Ask YC: Please review my first startup, Soshiku

First and foremost, awesome clean design. Also the copy on the homepage is very clear and concise. I know what it is, what it does and whether or not I might like to try it after about 10 seconds. Kudos.<p>Have it marked to dive in deeper later.

The big button on your front page says "Take A Tour". "Sign Up" is tucked way down at the bottom and requires scrolling (it is also in the top menu bar sure, but it isn't as visible there). I knew I didn't want to take a tour since I figured I <i>got</i> the service from the blurb, but wasn't sure what else to do from the home page.<p>The largest button is not only the most visible activity, but it's also an implicit suggestion to your users. Do you want people to sign up, or do you want them to take a tour? Plant the idea in their mind with design.<p>Smaller notes: I have no idea how to generate that funky calendar I saw in the tour, or to tell the system that I've completed an assignment once created. Also - just to be picky - the header colors really don't work for me. Blue and green and another blue, and another blue and dark grey and light grey? Multiple borders and banners? If you aren't working with a designer, try keeping the site simple and iterate towards a more attractive site. Design that adds complexity works against the impression of simplicity and usability (it communicates money). I believe your logo against a simple white background would be more attractive to potential users than the ruckus up there now. Simpler design would also call more attention to the content you really want users to see.

If you'd have said "review my app", I would've said it's awesome. Great job.<p>But the moment you call it a startup, I have to ask how you make money. So, how do you plan to make money? Students are poor, and cheap, and I'm not sure ads would fit it even if you had the traffic.

Very good design. You are obviously very talented.<p>However, I don't think your site solves the problem better than a pen and a piece of paper.<p>I'm going to paraphrase a quote I read once: "the web is your hammer, and everything looks like a nail." Every problem is not best solved via the web. I think this may be one of those cases. But I could be wrong.<p>Either way, great looking site and good luck.

Very nice look. A pixel level gripe, for you: Can you get rid of the blue line fragments between the 'h' &#38; 'i' and the 'i' &#38; 'k' in the logo?

Thank you for all the wonderful comments.<p>Zacharye, that certainly was my goal. :)<p>Aston, yes I'll fix that right away.<p>Siong, thanks for the suggestions. You can (mostly) do all of that by adding partners to your account, and then using the discussion pane on the assignment page. And for "peer pressure", a users' total grade does show on their public profile.<p>About monetization: for now I'm focusing on just unobtrusive AdSense ads, but I'm definitely brainstorming about the future.<p>Jbenz, yes it's 100% free and I plan on keeping it that way. Should I replace "But that's just the tip of the iceberg." with "And it's totally free." with, say, a yellow highlight?

Maybe some communities features like: 1. add someone who is in your class or taking the same subject. 2. discussion board. 3. and, the evil thing: peer pressure - you can see who has finished their homeworks but you are still working on something else.

Good looking app. Stands out as distinct and memorable.<p>The name is a bit obscure and hard to remember. Might hurt word of mouth (which could be a big deal on campuses).<p>I'd recommend getting rid of the adwords. Highly doubtful that they'll make you much money, and its a big distraction.<p>An alternative monetization approach would be to search for keywords on peoples pages and have a sidebar that recommends books (on amazon affiliates) based on the keywords on their notebooks. Call it a book recommender. Fairly easy to parse out keywords and query recommendation on amazon, and you could even run this as a cron job nightly. Here's a good libary: <a href="http://www.caliban.org/ruby/ruby-aws/" rel="nofollow">http://www.caliban.org/ruby/ruby-aws/</a><p>Nice move focusing on email, sms, and facebook integration. This is the key features that will keep people using your app. More than any fancy html management interface. May be worth looking at iPhone/mobile interface and meebo support for chatting with partners.<p>Just a few random thoughts. Hope they are helpful.

Very clean interface, the app works smothly, etc.<p>BUT<p>This is not useful to me as a student if I have to enter all of my assignments manually. If I know what to enter, why do I need to be reminded?<p>If there were some way to import assignments and classes from somewhere else, then it would be very useful. I don't know how feasible that would be, but there's no way I'd use Soshiku without that feature.

Hah! I had the same idea in college, and even registered a domain name (ssure.com, as in pre.ssure.com). I was going to revolve it around the idea of assignments and work amounting to 'pressure' on you, and your job was to complete stuff and reduce this pressure.<p>Seems that this is implemented very well. Will check it out in a deeper fashion soonish.

I think its a very good concept and, from my personal research with my own start-up, an industry with a lot of potential for growth. The question is, what is it that will seperate you out specifically from the rest of these CMS and similar systems? I'm not just talking about Blackboard or other enterprise only systems, there are a growing amount of these free/open-source systems. Also, how do you expect to reach your audience. The internet is big and even advertising about it on the side of Facebook or some other place isn't going to get that many people. (Most of the time students aren't going to opt to go out of there way to setup something like this.)

The layout fails on Google Chrome. It shows the "Simple Assignment Tracking" etc. chapters each on separate vertical space, and "Partner Up" goes below "Sign up" and "Take the Tour"-buttons.<p>Yes, I blame Chrome and not your site.<p>Update: I find the images on <a href="http://soshiku.com/tour" rel="nofollow">http://soshiku.com/tour</a> a bit too big -- the page is really big right now (i.e. lots of pixels). Lots to scroll even on a 1920x1200 resolution.<p>An me nagging about such small detail proves that you overall design works for me!

Awesome work. I just graduated last year or else I would be using that right now.<p>One suggestion would be to have the Tour be a multi page process, so there isn't so much scrolling, also I am a sucker for videos demonstrating functionality. Just something real simple showing how to do each of the different functions.<p>I work at a university so I will be recommending it to any students I meet. Great work.

I like the marketing material you have on the site to explain the different features. It looks patterned off of 37Signals, but hey, it works. I'm curious to what going up to random college students on campus and demoing the site to them on the spot would bring to you.<p>How are you planning to monetize this? Hitting up the PTA or college groups?

Excellent design. Good implementation. Expand it to work projects or find a way to make it appeal to freelancers. Etc. :)

As a college student, I thank you.<p>However, one thing I would personally change is a small usability issue I noticed on the Courses page. I would like to be able to add a course, and not have to navigate back to Home to be able to add a new assignment. I think it would just really clarify things a bit better.

Is everything a startup now? Every time someone makes an application, it's a fucking startup...<p>The design is nice, but it looks like a secret love affair with 37signals products. I guess some might say that's a plus...<p>I'll also echo the comment that I'm not sure this is particularly useful/needed.

You could sell this to a school. I am taking 3 classes, which means 3 different websites and several PDFs. It would be great to have everything in one place automatically in a web page plain text format.

Does the name "Soshiku" have a meaning? It sounds very Japanese to me but I'm drawing a blank on an exact meaning. My conjugation is pretty weak these days.

I closed the browser as soon as I noticed the logo. Sorry...I cant bring myself to look at another clone web 2.0 logo.<p>Good luck with the site though.

I take it the service is free? Slip the word "free" into the homepage content somewhere.<p>Great design. It look professional because it's so simple.

Very cool. It's useful, nice and neat. I wish I had something like this in college.<p>I'll definitely use it when (if?) I start a Masters degree.

Fantastic, clean design. I'm adding courses now, I'll let you know how it goes by the end of the term, heh.

Great design, forwarded the link to my little brother.<p>How do you make money? Book sales?

Nice design that provides immediate comprehension.<p>Understood it in a few seconds!

Excellent.