Show HN: I made a tool to create product tutorials(textframe.app)
textframe.app
Show HN: I made a tool to create product tutorials
https://textframe.app
28 comments
This is very cool and useful. I will provide some wish-list for this offline. I love the idea and I will use this.
That's awesome to hear. Definitely get in touch with me over email, I'd love to discuss more with you.
Well done!
One question, the orginal demo was amazing in itself, is that technology/source still available somewhere?
One question, the orginal demo was amazing in itself, is that technology/source still available somewhere?
You can actually still make any of the previous technical animations using the current software. It's just that the outward pages are geared to demo the customer tutorial use case
Bitcoin demo - https://textframe.app/examples/bitcoin
CockroachDB demo - https://textframe.app/rahul/cockroachdb_serverless_demo
Bitcoin demo - https://textframe.app/examples/bitcoin
CockroachDB demo - https://textframe.app/rahul/cockroachdb_serverless_demo
Just to add on to this, why not offer both?
Congrats and well done, looks very cool. Will try it out and send you an email with any feedback or questions.
This is great. I think something like this is very valuable to a small startup or indie hacker who has a product that requires a sign up before their users can see/use.
You know how a lot of SaaS has a video of the user story and what their app does and looks like on the landing page? Well, I think this can be way better, less time consuming, and way cheaper than hiring an animation studio to create that video. You can also edit the textframe as the product grows; something that is much harder to do for videos.
A few of small features can make this way better.
1. The ability to put the textframe in an iframe. So users can use it on their landing page.
2. The ability to auto play the steps. (it should stop autoplay if user clicks on a step to view)
3. More UI customizability so it goes with the landing page.
I see this being more valuable as a marketing tool than a tutorial tool, but I'm only one person. Good work and good luck =)
You know how a lot of SaaS has a video of the user story and what their app does and looks like on the landing page? Well, I think this can be way better, less time consuming, and way cheaper than hiring an animation studio to create that video. You can also edit the textframe as the product grows; something that is much harder to do for videos.
A few of small features can make this way better.
1. The ability to put the textframe in an iframe. So users can use it on their landing page.
2. The ability to auto play the steps. (it should stop autoplay if user clicks on a step to view)
3. More UI customizability so it goes with the landing page.
I see this being more valuable as a marketing tool than a tutorial tool, but I'm only one person. Good work and good luck =)
Thank you for the feedback!
When you say marketing tool, what sort of content do you have in mind?
Also, I do provide the ability to embed in your landing pages, the instructions are at the bottom of my landing page.
When you say marketing tool, what sort of content do you have in mind?
Also, I do provide the ability to embed in your landing pages, the instructions are at the bottom of my landing page.
Oh, sorry. Must have missed it.
Don't misunderstand. I don't think the core functionality of textFrame should change. I'm just saying your users might use textFrame to convince their users how their product can solve their user's problems by showing them around the app without actually going into the app.
It is really helpful for SaaS that requires a sign up before users can use their app. Since registration is a big wall people wont go over unless they have a good understanding of the product. Most SaaS products try to do this now with images and videos.
So what I was suggesting is basically casting a wider net for textFrame. You currently market it as a tutorial solution. Consider marketing it as a "product show off/Demo" solution. Which would also include tutorials as well has any other way your users might want to show off their product.
Don't misunderstand. I don't think the core functionality of textFrame should change. I'm just saying your users might use textFrame to convince their users how their product can solve their user's problems by showing them around the app without actually going into the app.
It is really helpful for SaaS that requires a sign up before users can use their app. Since registration is a big wall people wont go over unless they have a good understanding of the product. Most SaaS products try to do this now with images and videos.
So what I was suggesting is basically casting a wider net for textFrame. You currently market it as a tutorial solution. Consider marketing it as a "product show off/Demo" solution. Which would also include tutorials as well has any other way your users might want to show off their product.
I see what you mean now. That's a really valuable insight. Will definitely think about this for my next iteration.
This is very cool. Nice job on this! I like how slick the UI feels when I'm scrolling up and down the tutorial steps.
One quick piece of feedback that I saw right away: Clicking on the next step on the left and then seeing the video update on the right is distracting, so I ended up not even reading the text on the left after a while.
Perhaps you could show "subway stops" on the left to indicate which step you are and how many there are in total, and then have the instruction text above or below the video? The way it works now, your eyes have to dart back and forth from left to right to read the text and then watch the video.
Anyway, best of luck with this.
One quick piece of feedback that I saw right away: Clicking on the next step on the left and then seeing the video update on the right is distracting, so I ended up not even reading the text on the left after a while.
Perhaps you could show "subway stops" on the left to indicate which step you are and how many there are in total, and then have the instruction text above or below the video? The way it works now, your eyes have to dart back and forth from left to right to read the text and then watch the video.
Anyway, best of luck with this.
This looks great. The Marketing Website can use some flair/oberall design — but the product looks stellar. Good luck w that!
Agree -- the product is interesting but the marketing site design is rough/unfinished to the point where I wouldn't trust the service. I currently use Loom in a similar capacity and think there's a big market for this type of service. Congrats on the launch and good luck!
I have to agree with you, my outward facing pages look a bit unprofessional right now. I assume by the marketing page, you mean 'pricing' page?
I'm glad you pointed out the Loom use case. My whole angle was that I thought products are leaning too much into video, when text has some great advantages: skimming, scrolling, copy pasting, etc.
I'm glad you pointed out the Loom use case. My whole angle was that I thought products are leaning too much into video, when text has some great advantages: skimming, scrolling, copy pasting, etc.
Hey, cool project! Congrats!
A few more comments that I believe could help improve it:
1.If you click on a box with a step on the left side of a tutorial, it should take you to that step. At least that is how I tried to use it initially. Right now, you can only control going forward/backward through scrolling the page.
2. In the landing page the "View Examples" and "View a Tutorial" buttons look off in Firefox (the text overflows).
1.If you click on a box with a step on the left side of a tutorial, it should take you to that step. At least that is how I tried to use it initially. Right now, you can only control going forward/backward through scrolling the page.
2. In the landing page the "View Examples" and "View a Tutorial" buttons look off in Firefox (the text overflows).
Can the tutorials be embedded into a support article?
yes, the tutorials can be embedded! If you email me at [email protected] I can walk you through how to do it.
If this is a joke, it's pretty solid. If it's not, though, why not use a textframe to show them:D
Haha I totally missed that. I’m so used to onboarding people via email/video calls.
One of my demo tutorials shows exactly how to embed!
https://textframe.app/embed_tutorial
One of my demo tutorials shows exactly how to embed!
https://textframe.app/embed_tutorial
These look good for visualising user stories too.
Do you have an example of one of these you have in mind? I'm not very familiar with user stories.
It's really cool!
would be great a figma-like interface with dropdown, input field etc.. to better redesign the UI.
Otherwise a way to build a sketch of the UI using a screenshot.
On my latest mobile safari I’m getting an error:
Application error: a client-side exception has occurred (see the browser console for more information).
How come?
Application error: a client-side exception has occurred (see the browser console for more information).
How come?
what version of iOS/device are you on? My guess is I am using a browser API that is not supported by your version of Safari.
Great landing page. Can I ask how much time did you spend working on it?
Pretty cool!
My name is Rahul Sarathy and I posted TextFrame a few months ago on HN (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29234636) as a tool to create animated technical papers. After gathering feedback from the community, I found that the best use case for my tool was for creating tutorials.
I am proud to share my next iteration as a tool to create animated product tutorials. Hopefully you can find use in it to create more engaging tutorials for onboarding and helping out your users.
You can check out some examples I’ve created using the software: at https://textframe.app/examples
Please let me know what you think! You can also email me at [email protected] if you have any questions or just want to say hello