Pika provides a good example of how often AI service sites needlessly alienate their prospects with poor web designs.
If you're trying to sell something online, the smart move is to remove as many obstacles as possible to the prospect doing what you want them to do. Right?
Having to sign in before you can see anything at all is an obstacle. Some percentage of your prospects will not make it past that obstacle. Requiring prospects to have either a Discord or Google account before they can even sign in is another obstacle that will kill another group of prospects. Where did the scroll bars go??? Most people won't bother to figure that out, they'll just leave before seeing or doing anything. Description of the product hidden on an obscure page, say goodbye to another group of prospects.
This seems an untold story in the AI world. Some of those seeking to sell AI services are very smart and well funded. But they don't know how to make sales web pages up to a 1999 standard.
Simple is good. Less is more. Get to the point. Get out of your customer's way.
Yeah I'm not sure why they don't offer the option to e.g. use your email if you don't have/want a Google/Discord account. Considering they used to be Discord-only until recently, having a website is already a huge step forward. But I agree that they're likely losing a chunk of customers.
The counter-argument is that many of these AI startups are doing quite well *despite* the friction. Midjourney is *still* only available via Discord for any new customer, yet they're still profitable. Maybe they're comfortable with the added hurdles, which allows them to manage the influx of new users and the bandwidth? I'm purely speculating, assuming there's a business decision behind this at all.
PS: Note that Pika Labs until now haven't been "selling" anything at all. They were a 100% free-to-use "research preview." Which might help to explain the decision: Maybe they intentionally wanted to limit the sign-ups to those people who really wanted to go through it.
But now I'm noticing they're starting to offer optional credit packages (you still get 30 daily credits for free), so perhaps it's time to think about streamlining the user experience.
Yea, how they run their site is obviously up to them. Imho, there's no clever strategy behind their site design, just ignorance. Or, maybe they just haven't gotten around to working on their site design yet.
Anyway, it's no big deal and really doesn't matter, but lame web design does seem fairly normal on a number of AI services sites. I don't have time to explore all the emerging AI tools, and so am using this issue as one way to cull the herd.
But before I can give you any more of my crazy old man whiny rants Daniel, you'll need to sign up with a MySpace account, confirm with your phone number, mail in your tax returns, provide your mother's maiden name, upload a photo of her fingerprints, and do the hokey pokey and turn yourself around 8 times.
When I first found them I could immediately jump in to the free version with no barriers of any kind. So you can see what the service is and try it out before encountering any barrier or obstacle. You can use the free service (slow with ads) for as long as you want until you decide to upgrade, at which point you do need an account.
Consider their pricing scheme. Instead of monthly subscription pricing, which tends to give people pause about whether they want to commit to ongoing payments, it's pay as you go. You enter any amount of money of your choice, and then use the service until your money runs out. The amount of money you're spending on each image generation, and the total balance left in your account, are updated instantly in real time, so you always know exactly where you are. The pricing seems very reasonable.
I must admit, Dezgo/Stable Diffusion isn't up to the standard set by Dalle when it comes to image generation. So my point here is only to offer Dezgo as an example of skilled web design. A clean, simple interface, and the absolute smallest number of obstacles. Some people working in AI services do get this.
Daniel, because you only turned around 6 times and failed to fully complete the signup process, you don't qualify for a crazy old man whiny rant at this time and will just have to settle for this somewhat informative comment.
Here's one thing that's interesting to note: MS Paint is likely going to be better in 2024 than Adobe Photoshop was in 2022.
I know, I know: it's not apples to apples, but if you asked 10 artists/designers which was more powerful back then (assuming you had PS without generative AI), I wonder how many would say "Paint." This was simply unthinkable for the last 25 years.
Yeah your 2022 reference didn't escape me, and you're absolutely right. I'm shocked Paint is even chugging along at all...and now that it's getting DALL-E 3 powers, it'll continue for a while!
Hi Daniel -- new to the page -- being completely AI illiterate, myself, I appreciate the guidance. I did sign up for Midjourney a while back, when it was free, and I see it is not anymore. Do you still recommend using this platform, now that it's paid, or are there better alternatives these days? Thanks for your help! - Greg
In my book, Midjourney is still the best all-around platform out there, especially when it comes to photographic images. I made a comparison against SDXL a while back: https://www.whytryai.com/p/sdxl-1-0-vs-midjourney-5-2
But when it comes to prompt adherence, price, and ease of use, DALL-E 3 is the current winner for sure. You can use it in Microsoft Bing for free or pay $20 for ChatGPT Plus which gives you DALL-E 3 and a lot more. (https://www.whytryai.com/p/chatgpt-plus-upgrades-review)
Pika provides a good example of how often AI service sites needlessly alienate their prospects with poor web designs.
If you're trying to sell something online, the smart move is to remove as many obstacles as possible to the prospect doing what you want them to do. Right?
Having to sign in before you can see anything at all is an obstacle. Some percentage of your prospects will not make it past that obstacle. Requiring prospects to have either a Discord or Google account before they can even sign in is another obstacle that will kill another group of prospects. Where did the scroll bars go??? Most people won't bother to figure that out, they'll just leave before seeing or doing anything. Description of the product hidden on an obscure page, say goodbye to another group of prospects.
This seems an untold story in the AI world. Some of those seeking to sell AI services are very smart and well funded. But they don't know how to make sales web pages up to a 1999 standard.
Simple is good. Less is more. Get to the point. Get out of your customer's way.
Yeah I'm not sure why they don't offer the option to e.g. use your email if you don't have/want a Google/Discord account. Considering they used to be Discord-only until recently, having a website is already a huge step forward. But I agree that they're likely losing a chunk of customers.
The counter-argument is that many of these AI startups are doing quite well *despite* the friction. Midjourney is *still* only available via Discord for any new customer, yet they're still profitable. Maybe they're comfortable with the added hurdles, which allows them to manage the influx of new users and the bandwidth? I'm purely speculating, assuming there's a business decision behind this at all.
PS: Note that Pika Labs until now haven't been "selling" anything at all. They were a 100% free-to-use "research preview." Which might help to explain the decision: Maybe they intentionally wanted to limit the sign-ups to those people who really wanted to go through it.
But now I'm noticing they're starting to offer optional credit packages (you still get 30 daily credits for free), so perhaps it's time to think about streamlining the user experience.
Yea, how they run their site is obviously up to them. Imho, there's no clever strategy behind their site design, just ignorance. Or, maybe they just haven't gotten around to working on their site design yet.
Anyway, it's no big deal and really doesn't matter, but lame web design does seem fairly normal on a number of AI services sites. I don't have time to explore all the emerging AI tools, and so am using this issue as one way to cull the herd.
But before I can give you any more of my crazy old man whiny rants Daniel, you'll need to sign up with a MySpace account, confirm with your phone number, mail in your tax returns, provide your mother's maiden name, upload a photo of her fingerprints, and do the hokey pokey and turn yourself around 8 times.
Damnit, I was 100% with you up until "turn yourself around 8 times." I'm likely to pass out after the 6th turn. Sorry!
Weakling!
Positive example: Dezgo.com
When I first found them I could immediately jump in to the free version with no barriers of any kind. So you can see what the service is and try it out before encountering any barrier or obstacle. You can use the free service (slow with ads) for as long as you want until you decide to upgrade, at which point you do need an account.
Consider their pricing scheme. Instead of monthly subscription pricing, which tends to give people pause about whether they want to commit to ongoing payments, it's pay as you go. You enter any amount of money of your choice, and then use the service until your money runs out. The amount of money you're spending on each image generation, and the total balance left in your account, are updated instantly in real time, so you always know exactly where you are. The pricing seems very reasonable.
I must admit, Dezgo/Stable Diffusion isn't up to the standard set by Dalle when it comes to image generation. So my point here is only to offer Dezgo as an example of skilled web design. A clean, simple interface, and the absolute smallest number of obstacles. Some people working in AI services do get this.
Daniel, because you only turned around 6 times and failed to fully complete the signup process, you don't qualify for a crazy old man whiny rant at this time and will just have to settle for this somewhat informative comment.
Now that we're on the topic, the very first image generator that I tried when I got into generative AI was this: https://www.craiyon.com/
Nice to see them still going strong, and they seem to fulfil your criteria of no-signup, no-pay generation.
You're welcome!
Consider this comment my 7th and 8th turn.
Here's one thing that's interesting to note: MS Paint is likely going to be better in 2024 than Adobe Photoshop was in 2022.
I know, I know: it's not apples to apples, but if you asked 10 artists/designers which was more powerful back then (assuming you had PS without generative AI), I wonder how many would say "Paint." This was simply unthinkable for the last 25 years.
True, AI is a massive boost to what's otherwise one of the most basic drawing tools out there.
But Adobe's been incredible at incorporating AI into every one of its offerings, so it'll still be no contest, even with DALL-E 3 in Paint.
100% agree - this only applies if you compare the "before times" Adobe products to the current Paint.
Yeah your 2022 reference didn't escape me, and you're absolutely right. I'm shocked Paint is even chugging along at all...and now that it's getting DALL-E 3 powers, it'll continue for a while!
Hi Daniel -- new to the page -- being completely AI illiterate, myself, I appreciate the guidance. I did sign up for Midjourney a while back, when it was free, and I see it is not anymore. Do you still recommend using this platform, now that it's paid, or are there better alternatives these days? Thanks for your help! - Greg
Hey Greg, welcome!
In my book, Midjourney is still the best all-around platform out there, especially when it comes to photographic images. I made a comparison against SDXL a while back: https://www.whytryai.com/p/sdxl-1-0-vs-midjourney-5-2
But when it comes to prompt adherence, price, and ease of use, DALL-E 3 is the current winner for sure. You can use it in Microsoft Bing for free or pay $20 for ChatGPT Plus which gives you DALL-E 3 and a lot more. (https://www.whytryai.com/p/chatgpt-plus-upgrades-review)
Here are my Midjourney pieces: https://www.whytryai.com/t/midjourney
And here are ones about DALL-E: https://www.whytryai.com/t/dall-e
Hope you find something that works for you!
Thanks man, this is awesome!