Great work by the Ge.tt team. I hope they be able to grow this service even further. The competition, Venture cup, which they won in 2010 was won by us (Iconfinder) in 2011. Small world!
Glad to see this, knowing it will help ge.tt survive a good while. I've been using their file sharing service frequently since I first saw it advertised here on HN about a year ago. With features such as f.e. their MP3 player, and the real-time sharing (share files while they're still being uploaded), it's definitely the best file sharing solution I've seen. Also a big thumbs up for letting people share anonymously and instantly, without the hassle of registering an account.
Well, looking at your website I wasn't sure what to do. Your step 1 is "enter unique name for your drop" - it should be : "upload a file to share" that's the main thing.
I would make the upload file the center, take a look at ge.tt :)
Well to be honest I have a different approach to sharing. If you've ever used drop.io you know mine is similar.
The idea behind mine is you can create custom urls for the files you upload hence why you have to select a name (or keep the random one generated for you).
It's a shame that some people just give up trying to figure it out without even attempting to click or interact with a site.
I appreciate your feedback but I can only dumb down the process so much :)
I'm sorry that i'm going to sound negative (i'm really just trying to offer some perspective), but that just isn't the right approach for a product you want actual people to use. It's not "dumbing down", it's proper UX/UI that enables your visitors to "just know" what to do next.
Taking a look at your landing page, I am immediately presented with an interface that seems less than intuitive. There are too many options in my face. If i'm going to drag and drop the file (this is dropsauce after all) why is there an add files button as the most prominent item in the page? Why is there an upload button? Can't you just upload things in the background and show me an inline progress bar ala Gmail?
It's not 'dumbing down' the process. It's making it clearer for the end user what exactly your site does. If someone on HN couldn't figure it out - you've got problems.
For example,
Change from "Enter a name for your drop" to "Enter a name for your file drop"
On your title it could be - "dropsauce - Drop off your files at Dropsauce & share them"
Right now your site looks like it's about naming your drop. Not about putting files which can be password and time protected.
The reason for drop vs add button is because some browsers don't support drag-n-drop (they wouldn't see that option).
Maybe I will go back to the drawing board and make dropping/uploading files the primary focus and naming it or changing passwords/expiry more of an option.
Would hiding those items in a collapsable div be the right thing?
I.e. the first thing you see when you get on the page is to upload files. And if you want to change options, click to expand the form and change it there.
