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We got roasted on Reddit but also got 250 sign-ups in 12 hours

Hi everyone,

Last week we launched (with @ibelick) the first version of our landing page for uxcademy.com The concept: Develop his UI/UX skills with interactive quizzes. We are currently building the product and creating the content and we hope to launch the v1 in a few weeks.

We only posted it here on Indiehackers and on the subreddit: UXDesign.

We arrived on the front page of the subreddit and we got 250 sign-ups in 12 hours.

and we got roasted in the comments (shorturl.at/yIP25)

As a designer it felt a bit painful even if I agreed with most comments. UXcademy is about learning design so I knew any design mistake in the design or experience would lead to nasty comment :) I also knew our landing could be subject to controversy and trigger some people. Using the word quiz, displaying 3 questions like design is so easy you can learn it tapping on images. Of course, the questions were only there to illustrate the concept.

We ended up changing the questions based on the feedback we had, we took examples from real products. It’s funny because it’s probably the imperfection of the page, the fact that it was controversial that made people interact and comment on Reddit.

For us, it’s still a big win and it shows the concept has potential. We built several products in the past and never really had 250 sign ups in 12 hours by just posting it in one subreddit.

Our previous products never required creating content. Actually, we tried to avoid any idea that would need investing time creating content, because it felt it would be a lot of work, and it’s a lot of work. BUT, it creates a much better balance between me (designer) and @ibelick (developer). In the past, I would produce a design in a few days but development would take weeks, now designing + producing content = development.

Second, the product provides value from the start to the users and I feel like it will be much easier to monetize in the future.

Finally, creating content feels like a great investment. As a designer, it helps me get better at what I do, it helps me organize my thoughts but also whatever happens in the future, the content I'm creating will still be useful and hold value.

Thanks for reading :)

  1. 2

    Reminds me of https://cantunsee.space/ 😊

    I felt your landing page's mini quiz was more challenging/subtle, was that the effect you were aiming for?

    1. 2

      I feel like cantunsee is made to be fun but not really to learn in depth about UI/UX. We wanted to have a mini quiz directly on the landing page to illustrate our concept: interactive courses. Our goal is to build a platform for people to learn about UI/UX through active learning so yes that's the effect we were aiming for :)

      1. 1

        Nice idea, good luck!

  2. 2

    Hey, Max! I would like to feature you and your work in the interview. How I can contact you?

    1. 1

      Sent you a DM on twitter :) Thanks,

  3. 2

    Wow! 250 sign-ups that is awesome. My attention was really caught by your quiz :)

  4. 1

    Great job on Reddit. It can be very hit or miss due to how anti-promotion it as as a platform outside of creating ads.

  5. 1

    I also found it weird that in question 1 you promote "clear hierarchy", but then when in question 3 I chose an option with clear hierarchy, it was wrong because "grayed out font made the content unreadable".

    I think it's tricky because design decisions are often about trade offs. For example you will make something more readable, but it will look uglier.

    How about giving users an option to comment under questions, so that they can share their own expertise as well?

    Hell, maybe there could be no "official" answer at all? Just share two designs and let the community discuss it / vote?

    1. 2

      I understand your point. Again I think having those 3 questions without any context is subject to controversy. In the future, each course will be focusing on one big concept, and quiz will be preceded by key notions. It will be more clear.

      I agree design decisions are about trade offs but there are fundamentals. Especially when you learn UI/UX you need to know the rules to eventually break them.

      I believe it would be very bad to teach beginner than you can trade readability (so usability) with aesthetic. In my opinion, question n°3 is not subject to discussion, one use a grey that does not pass the accessibility test while the other does.

      What do you think?

  6. 1

    Cool idea. There's something wrong about asking to point out the "wrong" answer it would be better to ask people which is the correct solution.

    1. 1

      Indeed. We thought we already changed that, thanks.

  7. 3

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