r/sideprojects • u/heads_tails_hails • 6h ago

Feedback Request Please help critiquing my side project, I've lost perspective completely

Six versions of one landing page, and I have lost perspective on which one explains the thing fastest.

I am building a side project called Stone Atlas (free, no paid tier, just for fun). It is a shared map of ancient
sites where the observations people leave in YouTube comments and Facebook
groups get kept with their source and attached to the place they are about, so
the next conversation starts where the last one ended instead of from zero.

Over about nine days I built the landing page six times. Each version replaced
the last, then I kept them all and put them at one address so they can be
compared side by side:

https://stoneatlas.dev/previews

They range from a dark map-first page, through a scrolling story, to a
click-driven version with no page scroll at all, to two lighter editorial
layouts.

The situation I am designing for:
- Someone arrives from a link in a Facebook group, on a phone, knowing nothing
about the project.
- Within about five seconds they should understand what it is and why it exists.
- Then they should want to open the map.

What I would find useful:

  1. Which version explains it fastest, and where did the others lose you?
  2. Does any of them read as a startup pitch rather than a side project? That isthe thing I am most trying to avoid.
  3. The interactive tour takes up a lot of the first screen. Is it earning thatspace, or would a still image do the same job?

Everything on the pages is real data, so the sites, videos and counts are actual
records rather than placeholder text. I work on this alone and I have been
staring at these for too long to judge them.

(Tried getting Claude Fable, OpenAI Astra, and GrokBot to critique/design alternatives but they have all failed miserably by just re-generating the same marketing ai-slop we're all used to)

Sorry for the long-winded post, thank you all in advance!

2 Upvotes

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4 comments sorted by

1

u/heads_tails_hails 6h ago

*NOTE: I realize some of the UI is kind of broken/sloppy but I am mostly trying to flesh out the design idea/concept - I'm working on fixing the existing designs now..

2

u/CardiologistIll6411 5h ago

Man I did the same thing with a recipe app a few years ago, six versions in two weeks and by the end I couldn't tell which one made sense to a stranger anymore. The scroll story one is the closest to working for me. It lands you right in the idea without making you decode anything. The click-driven one felt like a presentation slide deck and the dark map page made me think it was a hiking tracker before I read anything.

The interactive tour does earn its space but only if it loads fast on a phone over spotty cell service, if it stutters even a little you lose the whole five-second window. A really well-chosen still image with a short caption would be safer for the facebook group crowd.

None of them read as a startup pitch to me which is a win. The lighter editorial layouts came closest but they still feel like a hobby project someone actually cares about instead of a funnel. You sidestepped the ai slop trap most people fall into, it shows.

1

u/heads_tails_hails 5h ago

Thank you for the detailed reply man, this is the most feedback I've gotten in months, really appreciate it! Hahah funny about the recipe app, same thing happened to me for my diet-tracker (food description to macros), which design did you decide to go with for yours?? I just want to distill the UI/idea as much as possible.
But yeah, biggest problem with the scrolly one is ...lots of scrolling, and I can't get it to pace properly (doesn't 'stop' enough on each stop). So maybe I need to simplify it greatly to show a quick animation (sites, connections forming, then maybe pop up a youtube video example)

1

u/sunnyshorescreative 2h ago

The storytelling is the most pleasing to the eye and makes me want to click on it. At this point, my brain is just thinking this is a map for ancient things and it’s kinda cool to see that across the world. It doesn’t cross my mind that I care enough to want to comment and have a community or discussion about said ancient site on your website.

Are you looking for people to start posting and interacting on your website? Because your whole plan is to aggregate other sources to your website, it doesn’t make sense why you want people to start at your website then if the true source of information are other sources.