Hey friends, I’ve been working hard on a project. Its called Ruva. www.ruva.app
Healthy Social Media.
We took all of things mentioned in the Social Dilemma, and from classes at CHT, and reimagined how a healthy type of social media site could be designed.
No infinite scrolling, no notifications, no like-button, and more.
Please follow the project. My youtube channel has a lot more details.
I’ll be sure to post again when we launch in a couple weeks. But I’m excited to share this, and I hope it fits what a lot of people are looking for. I’ll really look forward to your feedback. Be nice if you can!
Hey, fyi, I just became aware from reading some other posts, that there is something called “vaporware”, because we haven’t quite launched yet. Ruva.app is definitely not vaporware. We’ve been working very hard for over a year trying to get this off the ground, and we will appreciate the support of this unique community. I really hope it meets all of things people are looking for in a healthy online experience.
As I said in the Matrix chatroom, I will give you some hopefully constructive feedback on the website (in random order):
You have 2 trackers on the landing page, that probably both can be avoided. Ad-blockers saying “no trackers” imbibe trust.
Your cookie dialog is not GDPR-compliant. It would be best to offer an opt-out “Reject all” for them.
As soon as you collect user data you must have a Privacy Policy, and this is also a GDPR requirement.
You should test your website for accessibility. For instance the color scheme may not be optimal for color-blind folks.
Same for accessibility to screenreaders for visually impaired people. E.g. a button should be <button> and you may use aria labels.
Win the trust of your prospected audience. Mention early on how you intend to monetize the app. What is the business model?
You might want to ensure the website is still navigable and readable for those having Javascript disabled. Currently it is not.
Now something more about the message you convey on the landing page:
Are you a social media platform? There are many of those. Your main USP seems to be “healthier social experience”.
Is that enough for a prospect? I’d show screenshots so people can get an impression before they sign up.
You don’t list the actual ways in which this app is healthier than ‘traditional’ social media.
On the whole the landing page is imho insufficiently informative, and its your most important ‘first impression point’.
I’d advise a thorough revamp of the website and with the help and expertise of product and marketing experts. Maybe you already had this planned anyway, or are intending to market mostly via the appstore.
Hey, thank you so much for the help. The website uses godaddy website builder, so things like cookies, I really don’t know much about, but maybe their customer service can help me with some of these changes.
Thank you for the warning about having a Privacy Policy.
Yeah, we’ll have screenshots when the beta is ready to download. I understand your point of view. It’s vague on purpose because people have been known to steal good ideas.
For the kind of website you currently have you can easily use Github Pages to launch it. It has native support for Jekyll static site generator, or you might choose your own one (e.g. Hugo is very popular). Then you can write your blogs in simple Markdown. You might combine this with Netlify to have an easier editing environment. Github Pages will give you a free Letsencrypt certificate, and you have full control over look & feel of your site.
