[ mslm dvlpmnt ]

Overall Score: 6.7 / 10

Today I’m testing a completely different kind of website concept: a website generator that builds its content from the user’s Nostr posts. To do that, it obviously makes sense to already have a Nostr account and have posted some content you want to showcase on this site. Therefore, it’s mainly aimed at existing Nostr users. But the concept is also interesting enough to inspire users who have no idea what Nostr is yet. That’s why the homepage, which also serves as the main landing page, addresses both groups.

The approach should therefore be structured as follows. For those unfamiliar with Nostr: what is Nostr, and how does it differ from other social media? And for users who already know Nostr: what is the added value of this service?

However, the message seems to be primarily directed at Nostr newcomers. Various sections describe the advantages of Nostr. It’s almost like an advertisement for Nostr itself, not necessarily for npub.pro. The question remains: what exactly is the benefit for a Nostr user who generates a website with npub.pro? What is the advantage over conventional website generators? I know the answer, but it’s not clearly conveyed on this landing page.

Given this context, where the Nostr user doesn’t know what npub.pro actually offers, the call-to-action button also feels a bit puzzling. “Get started” … get started with what?

On the other hand, since most of the messaging is actually aimed at Nostr newcomers, the “Pricing” section could also lead to misunderstandings.

Does the Pro version of Nostr now cost 9000 sats per month? That’s how it might come across, since the messaging so far has only been aimed at Nostr newcomers. Keep in mind, the word “website” hasn’t been mentioned even once up to this point. It only appears later, in the FAQ section. And even there, just once. This could definitely be made clearer right from the start.

The sentence “Create your website based on your Nostr posts,” “Filter your best notes into a website,” or something similar should appear at least once in large text.

Otherwise, the presentation of Nostr’s benefits is well done. It just needs to be made clearer for beginners that an npub.pro website or blog already comes with an audience, which you build through your participation on Nostr. Every like, every repost, every zap of a post on Nostr is also visible on the npub.pro website. That’s definitely different from starting from scratch and laboriously building an audience through search engines or legacy social media.

Score: 7/10

It seems that this landing page was created with Framer. As a result, it loads a lot of resources and assets from there, which slightly affects the loading time on mobile devices.

On desktop, where the actual work on a website takes place, it looks better.

However, the accessibility scores from PageSpeed Insights are rarely reliable, as we’ll also see later under “Accessibility”.

Score: 9/10

The design aesthetics are presentable. A good balance has been struck here between informative and visually appealing.

Score: 9/10

There’s nothing to criticize about the usability of the landing page, but in the admin area, where the website creation takes place, there are some issues.

There’s a configuration page and a theme page. Sometimes, the same values differ between these two pages. For example, you can set the site title and description on both pages. If I set the description on the configuration page and then switch to the theme settings, the old values are still displayed there. The values from the configuration page are not carried over into the theme settings. If this isn’t immediately noticed, you end up resetting the value when you publish the theme.

I found the “To do” wizard at the bottom a bit confusing, especially the fact that clicking on one of the items took me to the settings page, just like clicking on “Settings” in the top right corner. After a while, I figured it out, but such a wizard could be designed better — for example, by selecting it directly from the menu in the top right, perhaps as “Website Wizard.”

Selecting the posts to populate the website and setting up the subsequent auto-import was no problem. However, in both the auto-import and the website configuration, there’s a lack of indication that it might take some time for changes to become visible (I assume this is due to caching). In my case, the auto-import took 17 minutes. Impatient users might get a bit restless.

As a frontend developer, I don’t like to settle for finished themes and always need to customize them a bit, so I really liked the “Plugins” section in the settings. The only thing that bothered me there is that you can’t resize the code injection field. A few lines of code can quickly add up there.

Score: 7/10

For users with visual impairments, npub.pro is not yet usable. There are absolutely no headings, neither on the landing page nor in the configuration area. Additionally, images lack alt attributes, even though some of them convey information that would require explanation.

The accessibility checker also complains about several errors in the settings.

I know npub.pro is still in its early stages, and accessibility might not be a priority yet. However, it’s good practice to consider accessibility from the start, as later corrections are usually more costly in terms of effort. And it always comes down to the fundamental question: Do you want to exclude users with disabilities from the service or not?

Score 2/10

As for communication on the landing page, I’ve already mentioned some things under “Goal fulfillment.” In the settings area, however, it becomes more concise. One almost assumes that all Nostr users have technical understanding. I know several Nostr users over 50 who don’t have this kind of knowledge and would be puzzled by certain points. More explanations and a help system should be integrated if the goal is to address a wider Nostr user base.

Score: 6/10

Ethically speaking, npub.pro is great. Third-party resources mainly come from Framer, and a privacy-friendly analytics tool has been used, whereas many other services conveniently rely on Google Analytics. No harmful trackers or data spies are being sneaked in.

However, there’s no privacy policy. This is especially important if the service is also aimed at European users. Additionally, GDPR needs to be considered to prevent the service from being blocked by detractors. As always, the obligatory disclaimer: I am not a lawyer, but I know that more needs to be added, such as a privacy policy, cookie consent banner etc.

I couldn’t find terms and conditions either, nor any information about the person responsible for the service. I would take care of that, especially before the “Pro” version of the service is made available.

Score: 7/10

Overall Score: 6.7 / 10