Show HN: Simple, collaborative learning

[kevinelliott]

I'm a long time HN lurker, and wanted to show a side project that I recently started working on that I think has some merit.

If you're an avid learner who is working on lots of different topics at any given time, as I know most HN folks are, you know that keeping track of what you are learning, the resources (books, tutorials, articles, courses, etc), and your progress along the way is difficult to do. LearnTribe solves this problem by providing a social way to organize and track your learning efforts.

I'd especially appreciate some honest, but constructive criticism about the concept and implementation. Note that the site is lacking a real design treatment (mood, colors, logo, etc) and needs a look at UX. I'm hunting for a design partner to take the project to the next level.

[mostlystatic]

I like the idea of creating lists of learning resources and tracking progress in these lists. I'm a bit confused though: is that actually the main purpose of the site? The About page also mentions learning with friends and sharing results with potential employers. Maybe that could be made clearer on the homepage and the "easily learn any topic" could be removed.

You're right, the UX could use some work. Could you move the "Add resource" below the list of resources? Initially I also didn't realize that there's a difference between "Edit profile" and "Edit account".

When I clicked the "Add resource" button nothing happened (Chrome on OS X Lion).

As an idea, maybe there's a way to suggest the next resource in a list to the user?

[kevinelliott]

Good idea, I need to sync the About page with the front page. The copy should be consistent and clear! Yes, the primary purpose of the site is to collaboratively learn topics, but there's no reason you need to do it with other people if you want to stay siloed.

I considered having the Add button below resources, but after you have 5 or 6 lists, the button disappears down the page. Haven't figured out a good solution for that yet. I looked into the button not working, and the bug is that it works on the list's page, but not on the manage page. Thanks!

I looked on other sites, and it seems pretty common to separate your profile settings (how people see your profile, etc) from your account settings (username, password, email). Any thoughts on how to make it more clear?

You're reading my mind. I already have a "next resource in list" feature, but have disabled it in the UI until it's complete. Also, there will be a way to do this on the dashboard across multiple lists, but I haven't come up with a good algorithm that users can control to determine what resources from which lists to do next. That might be overkill.

Really appreciate the feedback. Keep it coming.

[mostlystatic]

You're right, I was using the manage page to add a resource. It's working now.

You could put a duplicate of the button at the bottom of the list or just show it when there are no resources in the list.

I see that separating the profile and account setting makes sense. Maybe I was confused because I didn't expect to have as many profile settings. You could add a link between the two pages to clarify it further.

Good luck!

[kevinelliott]

Thank you!

[kevinelliott]

I'm a long time HN lurker, and wanted to show a side project that I recently started working on that I think has some merit.

If you're an avid learner who is working on lots of different topics at any given time, as I know most HN folks are, you know that keeping track of what you are learning, the resources (books, tutorials, articles, courses, etc), and your progress along the way is difficult to do. LearnTribe solves this problem by providing a social way to organize and track your learning efforts.

I'd especially appreciate some honest, but constructive criticism about the concept and implementation. Note that the site is lacking a real design treatment (mood, colors, logo, etc) and needs a look at UX. I'm hunting for a design partner to take the project to the next level.