Easel

Dev tools

visual web design builder

SHOW HN2012

Easel

Use Easel to style and build Bootstrap interfaces

easel.io

#bootstrap#visual editor#web design#css#prototyping

183points
52comments
#92of 1,677 in 2012
Top 6%of 2012 by points

How HN took it

DebatedReal support and real criticism

9 positive, 9 neutral or asking, 5 mixed, 8 critical, out of 31 comments about the project. Thread score +0.10.

Idea: 5 for, 1 againstDesign: 1 for, 3 againstExecution: 1 for, 3 againstPerformance: 0 for, 1 against

The thread, comment by comment

Each row is a top-level comment and its replies, in HN's order. Select a cell to open that comment on HN.

positive neutral or mixed critical about another commenter or something else the maker

What HN said

What people liked

  • Strong visual design and good first impression

    From 2 comments
    • Congratulations for shipping! It's a huge milestone to reach and I'm sure it is nerve wracking to press that submit button on a 'Show HN' Here are some of my observations after…
      skyhook_mockups on HN
    • Very cool indeed. I spent about 20 mins messing around and was thoroughly impressed. I typically use Balsamiq Mockups but will have to try this for my next project.
      nemesis1637 on HN
  • Saves time compared to coding layouts by hand

    From 2 comments
    • You should post a simple guided tour like how Yahoo does for their first time E-mail users or how google does for the new compose button. The app itself is excellent and your…
      neya on HN
    • Really awesome work. Saved me about a month of work! You can count me as a customer.
      joewee on HN
  • Zip export and styling flexibility

    From 2 comments
    • Things I like about Easel: - Zipfile export contains everything you need to demo your site with a web server - The UI. It's simple and elegant [1] in its most minimal…
      shredfvz on HN
    • To answer the original question, we offer 2 things beyond the competitors: More flexibility: You can style elements, and you dont need to use the bootstrap containers (or…
      mrbogle on HN

Objections

  • Interface is confusing and overwhelming for new users

    From 4 comments
    • It's a cool piece of engineering, but feels feature bloated to me. I am genuinely confused with the interface. My only feedback would be to make it simpler by removing or hiding…
      mrchess on HN
    • Pretty awesome app. The interface is a little confusing and it's annoying to see a welcome note on every visit. Consider adding tips to give new users a quick overview of how it…
      mrgreenfur on HN
    • I don't think a tutorial would help. The feeling is similar is that of being thrown into Photoshop. Here's a couple initial thoughts after playing for 30 minutes: 1. Not sure…
      mrchess on HN
    • It looks cool and I'd totally use something like that, but the demo page has too many stuff on it which kinda scared me away.
      mion on HN
  • Buggy behaviour and slow performance

    From 3 comments
    • Things I like about Easel: - Zipfile export contains everything you need to demo your site with a web server - The UI. It's simple and elegant [1] in its most minimal…
      shredfvz on HN
    • It's ok, but there are bugs. After deleting all of elements from the demo project, and inserting a heading and a layout element, I ended up with this:…
      rorrr on HN
    • Stop script | Continue I'll go with the first choice.
      mhitza on HN
  • Hard to use on smaller screens due to overlapping panels

    From 2 comments
    • Congratulations for shipping! It's a huge milestone to reach and I'm sure it is nerve wracking to press that submit button on a 'Show HN' Here are some of my observations after…
      skyhook_mockups on HN
    • Things I like about Easel: - Zipfile export contains everything you need to demo your site with a web server - The UI. It's simple and elegant [1] in its most minimal…
      shredfvz on HN

Requests

  • Guided tour or onboarding for new users

    From 3 comments
    • Pretty awesome app. The interface is a little confusing and it's annoying to see a welcome note on every visit. Consider adding tips to give new users a quick overview of how it…
      mrgreenfur on HN
    • You should post a simple guided tour like how Yahoo does for their first time E-mail users or how google does for the new compose button. The app itself is excellent and your…
      neya on HN
    • Thanks for the feedback mrchess. It's true that there are many options that appear all at once. Do you think having a tour that highlighted specific next actions would address…
      mcolyer on HN
  • Better colour selection, including hex code input and swatches

    From 1 comment
    • Designer here. I was just using Easel yesterday before you added Bootstrap. I was trying to work 'visually'. Great first impression. VERY glad to see you've added bootstrap!…
      digitalengineer on HN
  • Web font upload or Typekit integration

    From 1 comment
    • Perhaps I missed it, but one thing I didn't see was how to upload or point to new web fonts. That would be very nice.
      liquidcool on HN
  • Open-source or licensable version for embedding

    From 1 comment
    • I'd really like to see some sort of open-source or license-able tool like this that can be integrated into other apps or CMS tools. Something packaged up like rich-text editors are
      callmeed on HN

Questions

  • How does it compare to Divshot and Jetstrap

    From 2 comments
    • Looks great! I'd be curious to know how it compares to Divshot (http://divshot.com)?
      sgdesign on HN
    • Looks like there are now three serious competitors in this space: - Jetstrap (http://jetstrap.com/) - Divshot (http://divshot.com/) - Easel (https://www.easel.io/) I could see a…
      coderdude on HN
  • How to zoom out or resize elements

    From 1 comment
    • I don't think a tutorial would help. The feeling is similar is that of being thrown into Photoshop. Here's a couple initial thoughts after playing for 30 minutes: 1. Not sure…
      mrchess on HN

Alternatives named

  • Divshot

    From 2 comments
    • Looks great! I'd be curious to know how it compares to Divshot (http://divshot.com)?
      sgdesign on HN
    • I've been using Jetstrap and Divshot for 2 weeks on a small project. Of the two so far, I've found Divshot has more features and ease of use, yet Jetstrap is very good in its own…
      TSR830-10Q on HN
  • Jetstrap

    From 2 comments
    • Looks like there are now three serious competitors in this space: - Jetstrap (http://jetstrap.com/) - Divshot (http://divshot.com/) - Easel (https://www.easel.io/) I could see a…
      coderdude on HN
    • I've been using Jetstrap and Divshot for 2 weeks on a small project. Of the two so far, I've found Divshot has more features and ease of use, yet Jetstrap is very good in its own…
      TSR830-10Q on HN
  • Adobe Edge Reflow

    From 1 comment
    • Thanks, I built Jetstrap :) To answer the parent, Adobe technically does have a competitor in this space, though it's not focused on bootstrap and it's kind of complicated:…
      yesimahuman on HN
  • Balsamiq Mockups

    From 1 comment
    • Very cool indeed. I spent about 20 mins messing around and was thoroughly impressed. I typically use Balsamiq Mockups but will have to try this for my next project.
      nemesis1637 on HN

Category, keywords, summaries and labels on this page were made by AI (Thread Reader v2) and not checked by hand. Each point links to the comments it came from.

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