You're pitching a product to technical users which can be duplicated with your OSS lightbox script of choice (I like iBox) and about 45 seconds of effort. I would think long and hard about what benefits you provide over including the OSS lightbox script in return for asking for money and/or breaking my site when you go down.
Incidentally, in terms of UI design, I think using a modal iBox here is probably a step backwards in many circumstances. Make it a tooltip instead. (You appear to be using this on another site. Instrument it, so that you know how many people click on the help, then actually succeed in asking a question. I predict that number will be vanishingly small.)
Well it wouldn't just be a UI box plugin for sale. It would include the backend for editing and managing all your help text and FAQs. I'd also really like to put in search, and possibly an "ask a question" form.
I'm sure a lot of people would say "I can just do this myself in X time". But if the product is good enough, and easy enough to implement, it would just make more sense to use this product. Sort of like how setting up a form is pretty trivial, but it might make more sense to use Wufoo or FormSpring to get a better form in less time.
The tooltips idea is a good point. Maybe that could be incorporated as well (if I do this)? I think that tooltips and FAQs serve different purposes though. Tooltips are more for "what is this thing right here?" and FAQs are more for stuff like "Okay, how do I do X?". Both are useful for confused visitors I think.
Edit: Do you have a site using iBox I could check out? None of the demos on their site appear to be working.
Click the big freaking image on the front page to see iBox in action. Sign up for the free trial (the purple button is the web app version, which is what you want) or log in as a guest, then create a bingo card and mouse over the preview image to see a tooltip. Alternatively, get to the customize bingo cards page to see tooltips applied to each of the customization options.
Incidentally, if you do the above, you will be participating in an A/B test of those tooltips, so I'm not positive what exactly you see. All the alternatives currently live show tooltips, but the way they do it is different. I relentlessly optimize for task success.
Comments
You're pitching a product to technical users which can be duplicated with your OSS lightbox script of choice (I like iBox) and about 45 seconds of effort. I would think long and hard about what benefits you provide over including the OSS lightbox script in return for asking for money and/or breaking my site when you go down.
Incidentally, in terms of UI design, I think using a modal iBox here is probably a step backwards in many circumstances. Make it a tooltip instead. (You appear to be using this on another site. Instrument it, so that you know how many people click on the help, then actually succeed in asking a question. I predict that number will be vanishingly small.)
Well it wouldn't just be a UI box plugin for sale. It would include the backend for editing and managing all your help text and FAQs. I'd also really like to put in search, and possibly an "ask a question" form.
I'm sure a lot of people would say "I can just do this myself in X time". But if the product is good enough, and easy enough to implement, it would just make more sense to use this product. Sort of like how setting up a form is pretty trivial, but it might make more sense to use Wufoo or FormSpring to get a better form in less time.
The tooltips idea is a good point. Maybe that could be incorporated as well (if I do this)? I think that tooltips and FAQs serve different purposes though. Tooltips are more for "what is this thing right here?" and FAQs are more for stuff like "Okay, how do I do X?". Both are useful for confused visitors I think.
Edit: Do you have a site using iBox I could check out? None of the demos on their site appear to be working.
http://www.bingocardcreator.com
Click the big freaking image on the front page to see iBox in action. Sign up for the free trial (the purple button is the web app version, which is what you want) or log in as a guest, then create a bingo card and mouse over the preview image to see a tooltip. Alternatively, get to the customize bingo cards page to see tooltips applied to each of the customization options.
Incidentally, if you do the above, you will be participating in an A/B test of those tooltips, so I'm not positive what exactly you see. All the alternatives currently live show tooltips, but the way they do it is different. I relentlessly optimize for task success.