Show HN: ImpasseBreaker – Double-blind negotiation

[impassebreaker]

Hey folks -- love your feedback on our negotiation platform, www.impassebreaker.com. IB uses double-blind comparison of two users' "bottom line" financial positions to determine if they have a match and can then stop wasting time nickel and diming in endless negotiation. If there's a match, IB sends an email to both users reporting the amount of the match, currently the mid-point between the "ceiling" and the "floor" and if no it sends an e-mail saying no match. A couple of use cases: real estate sales, salary negotiation, lawsuit settlement . . . We have other features on the drawing boards -- payments, settlement document drafting, among them -- for now, we'd love your feedback and thoughts on the current site. Login and use are free and you can register with a Facebook or linkedIn account. Many thanks in advance for your thoughts and feedback [e-mail].

[Styn]

I really like the concept! However I think your landing page could use some work. The call to action (Registering) isn't as clear as it could be. What I would do is add a big button 'register' and ask the user to pick a way to register after that. At first glance the facebook logo could just be a link to your facebook page or something.

Also you need some way to lure people in, some screenshots, a short video. I want to know in what state of development a service is before I sign up!

Hope this helps in any way :)

[impassebreaker]

. . . and have added a green login/register button that clicks open a modal window with login options to address your first comment. Thanks for this! After you stare at something long enough (as I have) a fresh set of eyes really awesome.

[luka-birsa]

I agree with Styn, a screenshot of your page in action, a demo and/or a video would be nice.

I don't like to register for sites that aren't clear on how they work.

[impassebreaker]

I am going to work on that. Made some minor style changes that I just pushed to try to clarify that the buttons allow for login and added a "tell me more link" under the login buttons that leads to an "about us" page. The platform is actually fully functional -- the founding team has pretty solid technical and subject matter expertise -- a software engineer/lawyer and a couple of practicing lawyers who negotiate for a living -- but your comments point to a weakness in design, and that is critical.

Many thanks! Screenshots and more explanation to follow.

Stephen

[impassebreaker]

OK -- I've pushed a slide-show of screenshots showing IB in action. It's accessible via the "IB in action" link on the homepage. I'll add a bit more (and I like the animation idea) but hopefully this will give you a better idea of what IB does. Thanks again for the feedback. Very helpful!

[Styn]

The idea is right, but I would change the blue text, in some screenshots it's very hard to read. Another thing would be to change the screenshots so they have a story. Alice is selling her 2nd hand car to Bob for example, with branching storyline for succesful and unsuccesful resolution.

[impassebreaker]

Thanks -- I'm going to work on the the presentation style and put together some use cases. You're right -- the blue is hard. I need to move the description above the carousel and outside of the slides. There are also some decent cartoon tools I've found that may help for the examples. So will definitely refine this. Greatly appreciate your input--very helpful, on the mark, and much appreciated!

[amitamb]

I saw your submission on /r/startups and was going to suggest the tool I just released but here it is http://www.castbin.com/casts/ruGwZPcv

Do let me know your feedback.

[impassebreaker]

This is pretty awesome. Just created an account and it looks really useful. I'll spend a little bit of time playing with it today and see if I can integrate. Nice work! Thanks a ton for the suggestion (and good luck with this)! Stephen

[impassebreaker]

Thank you -- that's very helpful. The FB and LI login links are fully functional but you're right it's not clear. We've also thought about animation or a video. Maybe screenshots will help -- I like the idea, and we can do that ourselves; we're completely bootstrapped have to be careful about cost. Many thanks for the feedback! Stephen