5 ms·

Show HN: I made a tool to create product tutorials

192 points by Outofthebot 5y ago

dot_michael 5y ago
This is great. I think something like this is very valuable to a small startup or indie hacker who has a product that requires a sign up before their users can see/use. You know how a lot of SaaS has a video of the user story and what their app does and looks like on the landing page? Well, I think this can be way better, less time consuming, and way cheaper than hiring an animation studio to create that video. You can also edit the textframe as the product grows; something that is much harder to do for videos. A few of small features can make this way better. 1. The ability to put the textframe in an iframe. So users can use it on their landing page. 2. The ability to auto play the steps. (it should stop autoplay if user clicks on a step to view) 3. More UI customizability so it goes with the landing page. I see this being more valuable as a marketing tool than a tutorial tool, but I'm only one person. Good work and good luck =)
- Outofthebot 5y ago
  Thank you for the feedback! When you say marketing tool, what sort of content do you have in mind? Also, I do provide the ability to embed in your landing pages, the instructions are at the bottom of my landing page.
  - dot_michael 5y ago
    Oh, sorry. Must have missed it. Don't misunderstand. I don't think the core functionality of textFrame should change. I'm just saying your users might use textFrame to convince their users how their product can solve their user's problems by showing them around the app without actually going into the app. It is really helpful for SaaS that requires a sign up before users can use their app. Since registration is a big wall people wont go over unless they have a good understanding of the product. Most SaaS products try to do this now with images and videos. So what I was suggesting is basically casting a wider net for textFrame. You currently market it as a tutorial solution. Consider marketing it as a "product show off/Demo" solution. Which would also include tutorials as well has any other way your users might want to show off their product.
    - Outofthebot 5y ago
      I see what you mean now. That's a really valuable insight. Will definitely think about this for my next iteration.
Outofthebot 5y ago
Hi HN, My name is Rahul Sarathy and I posted TextFrame a few months ago on HN (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29234636 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29234636) as a tool to create animated technical papers. After gathering feedback from the community, I found that the best use case for my tool was for creating tutorials. I am proud to share my next iteration as a tool to create animated product tutorials. Hopefully you can find use in it to create more engaging tutorials for onboarding and helping out your users. You can check out some examples I’ve created using the software: at https://textframe.app/examples https://textframe.app/examples Please let me know what you think! You can also email me at rahul@textframe.app if you have any questions or just want to say hello
- apurvak 5y ago
  This is very cool and useful. I will provide some wish-list for this offline. I love the idea and I will use this.
  - Outofthebot 5y ago
    That's awesome to hear. Definitely get in touch with me over email, I'd love to discuss more with you.
- forgingahead 5y ago
  Congrats and well done, looks very cool. Will try it out and send you an email with any feedback or questions.
- eitland 5y ago
  Well done! One question, the orginal demo was amazing in itself, is that technology/source still available somewhere?
  - addandsubtract 5y ago
    Just to add on to this, why not offer both?
  - 5y ago
codeonline 5y ago
These look good for visualising user stories too.
- Outofthebot 5y ago
  Do you have an example of one of these you have in mind? I'm not very familiar with user stories.
arosier 5y ago
Pretty cool!
Marciplan 5y ago
This looks great. The Marketing Website can use some flair/oberall design — but the product looks stellar. Good luck w that!
- pirate787 5y ago
  Agree -- the product is interesting but the marketing site design is rough/unfinished to the point where I wouldn't trust the service. I currently use Loom in a similar capacity and think there's a big market for this type of service. Congrats on the launch and good luck!
  - Outofthebot 5y ago
    I have to agree with you, my outward facing pages look a bit unprofessional right now. I assume by the marketing page, you mean 'pricing' page? I'm glad you pointed out the Loom use case. My whole angle was that I thought products are leaning too much into video, when text has some great advantages: skimming, scrolling, copy pasting, etc.
cartucho1 5y ago
Hey, cool project! Congrats! A few more comments that I believe could help improve it: 1.If you click on a box with a step on the left side of a tutorial, it should take you to that step. At least that is how I tried to use it initially. Right now, you can only control going forward/backward through scrolling the page. 2. In the landing page the "View Examples" and "View a Tutorial" buttons look off in Firefox (the text overflows).
bag_boy 5y ago
Can the tutorials be embedded into a support article?
- Outofthebot 5y ago
  yes, the tutorials can be embedded! If you email me at rahul@textframe.app I can walk you through how to do it.
  - jonasmst 5y ago
    If this is a joke, it's pretty solid. If it's not, though, why not use a textframe to show them:D
    - Outofthebot 5y ago
      Haha I totally missed that. I’m so used to onboarding people via email/video calls. One of my demo tutorials shows exactly how to embed! https://textframe.app/embed_tutorial https://textframe.app/embed_tutorial
allenu 5y ago
This is very cool. Nice job on this! I like how slick the UI feels when I'm scrolling up and down the tutorial steps. One quick piece of feedback that I saw right away: Clicking on the next step on the left and then seeing the video update on the right is distracting, so I ended up not even reading the text on the left after a while. Perhaps you could show "subway stops" on the left to indicate which step you are and how many there are in total, and then have the instruction text above or below the video? The way it works now, your eyes have to dart back and forth from left to right to read the text and then watch the video. Anyway, best of luck with this.
Donckele 5y ago
On my latest mobile safari I’m getting an error: Application error: a client-side exception has occurred (see the browser console for more information). How come?
- Outofthebot 5y ago
  what version of iOS/device are you on? My guess is I am using a browser API that is not supported by your version of Safari.
gw67 5y ago
It's really cool! would be great a figma-like interface with dropdown, input field etc.. to better redesign the UI. Otherwise a way to build a sketch of the UI using a screenshot.
nowherebeen 5y ago
Great landing page. Can I ask how much time did you spend working on it?
clement12 5y ago
[flagged]

192 points by Outofthebot 5y ago

This is great. I think something like this is very valuable to a small startup or indie hacker who has a product that requires a sign up before their users can see/use. You know how a lot of SaaS has a video of the user story and what their app does and looks like on the landing page? Well, I think this can be way better, less time consuming, and way cheaper than hiring an animation studio to create that video. You can also edit the textframe as the product grows; something that is much harder to do for videos. A few of small features can make this way better. 1. The ability to put the textframe in an iframe. So users can use it on their landing page. 2. The ability to auto play the steps. (it should stop autoplay if user clicks on a step to view) 3. More UI customizability so it goes with the landing page. I see this being more valuable as a marketing tool than a tutorial tool, but I'm only one person. Good work and good luck =)

Outofthebot 5y ago
Thank you for the feedback! When you say marketing tool, what sort of content do you have in mind? Also, I do provide the ability to embed in your landing pages, the instructions are at the bottom of my landing page.
- dot_michael 5y ago
  Oh, sorry. Must have missed it. Don't misunderstand. I don't think the core functionality of textFrame should change. I'm just saying your users might use textFrame to convince their users how their product can solve their user's problems by showing them around the app without actually going into the app. It is really helpful for SaaS that requires a sign up before users can use their app. Since registration is a big wall people wont go over unless they have a good understanding of the product. Most SaaS products try to do this now with images and videos. So what I was suggesting is basically casting a wider net for textFrame. You currently market it as a tutorial solution. Consider marketing it as a "product show off/Demo" solution. Which would also include tutorials as well has any other way your users might want to show off their product.
  - Outofthebot 5y ago
    I see what you mean now. That's a really valuable insight. Will definitely think about this for my next iteration.

Outofthebot 5y ago

Hi HN, My name is Rahul Sarathy and I posted TextFrame a few months ago on HN (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29234636 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29234636) as a tool to create animated technical papers. After gathering feedback from the community, I found that the best use case for my tool was for creating tutorials. I am proud to share my next iteration as a tool to create animated product tutorials. Hopefully you can find use in it to create more engaging tutorials for onboarding and helping out your users. You can check out some examples I’ve created using the software: at https://textframe.app/examples https://textframe.app/examples Please let me know what you think! You can also email me at rahul@textframe.app if you have any questions or just want to say hello

apurvak 5y ago
This is very cool and useful. I will provide some wish-list for this offline. I love the idea and I will use this.
- Outofthebot 5y ago
  That's awesome to hear. Definitely get in touch with me over email, I'd love to discuss more with you.
forgingahead 5y ago
Congrats and well done, looks very cool. Will try it out and send you an email with any feedback or questions.
eitland 5y ago
Well done! One question, the orginal demo was amazing in itself, is that technology/source still available somewhere?
- addandsubtract 5y ago
  Just to add on to this, why not offer both?
- 5y ago

codeonline 5y ago

These look good for visualising user stories too.

Outofthebot 5y ago
Do you have an example of one of these you have in mind? I'm not very familiar with user stories.

arosier 5y ago

Pretty cool!

Marciplan 5y ago

This looks great. The Marketing Website can use some flair/oberall design — but the product looks stellar. Good luck w that!

pirate787 5y ago
Agree -- the product is interesting but the marketing site design is rough/unfinished to the point where I wouldn't trust the service. I currently use Loom in a similar capacity and think there's a big market for this type of service. Congrats on the launch and good luck!
- Outofthebot 5y ago
  I have to agree with you, my outward facing pages look a bit unprofessional right now. I assume by the marketing page, you mean 'pricing' page? I'm glad you pointed out the Loom use case. My whole angle was that I thought products are leaning too much into video, when text has some great advantages: skimming, scrolling, copy pasting, etc.

cartucho1 5y ago

Hey, cool project! Congrats! A few more comments that I believe could help improve it: 1.If you click on a box with a step on the left side of a tutorial, it should take you to that step. At least that is how I tried to use it initially. Right now, you can only control going forward/backward through scrolling the page. 2. In the landing page the "View Examples" and "View a Tutorial" buttons look off in Firefox (the text overflows).

bag_boy 5y ago

Can the tutorials be embedded into a support article?

Outofthebot 5y ago
yes, the tutorials can be embedded! If you email me at rahul@textframe.app I can walk you through how to do it.
- jonasmst 5y ago
  If this is a joke, it's pretty solid. If it's not, though, why not use a textframe to show them:D
  - Outofthebot 5y ago
    Haha I totally missed that. I’m so used to onboarding people via email/video calls. One of my demo tutorials shows exactly how to embed! https://textframe.app/embed_tutorial https://textframe.app/embed_tutorial

allenu 5y ago

This is very cool. Nice job on this! I like how slick the UI feels when I'm scrolling up and down the tutorial steps. One quick piece of feedback that I saw right away: Clicking on the next step on the left and then seeing the video update on the right is distracting, so I ended up not even reading the text on the left after a while. Perhaps you could show "subway stops" on the left to indicate which step you are and how many there are in total, and then have the instruction text above or below the video? The way it works now, your eyes have to dart back and forth from left to right to read the text and then watch the video. Anyway, best of luck with this.

Donckele 5y ago

On my latest mobile safari I’m getting an error: Application error: a client-side exception has occurred (see the browser console for more information). How come?

Outofthebot 5y ago
what version of iOS/device are you on? My guess is I am using a browser API that is not supported by your version of Safari.

gw67 5y ago

It's really cool! would be great a figma-like interface with dropdown, input field etc.. to better redesign the UI. Otherwise a way to build a sketch of the UI using a screenshot.

nowherebeen 5y ago

Great landing page. Can I ask how much time did you spend working on it?

clement12 5y ago

[flagged]