The Business of Software

Idea 1:

Roundie the Rounded Corners generator

It's a tool that creates rounded images and script to put fast rounded corners on your web page. Mainly targeted at professional web developers / designers.

There's some free stuff out there, but all are lacking.

Mine would add lots of options and great support.

Probably priced at $29.95

Selling point - mainly that it saves 15-60 minutes every time you need rounded corners on a web site.

Ok, critique away!

If I have a choice between a professional program for under 50.00 or an amateur program that is free, I will choose the paid one. Often I can not tell the difference and choose the free one. So your web page needs to persuade me that yours is the professional one.

Certainly.

I should also note that it'll be available as a web app at first and then a .net app. (Sorry mac designers, only web app for you for now..)

Solving one well-defined problem which gets in the way of people making money is probably one of the better ways to do things.  You'll have to convince folks that their time is better spent being Photoshop gods on the important stuff than getting the corners exactly perfectly just the way they want them, but I think that is doable.

As for whether it is technically doable -- I'm clueless.  All graphics are just blobs of paint to me.

I'm cheating a little bit - I had a prototype available before the 30 day launch. Just getting feedback so I can post a good blog post tonight

>> Mine would add lots of options and great support.

this seems like the wrong direction for a 30 day challenge. Also, engaging in the entire challenge seems kind of pointless if you're only doing it because (a) you've got some code gathering dust that could maybe be turned into a product, and (b) it gives you something to blog about.

Is there a market out there for people who demand perfectly rounded corners but aren't graphic design wizards? My guess is no; it's an all or none proposition. Prove me wrong though...

@Mr. Blah

I have a lot more reasons to do it than for the ones you assume. Not all of my cards are face up :)

The selling point isn't so much that they can't be made by hand, but that a tool makes the process easier/faster.

Plus, I use it for myself.

If you can cope with IE 5.5, 6,7,8 FF1.5,2,3 etc. etc., you've got a winner.

CSS tweaking drives too many web designers/developers barking mad. I speak from experience.

@Bob - Yes, I'm trying to make the solution CSS hack free if possible, and work on every browser. Part of why I'm using images.

> I'm trying to make the solution CSS hack free if possible, and work on every browser. Part of why I'm using images.

That's pretty simple to do... I don't see the added value. Perhaps you haven't explained it enough.

@Ryan, yes I haven't listed / shown the whole product here yet.

The main benefits are:

- Get it done quicker
- Know it works on all browsers, and support if it ever doesn't
- Its a PITA to do - now it can be enjoyable
- Try different colors / styles immediately
- Different ways of doing it - javascript or raw HTML
- Use photoshop for more exciting tasks than making rounded corners

The more over-arching idea is to automate some commonly done web design tasks that aren't all that much fun to do.

More free time to create lol cats.

Thanks for the great responses so far, this is really helping me refine my idea.

Rounded corners for $30 ? Is this a joke ?

Or is this aimed at people who think writing HTML is "coding" ? The people who will need this software are the kind of people who are going to need a lot of help.

Maybe a few years ago people might have bought a tool like this, but not these days. Aiming at rapidly going out of fashion niches is not really best practice...

@koan

No this is not a joke. Try to find a (non-high school student) web designer that will make some rounded corners for you for less than US$30.

See:
Gimp > Load Image > Script-Fu > Decor > Round Corners
or
Google "css+rounded+corners"

My points are

1. Is it really so difficult to add rounded corners to web pages ?
2. You have a lot of free competition
3. If you can't follow the my tips above then you are going to need a lot of help = support nightmare for $30 product
4. Rounded corners are on their way out, choose something more fashionable. In design style, they were never that great to begin with
5. Professional website designers won't need this product
6. People who paid for Photoshop are quite likely to want to use it, even for something so trivial

That's all.

Do you have any recommendations for something "more fashionable"?

Also, I am a professional web site designer as part of my job, and while I don't need this product, I'd sure like it.