Show HN: A web app for creating interactive people plots and family trees
20 comments
Haven't used it yet, but definitely will given how smooth the demo is. However I have two big concerns.
1. Are there options to backup/save an offline copy of the tree? Or a print-friendly version?
The reason is that family tree are meant to last over generations, and potentially longer than your web service (hopefully not, that would be a good sign for you :P). It is a bit scary to upload all my family tree, and update it without having an option to make a private copy should the website ever dis-appear. Printing a family tree would be pretty cool too IMO, might be an interesting revenue stream to look into, maybe?
2. Pricing: This is super expensive :( I have a family tree I would like to create, with more than 25 people, but really can't afford 7.50$/month. In many ways, it's more of a product than a service. I won't look at it everyday, or update it everyday. Only very incremental changes a few times a year. A fix cost, or 'yearly cost' would be more adequate in my opinion.
1. Are there options to backup/save an offline copy of the tree? Or a print-friendly version?
The reason is that family tree are meant to last over generations, and potentially longer than your web service (hopefully not, that would be a good sign for you :P). It is a bit scary to upload all my family tree, and update it without having an option to make a private copy should the website ever dis-appear. Printing a family tree would be pretty cool too IMO, might be an interesting revenue stream to look into, maybe?
2. Pricing: This is super expensive :( I have a family tree I would like to create, with more than 25 people, but really can't afford 7.50$/month. In many ways, it's more of a product than a service. I won't look at it everyday, or update it everyday. Only very incremental changes a few times a year. A fix cost, or 'yearly cost' would be more adequate in my opinion.
Regarding the "super expensive" -- doing the math, it's not that bad ^^ But it "feels" expensive when given a per month billing price in my opinion.
One more nitpick: The website is really nice, pretty and lightweight, and the background images in the samples are pretty. However, in the pricing section those "0101010101" make it suddenly feel "old school"/not as elegant. I'd suggest using a prettier less flashy background image.
One more nitpick: The website is really nice, pretty and lightweight, and the background images in the samples are pretty. However, in the pricing section those "0101010101" make it suddenly feel "old school"/not as elegant. I'd suggest using a prettier less flashy background image.
Also, for the free signup at the top right of the page.... Please make the password input field a password input. It's scary to read my own password as I type it, and makes me feel a big unsafe.
chetane07. Thanks for all your comments. I am glad you like our software. Since you saw the site, we have increased the number of people you can add to a plot with a free account to 30.
At present, there are no options for backing up apart from a JSON export. We are planning on CSV export and import.
Printing is definitely something we are keen to improve, though is pretty tricky converting from HTML to pdf.
We are happy to experiment with pricing. Is 7.50 a month super-expensive - some family tree sites charge much more than that a month, and don't include embedding.
With regards password field, we don't obscure it for usability reason. Some people love it, others hate it, most don't care. Passwords, needless to say, are not saved in plain text.
At present, there are no options for backing up apart from a JSON export. We are planning on CSV export and import.
Printing is definitely something we are keen to improve, though is pretty tricky converting from HTML to pdf.
We are happy to experiment with pricing. Is 7.50 a month super-expensive - some family tree sites charge much more than that a month, and don't include embedding.
With regards password field, we don't obscure it for usability reason. Some people love it, others hate it, most don't care. Passwords, needless to say, are not saved in plain text.
That's an "interesting" usability decision, I'm curious to hear what makes you believe it's better usability than having a password be hidden?
I personally hate it because it get the following signals from it:
* How could such an obvious product bug be missed * Feels "amateur" -> is my password secure/encrypted? * I don't feel safe using the site, because who knows how secure my account data really is...
But you might not be designing for me, so let's take a step back. Given the following assumption:
Hidden password: All don't care, as it's standard. No one loves, no one hates. Visible password: Some love it, some hate it, some are just confused.
I think the extra love is really not worth the amount of hate it brings along. Why have people hate when you can avoid it :) Just my 2 cents.
I personally hate it because it get the following signals from it:
* How could such an obvious product bug be missed * Feels "amateur" -> is my password secure/encrypted? * I don't feel safe using the site, because who knows how secure my account data really is...
But you might not be designing for me, so let's take a step back. Given the following assumption:
Hidden password: All don't care, as it's standard. No one loves, no one hates. Visible password: Some love it, some hate it, some are just confused.
I think the extra love is really not worth the amount of hate it brings along. Why have people hate when you can avoid it :) Just my 2 cents.
Congrats on the launch. A few thoughts... After registering, why not skip the "Create Your First Plot" step and throw the user straight to their plot. Just make up a name "Your First Plot" and let them know how to edit it.
Honestly, I don't know why I would use this (beyond maybe creating a family tree). I'm not saying there aren't loads more uses--I just don't know them. On your landing page, maybe you could show some of the use cases (show one embedded on a web page or used in a school project, etc).
My main recommendation would be to remove any functionality that really isn't necessary. I found the edit interface a little overwhelming with all the settings you can change (colors, images, etc).
Good luck!
Honestly, I don't know why I would use this (beyond maybe creating a family tree). I'm not saying there aren't loads more uses--I just don't know them. On your landing page, maybe you could show some of the use cases (show one embedded on a web page or used in a school project, etc).
My main recommendation would be to remove any functionality that really isn't necessary. I found the edit interface a little overwhelming with all the settings you can change (colors, images, etc).
Good luck!
Taking people straight to a new peopleplot when they sign up is a good idea that we had not considered, and would remove one more form for them to fill in.
With regards use cases, we are not entirely sure what people will want to use it for yet. Family trees are the obvious choice but it is a crowded market. We have outlined some possible use cases on the home page, though have not got any hard examples to back that up yet.
We'll just see what our users (assuming we get any!) have to say.
With regards use cases, we are not entirely sure what people will want to use it for yet. Family trees are the obvious choice but it is a crowded market. We have outlined some possible use cases on the home page, though have not got any hard examples to back that up yet.
We'll just see what our users (assuming we get any!) have to say.
I think your app looks great, and behaves well even in IE8.
The problem you rightly point out is that family trees space is crowded (although there are posts here which argue that that doesn't really matter) I think your idea doesn't yet know what it wants to be. Is ist a family tree machine or an organisational plotr?
Perhaps to distinguish yourself you need to make a choice at first, at least to clarify the message.
The problem you rightly point out is that family trees space is crowded (although there are posts here which argue that that doesn't really matter) I think your idea doesn't yet know what it wants to be. Is ist a family tree machine or an organisational plotr?
Perhaps to distinguish yourself you need to make a choice at first, at least to clarify the message.
Or create two sites - one for family trees, other for organisational charts. Identical except for the branding. See which takes off and focus on that.
Here's my feedback after playing with the demo tree that's on your front page. The demo looks very nice. It's attractive and makes me want to interact with the page. That's great.
The one time I built a family tree graphically was when my kids had a school project to do. We wanted to print a nicely organized diagram but couldn't do it with the tools we found online. We ended up printing out the information from a text file and organizing it ourselves on a sheet of paper. I don't know if I'd have paid for something or not at the time. It definitely would have been a one time use, though.
Overall I expected the interaction to be more like a modern maps interface (think Google maps) - zoomable with scroll wheel, click and drag to pan, etc.
The click to navigate seemed outdated. If I want to move up and to the right. Click the button on the right, now click the button on the top, now to the right a few more times...
Same feedback for the time line. It's a neat idea but I expected to be able to navigate by dragging it around.
Also, the zoom +- would be easier to use if they stayed in a fixed location. Having them centered based on the size of the zoom scale meant they kept jumping around. Really hard to click, click, click to zoom in.
If navigation were a little easier and more fluid I could see using something like this to create hierarchical diagrams. Right now it was too frustrating to examine larger trees.
I hope the feedback helps.
The one time I built a family tree graphically was when my kids had a school project to do. We wanted to print a nicely organized diagram but couldn't do it with the tools we found online. We ended up printing out the information from a text file and organizing it ourselves on a sheet of paper. I don't know if I'd have paid for something or not at the time. It definitely would have been a one time use, though.
Overall I expected the interaction to be more like a modern maps interface (think Google maps) - zoomable with scroll wheel, click and drag to pan, etc.
The click to navigate seemed outdated. If I want to move up and to the right. Click the button on the right, now click the button on the top, now to the right a few more times...
Same feedback for the time line. It's a neat idea but I expected to be able to navigate by dragging it around.
Also, the zoom +- would be easier to use if they stayed in a fixed location. Having them centered based on the size of the zoom scale meant they kept jumping around. Really hard to click, click, click to zoom in.
If navigation were a little easier and more fluid I could see using something like this to create hierarchical diagrams. Right now it was too frustrating to examine larger trees.
I hope the feedback helps.
Thanks for the feedback though I should point out that you can drag both the family tree and timeline. Just click and drag. The navigation buttons are just there for people who don't like dragging. Zooming is something we are planning.
I was looking at the pricing, and I don't know how willing people would be to pay per month for this... Have you considered making it a one-time cost instead of that?
We are happy to experiment with pricing. This is however Software as a Service so I think a monthly fee is probably more suitable.
The problem with a fixed price for SaaS is that you only receive a one-time fee but you have ongoing costs. You are guaranteed to eventually lose money on that customer which for a small start-up like us is not viable.
We will probably develop a downloadable desktop version that people can use on their own computers. This would just be a one-off cost.
Thanks for commenting.
The problem with a fixed price for SaaS is that you only receive a one-time fee but you have ongoing costs. You are guaranteed to eventually lose money on that customer which for a small start-up like us is not viable.
We will probably develop a downloadable desktop version that people can use on their own computers. This would just be a one-off cost.
Thanks for commenting.
Beautiful app. You deserve some attention here. I was worried for a second it was going to be flash heavy. You proved me wrong. Great work.
Thanks for your positive comments. You are right, no flash. Thanks to hard work by browser developers, you can achieve pretty impressive stuff using just JS, CSS and HTML. I am indebted to them.
Congratulations on a great new product.
One thing that I would like to see is have a small context map (plot area and the window that you are looking at) so that it helps the users while dragging the plot.
I see that the product is not timeline friendly unlike your timeline product.
The use cases are not as evident as your other timeline product.
Good luck.
I see that the product is not timeline friendly unlike your timeline product.
The use cases are not as evident as your other timeline product.
Good luck.
Clickable link: http://www.peopleplotr.com
Clickable http://www.tiki-toki.com
Very polished UI. I would prefer a bit more contrast on some of the controls, but the product looks solid otherwise. Is it possible to export the data into a standard file format (if one exists)?
You can currently export to our propriety JSON format. We're looking at more export options: CSV, and maybe the GEDCOM family tree format,
I am shortly to launch our new product - www.peopleplotr.com (web-based software for creating interactive people plots and family trees). Would love to hear what people think of the product. Bit of background: Used to run a boutique web dev agency (me and my wife and some freelancers). Decided to make the move into a product company in April last year when we launched www.tiki-toki.com (software for creating web-based timelines). PeoplePlotr is our second product.