I agree with markbao above, but I thought you might like some more constructive feedback than "holy shit".
People aren't afraid of scrolling, so you can use your vertical space better. You could put the description/call to action closer to the top/center of the page and make them bigger. I would slide the thumbnail images for the books below that. As long as people can tell that there are books there, they'll scroll through them to find one that works.
The set of 50 books on the bookshelf is an overwhelming wall of visual noise. You may want to curate/redact to get fewer books up there (those aren't all what I would consider great kids literature), get rid of the bookshelf metaphor (or at least tone down the contrast). Also, as all of the books are different aspect ratios, there's a lot of extra visual noise in what could otherwise be a tidy grid. Consider cropping them all to square.
Are any of the books available for free? It might help to have one or two free books to get people interested in the concept and to get more feedback/usage data from real humans.
Don't get disheartened. It's a cool concept. I started doing a similar thing for my kid with a digital camera, a mic, and real books but my kid learned how to read before I finished the audio editing.
I think it works pretty well with the copy on the right side. The bookshelf makes a bit more of an impact with how much space it takes on the page. Furthermore, if you move the text copy to the top, the bookshelf will extend to the entire page's width, which may just create even more noise on the page when skimming.
Though there's only one way to be sure: A/B test it!
Though there's only one way to be sure: A/B test it!
I couldn't agree more, and yet so many ignore this step. Plenty of "great" designs, clearly better than "meh" designs even to the practiced eye, get clobbered by "meh" in A/B testing. Find good metrics, and then trust the data.
I actually really like the look of the site, the bookshelf works well imho. I can see where it might get unwieldy as the site expands, but as a main page I think it works really well. Of course this is just my personal opinion and I think the best way to validate what design works best would be to do some A\B Testing on the page.
I like the idea of having some books available for free though!
Nice work though the site looks really good and it's certainly the type of product I could see my self purchasing.
Well said Mark. The design is impressive and seems to be generating a lot of comments. Design is underused in many startups and this site shows how a little can go a long way in getting people interested in your product. I set up a poll here: (http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=917688)
Does your startup have a designer on the founding team?
Seems that it's jackson fish market 'experience' http://www.jacksonfish.com/astorybeforebed and quite frankly everything these guys have done has been excellent. Tip my hat to these guys.
