Ask HN: Review my website, please.

On the home page, it says "lighter is more popular, darker is less." That's the inverse of what people expect. I recommend switching it around.

My two cents: I'd change the design: I'd make the front page more like Google. (Search box in the middle)<p>And your site is full of features - like "Browse baby names..." and "We have amazing maps..." those thing are features - what you need to do is list the benefits. You should tell the users what value they get. Example: Our coats have double lining = feature: Our coats keep you warmer = value.<p>And from a users experience point of view: The site isn't very instructive and its hard to navigate.<p>For me I want to use the site to find the least "popular" name - I guess a user can figure it out by your maps and boxes - But wouldn't it be great to just type in a name and get a page back with a "name popularity" map? Or if I need suggestion for names maybe you could do that too via popularity - by entering a state?<p>Like I said just my two cents.

I built my site a few months and have been tweaking it and trying to get more exposure. There are some really bad baby name websites out there - and lots of them are in the top 10 search results for "baby names"... grrrr.<p>I thought I could make something better, and here it is.<p>At first, my unique angle were these scalable "clusters" of names (based on word similarity). And, I also had links to wikipedia grouped by name. I also had very detailed popularity charts over time.<p>Just recently, I made these US maps which are shaded by popularity for each state. That is a totally unique feature which is not available at any other baby name website. They are actually really interesting to explore.<p>Anyway, what do I do now? I want more visitors and better search ranking. I have some other ideas for the site itself - like to simplify the multiple page types ("cluster" page vs. "single name" page) into one page for name details. And I have a few other ideas with respect to the maps.<p>I think I am going to re-brand/rename my site to: BabyNamesAcrossAmerica.com since my main feedback from friends is that my URL is kinds of geeky and hard to remember. But, there are so many domains with "babyname" already taken.<p>Thanks for any suggestions.

I agree, get rid of the "clusters" name.<p>But not only that, the search results page is too complex. What is "rank (modified)"? What is the "cluster popularity"?<p>The entire concept of the cluster chart is probably something most parents aren't interested in.

I found the site a little confusing (like the others on here).<p>Good concept - needs tweaks in the execution :D<p>Like: - Needs plain english (no jargon) - Explain what everything means(I still dont quite get what the clusters are and how they work).<p>This page is probably your best! <a href="http://www.babynameclusters.com/map/" rel="nofollow">http://www.babynameclusters.com/map/</a> nice and clear and intuitive.<p>The clusters page really needs a map. The graph can be a little confusing? no?

Looks interesting. Keep in mind that this site is probably your best known competition when it comes to baby name charting: <a href="http://www.babynamewizard.com/voyager" rel="nofollow">http://www.babynamewizard.com/voyager</a><p>I heard about it probably 2 years ago when it first started getting some major press. Since then I haven't bothered looking for other baby name info sites (and I actually named a baby 5 months ago, so I speak from experience).

Pretty cool, I think simplifying the layout a bit would be good. Make it easy to access names by location, time, etc. Also, it would be cool to suggest other names based on preferences à la Amazon.com.

Blue links with yellow backgrounds on top of pink and lighter pink rows? With red graphs and a purplish logo? Get some advice from a professional designer. :)

It'd be sweet if you had name forecasting--based on trends, what names are due for a rise in popularity and which names are at their peak.