px bigger.

      1. 1

        Thanks for your feedback @typologist. I'll look to incorporate this as soon as I can.

    1. 2

      Hi there!

      1. Your call to action button is weak. White doesn't make it immediately obvious that is a button nor attractive. Try bolder via size or color contrast.

      2. The testimonials right below attract too much attention. Remove them from there. Also, the icons feel ugly and generic.

      3. You'll probably create a better impression using your logo (where is it? I just knew you had one because of the favicon).

      4. Your font usage is consistent. That's good.

      5. The "Are you worried..." image is too generic and common. Try to find an alternative that feels "less posed" which help with the human touch.

      6. The dashboard screenshot feels unfinished design-wise. Might be better not to make those buttons a light color with outlines, for example, and make the sidebar blue instead. It feels "too heavy" where the buttons are.

      7. On your pricing page, your logo with a white square background over the gradient looks pretty bad and it's too small to be read.

    1. 1

      Great design overall! The empty bubbles are a nice touch and the soft animations and gradients contribute to the concept.

      It took me a while to figure out what the product is and what it does for me. "Stress less" sounds more like a slogan. I think your punchline is probably down below where you say "Write down your thoughts, collect content that helps your serenity."

      1. 1

        Thank you for the feedback ^^

  35. 1

    Hello, what do you think about https://noiz.io website design

    1. 1

      Great job, love it! The transition between panels is top-notch! Couple of comments:

      1. The headings font is plain (Open Sans), which even though is great for paragraphs, it's too generic for headings. I would find something with more personality.

      2. Your paragraphs font size need to be smaller and have more line height so they look cleaner and easier to read.

      3. On mobile, when you scroll down, at some point the "Noizo for Ios" overlaps the hand. I'd just remove the hand on smaller screens or fix this.

  36. 1

    LindyFeed - https://www.lindyfeed.com

    Would love to hear your honest feedback!

    1. 2

      Clean design on the right path! Some quick tips to make it look more professional:

      1. The blue circle in your logo could be a little bit smaller. That would give it better balance.

      2. Top navigation: Leave more margin around your logo. Big brands, for example, have specific rules regarding the distance that has to be left around their logo. In your case, push everything to the right.

      3. Headers. Try to find another font with "more personality" for your headers. This one is not bad, but it's too generic.

      4. The videos, podcasts, etc icons look disimilar. Every icon should a) look like it was drawn by the same hand and b) have the same visual weight

      5. Same comment on similarity goes to the "Topics" icons. The "Business" one especially, looks very different than the rest.

      1. 1

        Thanks for the great tips. I'll test each one of your suggestions.

        "The blue circle in your logo could be a little bit smaller. That would give it better balance."

        You mean the diameter could be smaller, but the width of the white curve inside the circle stays the same, right?

        1. 1

          Yes. I would make the circle diameter smaller, while keeping the width of the curve about the same, otherwise it might get too thin to be noticeable. At the moment, the circle is too big compared to the text which makes your brand hard to fit in a rectangle without sacrificing legibility (text would become too small).

          Hope that makes sense! :)

          1. 1

            It certainly does :) I'll try it, thanks a lot!

  37. 1

    Divjoy - would love some critical design feedback

    1. 2

      Love the ida! Where were you before I spent countless hours coding all that myself? :(

      My impression:

      1. Your overall site design looks great. But it's more oriented towards a code library (ie. bootstrap, react itself, etc), than to a turn-key solution. This is not necessarily bad, but it took me longer than I wished to really get it (my first impression was that the product was a UI library).

      I think your killer punchline is in here:

      "...sets you up with an entire React codebase and UI in minutes"

      You save yourself a month of development time and can get right to work on the features that make your web app unique"

      You should have that benefit above the "Choose your stack", etc. Because I need to know what it is before getting into the details.

      1. You need a logo. The italic "Divjoy" is just a generic font and won't be memorable to your users.
      1. 1

        Great feedback! I haven't revisited the top hero copy in awhile and you're totally right, that other text is a way better introduction. Going to work on that asap. Been putting off the logo for too long, so thanks for the reminder there :)

        1. 2

          Hey Gabe, it's been a while since I've checked out Divjoy and it looks like you've made a lot of great progress! Few comments from my perspective:

          First, I think you should build out your marketing site with a couple more pages. Having everything on one page is a bit confusing, and you're trying to do too many things at once, including 1) explain the benefits, 2) get started with a template/stack, and 3) make a purchase.

          2 and 3 on the same page are particularly confusing. Do I need to buy first then pick my stack/template? I was eventually able to figure this out on my own, but it was confusing at first.

          Also, each template should have it's own button like "Choose Joy" and "Choose Light". At first glance I didn't think the previews were clickable, and CTA button always helps guide users on what to do next.

          To be honest, I missed the fact that the generator was web-based because you only mention it once on the entire page and even though it's at the top, the font isn't that big. So I thought it was going to be some sort of cli, like create-react-app or "gatsby new".

          I think the home page should be dedicated to explaining features/benefits where the primary call-to-action is "get started building" which then takes you to a "get started" page where you pick the template/stack.

          You should also probably have a "pricing" page with your checkout so it's easy to find rather than buried down the page.

          Also, I don't think you should hide Newsletter, Contact Form and Analytics in "More"... maybe you're heading in this direction, but I think having the marketing stack too is very valuable. Maybe at some point, you'll also add transactional emails and payments too. This is great stuff, don't hide it!

          Last, the showcase is good, but you really need testimonials. I want to hear from real people that this is a good product. In particular, I have to take it on faith that the code is good, which is a leap of faith to take. I'd love to see some testimonials from people telling me that they love the codebase, that it's clean, logical, easy to extend/modify, etc.

          And minor nitpick – not sure why Firebase hosting isn't an option since you already have Firestore and Firebase Auth.

          Anyway, I think your product has come a long way. Hope this feedback helps you go even further!

          1. 1

            This is fantastic feedback @stevenkkim! Really appreciate it. Going to take another pass on the homepage soon and will reflect on this feedback. Cheers!

  38. 1

    The app is called Moon. Its an Indie Hackers client for iOS.

    Inspiration for the name and new icon came from the IH Astroshipper design.

    Thanks!!

    1. 2

      Nice and modern design. Love the colors and the logo!

      1. Why not having the logo on your UI / landing page? It would help with branding awareness and it looks great!

      2. Your landing page is nice, but it totally lacks visual weight hierarchy. All the elements are big and bold and compete with each other, so nothing gets read.

      A great design exercise is to look at a page, point at the elements as they grab your attention. Count 1, 2, 3 and so on in descending order. If you have trouble deciding who is #2, for example, make one of those elements smaller / less prominent. It should be easy to count them.

      So do as per above and make some things smaller / less important (footer that big, really?). Or bigger, if you really want to bring attention to them.

      1. 2

        Cheers, good feedback. Thanks.

        Why not having the logo on your UI / landing page?

        Agreed I have this planned.

        Your landing page is nice, but it totally lacks visual weight hierarchy.

        Great feedback, will address.

        footer that big, really?

        "brutal" confirmed 🙂

  39. 1

    This comment was deleted 10 months ago.

  40. 1

    This comment was deleted 4 years ago.

  41. 1

    This comment was deleted 4 years ago.

    1. 1
      1. Great name and intro page!

      2. Love the logo concept, but the wrenches are simply too small to make it effective. Here's a test. Make it smaller, ask a friend that has never seen it what it is (hint. it looks like a snowflake, sun or just lines). Great logos work on smaller sizes too.

      Here's what you can do: Make them shorter, thicker and increase the size of the end (I don't know how that is called in English, but the head of the wrench).

      Also, the logo with the black circle / white wrenches looks awful. If you improve the look of the wrenches it'll be bold enough for you not to have to use any background.

      1. You probably need a text below "Maintenance made simple " that explains what the product is. Is it a cleaning service? Is it a CMMS? (yes, you can read the tab title, but most people won't).

      2. Your buttons, nice color choice. But the bevel effect doesn't look good because it's not uniform with the rest of the design elements. Flat will definitely look better.

  42. 1

    This comment was deleted a year ago.

    1. 2

      Nice logo concept! To asnswer your question, I wasn't 100% sure what you mean by "reward your audience with a Tweet Wall"? Reward them how? Is that a wall I create for them? Or I create a wall with the Top Tweeters at the top? A wall that I add to my site? Sorry, not 100% clear on this is.

  43. 1

    This comment was deleted 4 years ago.

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