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22 Comments

Is the vidds UX too crazy? Can you make a video for your SaaS?

Can you help improve our UX before we launch?

We’d like to have some IHers try our video creation app for free - https://vidds.co, and we’d also like to try creating some videos for you. But even watching the video above and giving us some feedback would be great!

  • We’d like to try a variety of use cases, like:
  • Explainer videos for apps and landing pages
  • Social media posts
  • New features you’ve added
  • News and editorial-style
  • GIFs for e-mail newsletters

You can likely create something in 5-10 minutes.

Why?

We’re planning to launch the app on product hunt soon, and would love to get some early-ish feedback while helping IHers. We’d really like to see where some of the sticking points are and smooth out some rough edges. We also want to see if we’re creating videos people like.

Back Story (feel free to skip this and comment or signup on our website):

I created Brisa Videos in late 2019 as a solo founder, and let the app languish after launching on the Shopify app store. One of the best things that happened to me as an Indie Hacker was meeting @EdwardThomas on IndieHackers and him joining me as a cofounder! I think he really nailed the limitations, usability issues, and gave the app much-needed marketing love. So we rebranded the app as https://vidds.co!

But we still want to make sure the app is working for people and thought IHers would be a great use case because we could give something valuable while learning about some of the issues.

If you’ve been thinking about creating videos for your app, social media accounts, etc, we’d like to help! We’ll give you free access, and we can also create some videos for you :)

If you’re interested, comment below and let us know. You can sign up on our website, but you’ll still want to reach out to us in some way - andrew at vidds.co - so we can add some credits to your account.

Any other questions/feedback welcome :)

  1. 3

    hi - I don't want to be a drag here, but when I open the page my CPU spikes to a 100% load. I can't even enjoy the site as it slows down my PC.

    1. 2

      Thanks for the comment @HannesHolst – good to know where our weaknesses lie and how each is affecting user experiences. This is something we'll definitely have to prioritise.

    2. 2

      Thanks, you're not being a drag, I appreciate the feedback!

      We've been trying to show off more content possibilities on our website, but haven't put any code work into it. We'll definitely figure out how to make it faster and less of a cpu hog.

      1. 2

        @EdwardThomas @AndrewV no problem. I'm not sure about your technical background. But in terms of video editing in the browser you should checkout WebAssembly. Simply google "webassembly video editing"

        1. 1

          I'm the developer. I definitely haven't written anything in WebAssembly! haha

          But just this week, I looked into ffmpeg.wasm and made a little demo app with it. We want to create some free tools for conversion, resizing, and other misc tasks with it :)

          Our main app is a full creation platform, and I think building it in wasm would slow me down - gotta stick with Ruby and JS for ease of use haha

  2. 3

    Really think you are onto something here! Template-based video editing is great for saving time and streamlining content creation as a whole - this approach is way more efficient and economical! Great job!

    1. 1

      Thanks, Emelie! I read a post on IH yesterday titled "Speed is your killer feature."

      It was talking about load speed and stuff like that, but it kind of resonated with me - how fast can someone make a video they're proud of with Vidds? I think we do a lot with little work required by users :)

  3. 2

    Nice.. Signed up since we are looking to put up some videos for linkdra.com .

    1. 1

      Cool! Sent you an e-mail. Can't wait to hear what you think of it!

  4. 2

    Hi Andrew,
    Love the UX, definitely reflects the versatility of the product!

    I have a question for you, since you already seem to have aquired some users.

    I am working on a startup called Wispa, and am trying to build in public, so that I have anm audience when it launches. Do you have any advice for how I can do this?

    I currently have a substack, but only with 5 subscribers over at wispa.substack.com

    I would appreciate any advice, thanks in advance!

    1. 1

      Thanks for the kind words!

      For building an audience, I recommend creating tons and tons of social media videos! :-P

      Just kidding. We have some users, but we're putting in a lot of work for many of them, just like other IHers. Edward might have some better advice, but basically:

      • We used our existing networks
      • We make posts like this to try to get a tester or two :)
      • We reach out to people individually on social media
      • We try to write a lot of content for SEO traction down the line

      Everyone is different. If I had to start from scratch, I'd probably try the Amy Hoy/Alex Hillman Stacking the Bricks style of getting people on a newsletter. No magic bullet that I know of.

      1. 2

        Great stuff! Thanks for the reply, and I'll try out your suggestions.

  5. 1

    $0.02 from a fellow competitor - removing the timeline and thinking you're doing the user a favor, is a HUGE mistake. I started with a similar idea, thinking having a somewhat simple timeline and a wizard interface would be the deal.
    Took me a while to finally come to my senses (everybody asking me features related to the timeline) - right now, the timeline is the most important part of my app (and I'm still working on it).

    1. 1

      Hey, thanks for the reply! Also, I think we're in the same industry, but I don't think we're competing for the same audience. And even if we are, other IHers are peers, not competitors! haha My cofounder and I both have friends with similar web-based apps we speak to :)

      On to your main point:

      I definitely get it. Even in short scenes, we often want to make minor tweaks. At the same time, we're trying to make the app powerful while catering to users with no video editing experience.

      I think we'll always have a non-timeline version, but we plan to add a timeline for advanced use cases as well.

      1. 1

        Also, I think we're in the same industry, but I don't think we're competing for the same audience.

        We're certainly not competing for the same audience :) I may end up creating a smaller-and-simpler app (which is kinda' backwards, I know), but I'm not 100% sure ;)

        I think we'll always have a non-timeline version, but we plan to add a timeline for advanced use cases as well.

        Right - to reiterate - the timeline will be the most complex part of your app :)

        1. 1

          It totally makes sense to iterate either way! My initial version of the app was a really difficult timeline-based animation tool, and I flipped it on its head to a non-flexible template editor for the 2nd version.

          Look forward to seeing more from you. The contest you're running sounds fun :)

          1. 1

            It totally makes sense to iterate either way!

            True that :D

            My initial version of the app was a really difficult timeline-based animation tool [...]

            Interesting... Do you mean it was difficult implementation wise, or from the UI standpoint?

            Look forward to seeing more from you.

            Thanks, same here!

            The contest you're running sounds fun :)

            Thanks ;) The idea was to launch the app once the contest is over. But apparently I need an extra month of coding before I launch. We'll see...

            1. 1

              It was difficult UI-wise. I created a few videos with it, and it would take an hour or more to make a 30 second video. So I switched to super simple templates that could be used in a couple minutes.

              That was cool, but it wasn't sustainable because I only had about 7 templates hand-coded. When Edward joined, we did what we could with those, but decided to build out a full designer so users could create custom designs, and we're iterating on that as the base now.

              1. 1

                It was difficult UI-wise.

                That makes sense.

                When Edward joined, we did what we could with those, but decided to build out a full designer so users could create custom designs

                That also makes sense, good luck! :)

  6. 1

    Hi everyone, Andrew's co-founder here! It's really awesome that we can reach out through IH to help us improve Vidds – since it was this community that brought us together in the first place! Would love to hear some honest feedback on our product and discover any flaws you find! ✌️

  7. 2

    This comment was deleted a year ago.

    1. 1

      If you don't see it still (maybe the spam folder :'( ?), you can e-mail me too, I can set send you a link.

    2. 1

      Damn, sorry about that. I'll resend it from another account right now!

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