[siong1987]

Ok. I spent 10 minutes to download SilverLight and restarted my browser just to view the video. Why don't you just use the flash video player?

Then, when I proceeded to the sign up page, I were "amazed" that you created the price plan with SilverLight too. And, it took time to load again just to view the price and to login.

When I stumbled upon the sign up form, there were too much information that I have to give. This doesn't really favor any users who want to try the service (first name, last name, email, username, etc in SilveerLight). And, I have to wait for a confirmation email to get started?!? Luckily, the confirmation email reached faster than I thought and I gave my actual email. I wish that you won't spam my mail box.

And, finally, I cousd get started with the service. I stared at it for 2 minutes and had no clue how to use it. Then, I clicked the close button. I will try the service again if someone in HN give a good review about it.

I know that it is partially my fault because I didn't watch the 8mins long intro video and the popup tooltips in the working platform.

http://riastats.com/ < You can see that there is only ~15% of penetration of silverlight on internet. Hopefully microsoft will put in more marketing budget in Silverlight despite the "failure" of Vista.

Sorry if I am too harsh on my language and I am not trying to discourage you at all.

[stormideas]

Thanks. The reason for using Silverlight for the video is to encourage people to get over the Silverlight installation hurdle as soon as possible.

I've been back and forward on whether that's a good idea, and whether we should replace the demo video with a flash version. Will definetely think it over again.

We're currently redeveloping the sign up process as a more standard html form, clearly this was me getting a bit too swept up in my Silverlight development efforts!

I'm also working on a "Try it now, in a demo workspace" feature to allow people to try it without submitting any information at all. Maybe I should also change the email confirmation step to be something that needs to be completed in time, rather than something that needs to be completed before you can log in.

Do you think 8 minutes is too long for the intro video? Should we make a shorter / snappier version?

Thanks for all the feedback, very useful.

[gb]

I think you're more likely to lose people immediately with that hurdle - I certainly wouldn't install Silverlight just to view a video to see if I was interested in a service, but if the video made the service look interesting enough I might well download a plugin to try it.

[stormideas]

Seems obvious to me now! Will sort it out.

[tower10]

I was more than happy to download the Silverlight plugin (I didn't have it installed). After an apparent successful install (latest OSX) and restarting Firefox, I'm told the plugin's not installed. I don't know how typical this is but perhaps Silverlight's not ready for the prime time yet?

[ovi256]

> I've been back and forward on whether that's a good idea, and whether we should replace the demo video with a flash version. Will definetely think it over again.

Do an A/B test for a month using Google Analytics. That should settle it. Anything else is pure speculation.

This is simple but very, very important : any testable hypothesis should be tested. Long live popperianism.

[stormideas]

A/B testing is definetely the way to go, my only excuse is that up until now I've had my head so deep in the development to even begin to think about much else!

[pclark]

I dont think 8 minutes is too long, but make sure you have a bullet list that says what your app is, what it does, who its for. Make it simple, make it exceptionally clear what you're doing and why your customer NEEDS your service. Re-iterate how bad collaboration is without your software.

[axod]

Was the confirmation email in silverlight too? ;)

[siong1987]

Nope.

[pclark]

extracting some constructive criticism from this (and my own thoughts:

* make the intro video in flash as well as silverlight! :)

* I'm personally really against confirmation email things.

* price plans/intro as HTML/PNG/Flash as well as silverlight

I think its important to really sell your site to users without silverlight - they will absolutley install silverlight if they WANT your service.

[stormideas]

I think you're right - allow them to evaluate the service with as few hurdles as possible first and then deal with the Silverlight install issue once they have made a decision. Working on it already!

[cosmo7]

If it took 10 minutes for you to download the plugin you might want to try replacing your 14.4k modem.

[cosmo7]

Jeez, you're modding me down for questioning a 10-minute download for a 4.6M file?

What is this? 1995?

[Hexstream]

There's lots of reasons not to want to install a potentially bloated "platform" like Silverlight besides download speed.

[scott_s]

"Was that really how long it took to download the file?" is questioning his claim. Telling him to replace his 14.4k modem is unnecessary snark with a hidden question.

[bprater]

He's being a wiseass. It's not even funny.