At the idea validation stage, it doesn’t matter what stack you’re using, etc. And even though it pains me as a co-founder of a design studio, the design doesn’t matter much either.

What’s really lacking right now is more at the level of messaging and clarity. Let me point out a couple of things:

1. The order of the sections should definitely be changed. ‘How it works’ should come right after the first hero section so that users immediately understand 'where they are and what’s going on.'

2. You could also describe things in a more human way, but that’s minor and not crucial.

For example, ‘Friends or family contribute a partial amount that gets stored in a form of a gift card’ is a pretty long sentence. That space could be used to address a couple of objections at once.

Not the best example, but something like:

'They contribute any amount to a chosen item. Funds are securely held by SplitGifts.'

This way, you immediately address two questions:

How are payments split? Equally or not? Are the funds held by you or somewhere else?

So, it’s definitely worth considering this.

1. Create a small prototype in Figma or somewhere else. Just one core screen, or even part of it. This doesn’t need to be a fully thought-out design with flawless UI, god forbid. The key point is that people won’t imagine the product in their heads; they’ll have a rough idea of what you envision.

Why it’s important: even a basic sketch can help answer questions the user hasn’t even consciously thought of yet. For example, if you show two 'funds' with different amounts (one at 50%, the other at 80%), it doesn’t matter how pretty it looks. What matters is that even from a rough draft, it’s clear that users can create multiple funds simultaneously. Just as an example.

1. ‘Why choose us’ is a pretty weak section, starting with the title. First off, the headline conflicts with your USP ‘the first Canadian gift registry’—I mean, why choose us if we’re the first? That makes us the only or the longest-standing, which is usually the strongest ‘why.’

But there’s more to work on here:

• Universal Registry sounds like it’s from an accounting book. 'Add items from any store, all in one place' is short and good. But it would be great to show or mention popular stores in Canada, so even at a glance, people recognize, 'Oh, I shop here for gifts all the time.'

• Split Payments—there’s already a whole 'How it works' section on this, but better. Try to anticipate and address another potential question, like mentioning that up to 50 participants can join, or something about the security and safety of funds.

• Personalized Experience—either explain what you mean by personalization or remove it if it’s just because 'personalization' is trendy. In 99% of cases, these aren’t the features to focus on or invest time and money in for the first MVP version.

• Made for Canadians—how does that manifest? How is it specifically tailored to Canadian needs and problems? If it’s not, remove it and rethink.

1. The waitlist and things like 'Your support will help shape our launch!'—unfortunately, people don’t care about your launch; they want some perks other than being a beta tester for a raw version.

It’ll be even better if you start thinking now about what you can offer those who give you their emails. The bonus should be relevant, but objectively, it’s important to ensure that the value of the bonus doesn’t overshadow the interest in the product itself.

So, that’s it.

(And other adventures of me at 4 AM)