beginning of phase two thinking

The original plan was too ambitious and narrowly focused, too many assumptions were made on too little marketing research.
Phase two will remedy those issues with a much more systematic approach. A simpler vision/ thesis and an earlier ways of studying market reaction.
To start I'll need a set of goals.
1. Generating 2000 events in 6 month, ie July 26, 2010
2. Generating 500 events in 4 month, ie May 26, 2010
3. Achieve 2x cost profit margin for all sales at the end of 6 month
4. Complete fully functional site with less then 5 open issues at the end of 2 month , ie. March 26, 2010
5. Post functional site pre-testing at the end of 6 weeks, ie. March 9, 2010
6. Complete 80% (by page count) site revision package and have it transmitted to developer in 2 weeks, including design for T shirts, ie. Tuesday February 9, 2010.

Re-imagining of the core concept.
YOU buy THEY decide.
A T-shirt site where your friends get to choose which tshirt you get by rating you on the epic justice meter.

Methods (not goals)
Take on a phased approach with specified landmark and date for each phase

Where am I now?

After taking a critical look at where the project sits I realize that things has gone off track quite a while back. The realization has been hard, especially given my present situation but it was absolutely necessary.
There are no choices, I had cut and ran in the past in similar situation but this time it is different.
There are two parts to the necessary solution. What needs to be done and where I need to be mentally in order to carry that solution to the next goal post.
To achieve that, the first step is to take some time off and realign those things in my life that I had avoided for the past few months. Face my fears and build my foundation anew. Only then will we proceed.

Reboot of website

I think the lack of response from every one spoke volume on the main problem of the site, mainly that it is confusing and difficult to understand exactly what the purpose is. As a result I think its time that I face the music and go back to the drawing board and figure out a better way to make this work.

What works now; I think the front end of shop selection is straight forward and works and will need little revisions. I also still feel that front loading the payment information is important. Especially if I am going to run contest where shirts are given away for free.

What doesn't work is the home page and the voting page, the two most important component of my site. They both need to convey the simple message of how the site function. ie. $+FAIL is required for purchase, and FAIL can only be earn by some one else voting for you.
Another major components that cause additional confusion is the email invite to vote system, it is entirely too cumbersome. Instead I am contemplating using IP lock out instead:
One vote per IP, plus I poll for zipcode unless they login. IP address then is associated with zipcode. and Databased for future prosperity.

Task ahead, week 3

Although the fancy image I made last week looks really good I don't think they do a good job explaining what Epic Justice is and create further confusion. I might be able to use them on a different page, but the image on the front page should do a better job of conveying the message of the working of the site.

I am also more convinced now that the free tshirt offer would be a good promotional tool at the beginning.
I must assume that sales per zipcode will be no more then 1 initially. The multiplier should be relatively forgiving to encourage propagation if it does occur. The initial threshold of free offer should be assume to be base for 95% of sales. Shirt should be $15 plus $5 shipping. User will still have to pay for shipping even if the shirt would be free. Threshold will start at 25 FAIL for the first 50 shirts and go up to 35 for the next 50.
The three designed Ts will not be available for purchase initially, just the free T. They will be release once all the Free Ts are given away.

New name for the blog

I rename the blog today to more accurately reflect what I am writing about these day. I will focus more about aspect of my life that has to do with working on the web startup Epic Justice apparel company.

google maniac yikes!

The early feedback are in and people have no idea what's going on! I over did the art direction here and although the page looks good, it is confusing as to exactly what is interactive and what is not. The none interactive element ie the giant voting bar background is not function and works to distract attentions. I need to fade it into thebackground more.
The font size are also all over the place and in general are a bit too large. The invite post card is also too large and competes with the comment card so should be simplified greatly. Blind folded guy might stay but then I should contemplate removing the dominatrix and her comments again for the sake of simplification.
The Great Justice page will be the first page many new user land on and is very very important and has to work perfectly or else its not going to work.

The upside down product shot

Aside from the sexy front page view, I need something dynamic to show off a guy wearing the Tshirt. Although the image might not be final since I might want actual product shots, I thought that finding a photo that I liked and shop it to look real would provide a good place holder, after spending hours digging through istock, this image was what I end up selecting. I still have my doubt since this and the female ads I made recently is missing the core Fail theme so further refinement is still needed.

Man falling

This was the image I originally used on the front page, for what it is I still think that it is the most appropriate image that represent the theme of the site. There are many thing I liked about this image, the comically impossible situation, the fact that it was done with out photoshop and thus technically perfect from a picture modder point of view, the kick looks hard, meaty and satisfying. The photo originally comes from the Chinese artist Li Wei and for copy right reason I am unable to use this image. I would still very much like to come up with some thing that reflect a similar theme with out having to go through the obvious difficult production involved with a image like this.

elevator pitch time?

with the popularization of the social networking site, more and more people are becoming aware of the inherent value of attentions and influences in the digital realm. My idea is to allow people to translate their resource in influences into exclusive access to a tiered product list. So instead of having the price point being the defining characteristic of products, now the size of the purchaser's influence circle will instead become the separating factor.
Or, I create Tshirts that only the popular kids can buy.
This is a fusion between social networking and act of shopping online, it rebalance the scale of social interaction in the act of shopping. The current comment and recommendation system provides no immediate feedback to the 3rd party contributor that his/her opinion will be will contribute to the shopping process what so ever. By shifting portions of the actual purchasing decision onto the contributor, it strengthen the value as perceived by both the purchaser and the contributor.

Staring hard at the tree

We are midway through the site testing process. EpicJustice.com is still up on the test server and I still don't feel quite ready to proceed with the friend's alpha just yet.
We are mostly there with the front end of the purchase process and will be concentrating on making the Great Justice page and associated invite, vote and comment process work better. Some code, layout and graphic mod will be required for us to get to that point.
The goal of this week on the site development side is to get smooth out the wrinkles in the final voting functions and have the site ready for friend alpha by Friday.

The ad graphic for the front page came out good, this is the image that will go up in the next few days:
I wanted the image of a girl but couldn't quite figure out how to make the idea of a man's tshirt work with a female image.
After some experimentation it appears that having the design overlay directly over female body parts as a tattoo conveys the appropriate image. Not in an harmonious fashion but rather imposing. I like the idea so much I'll have to make a few more image and perhaps have a scrolling flash image made for the front page.

On the shirt design front, I still need to come up with the design for the printed neck tag. Also I am not happy with the Fail version of the above design, I need a new design that will match the direction of what have now become a personal favorite.