Beta launch of DIY Mobile Website Builder service. Looking for feedback.

[sjalexandre]

Hi,

(As this is my first post, my apologies in advance if this isn't the correct forum for this post.)

We just launched the beta of our DIY mobile website development tool and are looking to get some input/feedback from the experts on this forum.

The service is called Jinnsite and the beta can be accessed at the following URL: (spaces included due to first post)

jinnsite . com / signup ? beta

The service was designed primarily for individuals (business owners) looking to create mobile-optimized websites by allowing them to create pre-defined pages (About Us, Contact Us, Photos, Videos, etc.) that they can then customize. The service is completely self-hosted so a mobile website can be up and running in minutes. (The user creates a unique site name for the site which is then available at <site-name> . jinnsite . net)

While the tool is designed to be easy enough for the novice to use, it also has some advanced features to make it powerful enough to be useful to both designers and developers. Some of the advanced features include the ability to include both site-wide and page-level css and javascript, custom headers and footers, domain aliasing, website redirection, etc.


From a tech perspective, the service was built using GWT/SmartGWT so it's 100% AJAX-based and should run on most modern browsers.

I would greatly appreciate feedback regarding any of the following aspects of the service:

• the aesthetics of the tool
• user-friendliness / how intuitive it is to use and navigate
• the generated mobile-optimized output
• essential missing features
• nice to haves
• your judgement of the usefulness of the service to business owners, web designers, developers, etc.

Thank you!


Some additional notes regarding the beta:

• Jinnsite was developed with Google Chrome as the primary browser. It should work on the latest versions of Safari, Firefox and IE, however these aren't as well tested.
• On Firefox, there is a known issue where the FileManager and/or the Preview emulator will not appear full size. A fix is being worked on.
• The FileManager currently allows only one file to be uploaded at a time. An update to allow multiple uploads is being worked on.
• The beta is currently limited only to 2 sites.
• There's very little documentation so far, but when prompted for information, hovering over a field will generally provide a hint.
• The emulator has 2 modes: Live and Preview. It's set to Preview by default which will show every page created whether it's published or not. Live mode is what the public sees and only shows published pages.

[andymoore]

Ten bucks a month for a sub domain hosted mobile site with no demo?

Good luck with that.

[sjalexandre]

Ten bucks a month for a sub domain hosted mobile site with no demo?

Good luck with that.

Hi Andy,

Thanks for the candid feedback. We're working on updating the website since there seems to be some confusion around the service. The service fee isn't really for the sub-domain hosting but for access to the tool itself which allows anyone (presumably novices without any programming skills) to create a mobile-optimized site and manipulate its content as they see fit.

You mentioned a demo and that's something we've thought about implementing. I was wondering, however, what your thoughts are between a demo and a 30 day free trial? My main concern with a public demo is that it would essentially have to be shared account and then you could run into a situation where multiple users are logged in to that account at the same time trampling over each others' work and ultimately creating the impression of a broken system (one user deletes a page that another user created, etc.).

By the way, I've read quite a few of your posts on this forum and really respect your opinion on all things mobile. We're just starting out in this space and our goal is to offer a service that makes mobile more accessible to the average person (non- programmers, developers, designers, etc.). Any pointers or advice you might have on how we can improve our offering to make it more compelling to that audience would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers,
Sharif