Promepi – Get Your News

promepi - startup featured on StartUpLift

An online newspaper customized to you.

Target Audience: Young Professionals.
Website URL: www.promepi.com


Feedback sought:

  • Visit https://www,promepi.com. What do you think of the splash page? Is it easy to log in?
  • Would you login to the site? If not, why?
  • What do you think of the page once logged in?
  • Are you able to navigate the site easily?
  • Are the articles laid out in a user friendly way?
  • Are you able to find articles that you like?
  • How does this compare to other new sites (i.e. New York Times, Huffington Post, etc?)
  • Please share any additional feedback.

About Promepi:
Promepi is an online newspaper that customizes results based on what you read and what other users similar to you read.

6 thoughts on “Promepi – Get Your News

  1. Visit https://www,promepi.com. What do you think of the splash page? Is it easy to log in?
    Okay…I’m not liking your “splash” page. The color is very boring and washed out. Everything seems to be just running together. The bold box doesn’t really do mush visually for me. My eyes are so drawn to the bold that I barely look at the text box to the left which provides information about your site. I’m sorry but where is the color. Not even print papers just feature black and white pages. There’s no zest, nothing that makes me want to read further. The gray used you used doesn’t do it for adding a splash of color in my book. Im not sure if its easy to log in. I don’t have a facebook account so I would have to create an account first.
    Would you login to the site? If not, why?
    I think the question you need to ask is would I create and account and no. I have briefly stated why above. If I was a news buff then maybe so.
    What do you think of the page once logged in?
    I created an account quickly, great job. But…. the page still looks the same.
    Are you able to navigate the site easily?
    Yes but I was surprised to see that I was taken to another page.
    Are the articles laid out in a user friendly way?
    Yes.
    Are you able to find articles that you like?
    A quick search tab would be a great addion to your page.
    How does this compare to other new sites (i.e. New York Times, Huffington Post, etc?)
    I’m not saying that your page has to be a dramatic as the Huffington post but they definitly got my attention.
    Please share any additional feedback.
    Different layout. Add colors. Better tabs. Quick search box. You have a great idea but its simply lacking.

  2. Visit https://www,promepi.com. What do you think of the splash page? Is it easy to log in?
    The splash page lacks color and graphics.  The color is very depressing and does not make me feel as though this is a professional site that can do the job it claims.  Research is out there about the psychological affects of color.

    You should have a logo for branding. 

    Why is promepi in all lowercase? 

    There is also wasted space between the news stories and the Ads by Google part.  Are you going to eventually place graphics here?

    It was easy to sign up. 
    Would you login to the site? If not, why?
    I would log into the site if I am confident that your system is pulling articles of “interest” to me based on my article selection. See the additional comments for further clarification.

    What do you think of the page once logged in?
    The page did not appear any different once I officially logged in with the exception of the tabs at the top right.
    Are you able to navigate the site easily?
    Easy to navigate.  Once signed in, the system begins with “Your News” category.  Once you navigate away to another tab and then try to go back to “Your News”, it will not display my “personalized” articles.  It keeps the last tab you went to (such as Politics, Business, Sports, Entertainment, or Technology).
    Are the articles laid out in a user friendly way?
    No, I did not see how they were categorized within “Your News”, which I assume is the tab that the user will view initially.
    Are you able to find articles that you like?
    Yes, I was able to find interesting articles.  I could tell that some were really new, since Charlie Sheen is big in the media right now.  Some other articles could still be considered “current” even if they are not a few hours/days old.  Could you put a date of the article on your screen so the user does not have to access the article to see how old it is?

    How does this compare to other new sites (i.e. New York Times, Huffington Post, etc?)
    It’s not even close as far as the page design.  You still have some work ahead of you.  The NYT looks like a newspaper (however, it is too cluttered for my tastes…it almost stresses me out looking at so much information…the articles, the graphics, the advertisements…).

    The Huffington Post is more appealing to me.
    Please share any additional feedback.
    Is your system a living compilation of interests, meaning that everytime I make selections within the tabs (and maybe I had not selected anything in the particular category before), the system updates my personal profile of articles?

    It might be nice to “market” that fact if that is how your system functions.

    Consider changing the “Your News” tab to “My News” tab.

    Clicking Logout takes the person to:
    https://www.promepi.com/includes/

    ** I really like the concept of user preferences and like where you are going with this**

  3. Visit https://www,promepi.com. What do you think of the splash page? Is it easy to log in?
    I created an account and logged in, logging in and creating the account was very easy to do.  I really don’t see anything wrong with the splash page, after all you are here for news.
    Would you login to the site? If not, why?
    I would log into the site for news that matters to me.
    What do you think of the page once logged in?
    I have no problems with the pages, you are reading only the article you click on.
    Are you able to navigate the site easily?
    I find the site very easy to navigate.
    Are the articles laid out in a user friendly way?
    The articles are laid out in a very easy fashion to find, and follow through on.  The huge text at the top makes this an easy process.
    Are you able to find articles that you like?
    Yes
    How does this compare to other new sites (i.e. New York Times, Huffington Post, etc?)
    I actually find that it compares favorably to the New York Times site which I spent quite a bit of time on, BEFORE going to the promepi site.
    Please share any additional feedback.
    In many respects I like this site better than the New York Times site.  Here you are reading one article at a time, the pages are not crowded with a lot of other graphics and information that you don’t need and are not looking for.
     

  4. Thank you very much for the feedback!  It is greatly appreciated.  We have made a few changes to our splash page to prevent things from running together and to focus more on the articles.

    I am glad you found the sign in process easy, we are big believers in keeping sign up forms as simple as possible.

    A search tab is a great idea and something  that we are working on.  

    We are going to keep iterating and implementing many of the things you have suggested; we are quite excited as many people have expressed that the idea is great and we just need to keep iterating to make it better.  Thanks again for the feedback

    Matt Walker
    Co-Founder
    matt@prompei.com

  5. Thank you very much for the feedback.  It’s critical for us to learn what users like and iterate accordingly.

    We are looking at ways to introduce more color to the site.  We have had a big focus on making the algorithms that run prompei as accurate as possible, so we will focus our attention on the design of the site.  We have made a few incremental changes, which hopefully help a little!

    The algorithms still take a few minutes to run, so that is probably why your page did not update.  We are working at scaling this up.  I think we fixed the errors you were talking about, but if they persist please flip me an email (matt@prompei.com)

    We added the dates to all the articles as you suggested.  Thanks!

    promepi works by learning what articles you click on and finding similar articles, it also finds what users similar to you are reading and creates a news feed for you.  We are looking at marketing the site based on this (I think as you suggest), as we believe that personalization, in particular around news will make a great user experience.

    Thanks very much again for the feedback.  I am glad you like the concept.  We are going to keep iterating to make this site great for you.

    Matt Walker
    Co-Founder – promepi
    matt@prompei.com

  6. Thanks for the feedback.  I am very happy that you liked the site.  We are trying to get you news that is relevant to you.  The more you use promepi the more we learn about you and the better our recommendations get.

    As in some of the feedback, we are looking at ways to introduce pictures and graphics, but we will not crowd the site and take away from getting you your news.

    Please keep using the site as it will keep getting better and do not hesitate to flip me an email with any other feedback!

    Thanks again!

    Matt Walker
    Co-Founder – promepi
    matt@prompei.com

Comments are closed.