Hey HN!
We’ve built a tool that dynamically adjusts the complexity of software interfaces based on a user's interaction with it.<p>It works by hiding non-essential/advanced UI elements for new users, reducing cognitive load and guiding them to their "aha moment" more efficiently. We refer to this as „simple mode“.<p>Non-essential features are progressively revealed when the user is ready to use them, and we’ve also added an option for users to manually switch „simple mode“ off.<p>Every Feature in vykee consists of Elements. Elements can be selected via UI picker or via code by adding the vykee attribute.<p>Our analytics tool allows you to easily measure the usage of Features and Elements over time. You can identify the ones that are (a) not used or (b) used a few times in the beginning but not again. Those non-essential Features can be hidden by applying conditions for revealing them.<p>As we’re still very early, I’d love to get your feedback on the tool and thoughts re simplifying complex software more broadly.
This concept has a well-known name that you don't seem to use in your design or marketing called "Progressive Disclosure." It was coined back in 2006 to explain this concept.<p>I do think it's tricky to do this as a 3rd party website. Most sites would want the disclosure logic to live inside their product, as coded logic. I do like the concept and how you've built this.
As a founder of an increasingly complex SaaS service (<a href="https://reclaim.ai" rel="nofollow">https://reclaim.ai</a>) I love the mission. I'll be checking it out. Good luck!
Just what I need for my SaaS. I've filled in the form - only thing I'd love is a way to display a message to a user about what's been unlocked.<p>Like "Congratulations, you've added your first page. Now you can filter"
You must explicitly state that what they are seeing is a simplified version, or present a choice. I am the kind of user who would leave if the interface seems too simple (lacking abundance of features to explore)
How you do you solve for, or imagine solving for the hiding of potentially important UI without running to risk users not finding what they are looking for and not realizing it is "just hidden". Without having to first know that they are missing something, how will they know? Is there a partial-hide?
I had this exact idea while working on the growth team at Evernote, but couldn’t get anyone to buy into actually doing it. Good to see someone actually doing it.
My thoughts as a SaaS user/purchaser:<p>Can I opt out quickly so I can see how the difficult things work?<p>Will I get this flow every time I change computers, delete cookies, etc?<p>How much will it bloat the experience once I'm an expert? These things always have telemetry ... will it still be collecting telemetry forever?<p>As someone who buys line-of-business software, I know these concerns are rarely considered by the SaaS developer, but they are important.<p>Unrelated : Why does every product page do the fading in thing? When I return to your site to see things I scroll down to a bunch of blank stuff waiting for your animations to catch up. Is this how you prefer the rest of the web?
Very cool idea. I have implemented such "dumbing down" manually a couple of times - can confirm the pain is real.<p>Have to admit that the difference between the "before" and "after" UI in the video doesn't feel big enough. Did you consider removing also the "Projects" list on the left? Or reducing it?
The picker looks cool. I like the idea. I know that we actually do something similar already at work as well as having a tour. I can't see myself using this if I were a startup software product, it's just too easy and contextual to build and analytics are already an essential.