Ask HN: Review my startup, JobKaster.com

[cajuntrep]

It's been a long road to get here. I started this journey over a year and a half ago. After spending almost $10K on overseas developers, to learning that I can't do this alone and what a mistake that was, to finding a cofounder as passionate as I am, and to founding an actual team of allstar devs... We're finally releasing JobKaster Beta.

It's nowhere near where we want it to be, but it's time to get it out there.

I would love to get some feedback from the HN community. I know we need more jobs and to update the design. What else do you see that we can improve upon?

Link: www.jobkaster.com

Thanks,

Paul

[notahacker]

Jobs in this region:

  - KFC Team member
  - Pizza Hut General Manager

Focus on the quality/variety of jobs as much as the quantity, and introduce filters. Of course it's entirely possible that low end jobs are your main target market (jobs are more interchangeable and commuting really hurts low-paid employees' income) but at the very least, I'd want to be able to filter by broad category and career level, even if only to show me there's nothing likely to interest me.

[cajuntrep → notahacker]

Of course, our main goal right now is to add a larger variety of jobs, but we had to make sure the core functionality was in place.

Filters are in the pipeline, but without variety, there is nothing to filter.

We'll be working hard to add a larger database and variety of jobs in the next few weeks / months.

Thanks!

[vitiell0]

Hey Paul,

Site is looking good, however when I typed San Francisco into the search bar I couldn't get it to relocate the map. Tried hitting enter, and clicking find me just took me to my current location. Is there a way to view cities that you're not in right now?

Also is there a possible list view sorted by distance instead of map view?

Cheers, Daniel

[cajuntrep → vitiell0]

Daniel,

Thanks for the feedback! I see what you are saying. It's working great if you share your location and search in your area. But, if you're moving to say SF, like you said, it's not taking you to SF, only using your current location.

We'll have to fix that. Great point.

The list view is on the way. We currently have list view functionality if you are logged in as a job seeker. We did this to encourage signups, but I think we will move it the homepage.

Then we'll just have to add sorting features. If it's not already there.

Thanks!

[ravi_jobkaster → vitiell0]

Hi Daniel:

The sidebar is sorted by distance from your current location. Also, feel free to pan and zoom the map to your location of interest -- the jobs will auto-magically appear!

[dgunn]

Dude. DEBUG is True right now. If you didn't code this, tell the person who did that DEBUG is currently True so he/she can change that.

Also, why did your devs create the entire django project in a single django app? I bet that's difficult to keep track of.

[cajuntrep → dgunn]

Dude, you might as well be talking gibberish to me, :)

But, the team said thanks, and it's fixed!

Regarding the Django project / app, they gave me an answer, but it was just as over my head as your question was. They didn't seem to think this was an issue though.

It's hard to learn to code when you're dedicating every waking hour after your 9-5 to your startup. I don't remember the last time I logged in to my codeacademy account. I'll learn one day!

[hardwaresofton]

Hey Paul,

TL;DR - Front page could be snazzier, alert the user more clearly, log things

I'm browsing from chrome on a desktop (I'm not sure if the site also has a mobile version) -- and I've got a few comments:

I see you guys are using bootstrap. I think, however, that there are a lot more nice-looking bootstrapped site layouts however. If you look around here, a lot of the launching pads and site layouts are incredibly simple, but the simplicity, along with some fancy fonts, and well sectioned contents, make them nice to look at (though a bit cookie cutter).

A bit more on the design of the front page -- I realize header bars are a little boring and over done, but you guys probably want one. and having login be a dropdown would definitely save you some space up there.

Getting an account should be something in Bold print, not just under there, sort of hiding. The tag line to the right on the navbar you have there, should really go under or near your logo, since that's one of the first places that people look when they go to a website (top left -- theres some research on this, but I am too lazy to go find it)

Also, That navbar as a whole is kind of placed awkwardly in the middle of the page... I think you would do well to expand it to the whole page, or something.

As far as the area with the map, this bootstrap template (http://twitter.github.io/bootstrap/examples/carousel.html) could help a bunch. Not that you have to use the carousel, but I think you would benefit from putting that map on some sort of blurred out picture of people working or something (which could even be carouseling), and next to it (like you have now) you can put a "Look for jobs now!" tag line with the search bar, and put the results there, etc.

I think the ideal place to put things like a huge sign up button would be under the results (or maybe in it's own row right under), and that's where you can also put the "Looking for employees"/"employer?" button also, which will take them to the info/pricing page.

The bottom part with the three columns of information goes wwell with the example templates bootstrap has on their site, as well as a bunch of landing pages that are out there: https://www.gathercontent.com/ (example from bootstrap, you can find a bunch of pages like this/better on HN, as you already know -- just search "Show HN:" or something)

Basically, your site is just a tad too plain for my tastes at the moment, given how awesome what you're doing is -- and how big it could get.

As far as functionality, I'm in Austin, TX, and searching didn't quite work. You guys probably have a handle on that, but what I want to say about it is that when things DON'T work out, and no jobs are found, or it doesn't know where you are (which you should take care of, like if I'm not sharing my location, it should maybe default to somewhere, or ask me?), a non-intrusive modal (which might be an oxymoron... just maybe at least over the map, letting me know nothing was found, rather than the head turn to the right side of the page.

Just had a thought -- What if you overlaid the results, and maybe even the search onto the map? You could get space for a bigger map, have search on the top, results at left (I would prefer left, since that's where people's eyes tend to drag over) -- and dim anything that isn't in focus/use?

This is all in my opinion, most of it isn't even about functionality, but if you're looking for places to go, get the design devs to at least think about these changes, I think they'd add a level of polish that your site would benefit from...

It's true that it's the functionality that matters, but I think some style and a little UI changes would do wonders

Also, I'm not sure you've thought of this -- but log EVERYTHING, in the most inexpensive way possible. If your site takes off (and by takes off, I mean over 10 users), logging things like how long people connect, where they search, and trying to discover facts about your users will make you much more than just a job classifieds page. And it will also help you make a better business.

[cajuntrep → hardwaresofton]

Great feedback!

We are completely optimized for mobile.

We don't really have a designer on the team, and we all agree the overall design needs some work so design/UI critiques are very, very welcomed.

I don't want to comment on each and every section because I honestly don't have a design bone in my body, but I assure you I will be taking all of your suggestions to the team to see where we can improve.

Love the overlay suggestion. That's pretty awesome.

Suggestions on log-in, signup, info/pricing, nav bar - taken.

Once again, thanks for the advice. This is where we really need some help so it was most appreciated.

Paul

[hardwaresofton → cajuntrep]

No problem, glad to help! I think the app is going to do really well if it's as simple as it looks.

I also maybe have only one fake design bone in my body, I'm trying to learn as I go, much like you all :)

[cajuntrep → hardwaresofton]

Maybe, but you had some great ideas on UI.

Plus it's hard to continue to look at things objectively when you've been staring at it for the past 6 months! :)