Market Feedback New Market View

[vebk]

I would preface this post by saying that overall I like the new look of TE, and a great job has been done by the people who have obviously put a lot of time and effort into this transition. However in the spirit of constructive criticism, I have the following to say:

The new Market section is really not practical or user friendly. In particular, the new view (Title with a short 'summary') is really not the best way to go about it. Now in one page, instead of being able to view 30+ (?) trades in one view and being able to quickly sift through the ones that you are interested in and the ones you are not, you can only view 15 trades. And the extra details that are being offered by the 'summary' is of no use in the top view. Out of the details that are being shown in the 'summary' (Place, Condition, Replies, Views, Interests, Last Activity) there is only stuff that was either already been shown in the old view, or is not really needed in the 'top view' (IMHO), BUT we waste a lot of screen real estate in showing these details. And while is may be mildly better (arguably) for people who are either on TE 24/7, or are looking for something in particular, it's definitely (IMHO) not usable by people who would be logging in 10 times a week or less (which I would think would constitute the vast majority of users).

So again, I don't want to sound ungrateful and I certainly don't mean to be disrespectful, but the new market view is not something that's desirable or usable, and neither is it going to be one which people would actually like more than the previous view 'once they get used to it.' There's an oft repeated adage that seems appropriate here: "If it ain't broke, don't fix it."

p.s. The two things that I have seen so far that are definitely great improvements are adding 'Place' in the top view, as well as the green and red locks to show the status of the trade. My two cents are that the old look (where trades were viewed as threads) was a far superior, functional and user-friendly way to view the market section, and we should incorporate the new improvements with that old look if possible.

 

[m-jeri]

I agree....

The new view completely sucks...

too much use of search function tbh. the old one was simple and easy

 

[sudan_rulz]

+1..The black background is really weared but the market section is wat i get impressed with..For the Rest of the things i will just say
"OLD IS GOLD"

 

[Rockfella]

'sucks' is harsh/rude/not suitable word and U guys are showing disrespect to our TE admin's hard work :'(

The new view completely sucks...

Tech forum > market. I am against market/dealer's paradise posts in new posts search also, it should not be included. I know we can enable/disable sections in profile. But still we have so many DO's, IC, Sales now, Even genuine guy's focus will divert to these mouth watering deals, so less contribution to forums, now all activity in ebay/show-off/market threads, which is bad bad IMO. Can we implement max no. of posts/week in such threads to stop spam, useless bumps ? :cool2:

 

[Rahul++]

I think the members only should suggest the developers, what they need.. I also feel the old simple market was much better, easy to find.. One more thing, It can be like this, This market is new and the members are not handy with it, that's why they're feeling it ODD,

I agree with thread starter about Summery thing.. I already posted it in the New TE look bugs thread

edit: Stuck with that Quote and Edit button confusion again , I beg you admin, please change the place of edit button

 

[Safin]

And while is may be mildly better (arguably) for people who are either on TE 24/7, or are looking for something in particular, it's definitely (IMHO) not usable by people who would be logging in 10 times a week or less (which I would think would constitute the vast majority of users).

I will disagree.

The market change has been done keeping in mind people who aren't on TE 24X7 more. Now they can quickly see all the products on sale, find the location, and the prices without even opening the thread.

Earlier they could see nothing as the section was closed to guests altogether.(Which btw it still is)

A lot of the things that you are complaining about, atleast i think are problems of change Its new and you are accustomed to the old ways. Its also a fact that we can improve some of the stuff there. eg. we will soon add ore visibility to the market section on main forums. We also intend to add a "New market Trades" like New Posts on navbar.

I think you should try to look at things from a new user perspective also sometimes. A new user is far more likely to discover a new page having all market deals categorized, than sift through 20 forums and find it.

You guys are accustomed to the layout, newbies aren't. We are still working on it, its not easy to change things on live sites, so it takes time.

 

[gsnkalyan]

I agree with thread starter about Summery thing
its just confusing

 

[The Sorcerer]

Removing the market section and dealers section from the main forum is a welcoming change.

 

[YoGi-Sama]

I was not much Market area regular, but I think the new market view is more informative.... although I also agree that those who frequent market section might take some time getting used to the new thing. It's not like it's downright dysfunctional, it's just... different... and people aren't always willing to accept something different, than what they get very much used to.

I am not sure if removing Market threads from "New Posts" function is good idea, once in a while someone might find a good deal, without having to go into market section every now and then just to find some good deal.

Long story short, I welcome this new change.

On the other note : I agree with Rahulrulez, about the placements of Edit and Quote buttons. I know it's different than before, but I think keeping all the buttons on left side is more functional, as they are close to scroll-bar and easy to reach.

 

[redx]

If you think new lok sucks then just paste this in address bar

[url]http://www.techenclave.com/search.php?do=getnew&include=26,31,142,146,158,159,160,161[/url]

I feel like it's good ...

 

[vebk]

I will disagree.

The market change has been done keeping in mind people who aren't on TE 24X7 more. Now they can quickly see all the products on sale, find the location, and the prices without even opening the thread.

Earlier they could see nothing as the section was closed to guests altogether.(Which btw it still is)

A lot of the things that you are complaining about, atleast i think are problems of change Its new and you are accustomed to the old ways. Its also a fact that we can improve some of the stuff there. eg. we will soon add ore visibility to the market section on main forums. We also intend to add a "New market Trades" like New Posts on navbar.

I think you should try to look at things from a new user perspective also sometimes. A new user is far more likely to discover a new page having all market deals categorized, than sift through 20 forums and find it.

You guys are accustomed to the layout, newbies aren't. We are still working on it, its not easy to change things on live sites, so it takes time.

Essentially in a nutshell my grievance is that with this new look we see less information per screen (i.e. no of trades). The added information is not really useful. There is nothing in the summary that is not already sufficiently communicated in the title of the trade. The best way to explain it is with an example.

A sample screen of the new Market look:



A sample post:



Here, for a person who is just browsing through the Market section, the only relevant information is:

• The product being sold
  
• The price
  
• The place
  
• Whether it's still available or not
  

ALL of this can fit in the title only. For e.g:

[FS] [Pune] [Open but unused] Xbox 256MB Memory Card [Rs. 1150]

All the other information is something that anyone who is interested in finding out more can find out with a simple click of the mouse. (In other words, a more efficient and functional way to go about it would be to bring in some guidelines as to how the trade title is to be made, e.g.

[FS / WTB / WTT] [Location] [New / Used / Opened but unused] Product Name [Price]

. Simple, right?

The end result of the new look is that the screen space that is now taken up by 5 trades, earlier could fit 25 trades. On any average log-in I would find about 3-4 pages of new Market Items to browse through (i.e. roughly 100 or so trades). Now with the new look, this will spread over 9 - 10 pages or so, and in all frankness will probably make it so tedious to use, that some people at least will stop visiting it (thereby hurting sales).

And I strongly disagree that it's only a matter of "getting used to it" as that can bend both ways. You can be accustomed to driving around in a Mercedes, but you may eventually "get used to" travelling by public bus. While the earlier one allowed you to travel in 20 minutes, now it takes you 2 hours. I am the last person in the world to resist change for the sake of resisting change. It's just my honest two cents that the new system is fairly tedious to use, and adds nothing new (that couldn't already be done by some Title guidelines as shown above), but only makes life harder.

As always, my criticism is with the best of intentions, and with due respect to the hard working administrators.

 

[Safin]

. Simple, right?

It isn't

You seem to forget that he resolution that we support is 1024X768. The amount of information that we can support in any one line is limited.

Plus the price information spans multiple rows for most users. THat is why it can't be appended to the title.

The example you have used is the best case, where the city name is small, the title is small and the price is singular.

Unfortunately, we support the worst case.

So a city name is like (Mumbai - Only Locals preferred) (this is still not same as will sell to only locals)

Title is like - FS: Blowout Sale, 3 X Transcend 2GB 240PIN DDR2 667 ECC Unbuffered DIMM

Price is like: 1xydhas 4300 , 2x1xydhas - 8000, 3xxydhas - 11000 and more.

In which case your method fails while the present way will still neatly display information.

And, the fields you have omitted, views replies, interests, might have a lot of meaning for the seller and even some buyers to know the activity in the thread.

 

[Sei]

^ First and foremost, TE LOOKS DAMN GOOD NOW!

Coming to the topic in question.. Though I liked the new look when I saw it first, but now that I have to browse and search through the market section, the amount of information that is present in each thread summary should be visible to me only if I'm interested in that particular sale. If I am, I can open the thread in another tab, which I used to do earlier.

As the OP said, this must have taken lots of time and efforts and I do appreciate the fact that the market section is separate from the other sections. But, if only the browsing was as simple as before.

@Safin: I do agree that newbies will love the new layout, but if they even stay on for a month, they will find it tedious to browse too.

 

[=CrAzYG33K=]

I don't even know how to browse the Market threads now

Bring back the old market atleast!

 

[jith77]

Though I liked the new look when I saw it first, but now that I have to browse and search through the market section, the amount of information that is present in each thread summary should be visible to me only if I'm interested in that particular sale. If I am, I can open the thread in another tab, which I used to do earlier.

exactly....even i thought that it was just a matter of getting used to....the overall new look of the forum is great...but the market section, though gives an illusion of user friendliness, is not so.....

as said, info usually is avaialble on title (if not pointing the cursor to title gives major info on type of product)..on can get to the required thread by opening in new tab...

however, if we are still divided in opinion, lets have a poll after a couple of weeks ( getting used to period) and decide

 

[zhopudey]

New layout seems useful. If all that info could be put into the title, as vebk suggested, it would be really great. If thats not possible, the current layout will do

 

[vebk]

It isn't

It is.

You seem to forget that he resolution that we support is 1024X768. The amount of information that we can support in any one line is limited.

Plus the price information spans multiple rows for most users. THat is why it can't be appended to the title.

The example you have used is the best case, where the city name is small, the title is small and the price is singular.

Unfortunately, we support the worst case.

So a city name is like (Mumbai - Only Locals preferred) (this is still not same as will sell to only locals)

Title is like - FS: Blowout Sale, 3 X Transcend 2GB 240PIN DDR2 667 ECC Unbuffered DIMM

Price is like: 1xydhas 4300 , 2x1xydhas - 8000, 3xxydhas - 11000 and more.

In which case your method fails while the present way will still neatly display information.

As far as the City goes, I see your point. But one can always implement a system whereby you have [India (Mumbai)] to mean you are located in Mumbai but are willing to ship anywhere, [Mumbai] to mean that only local buyers may contact.

Try this for your example:

[FS] [New] [Mumbai] 3 X Transcend 2GB 240PIN DDR2 667 ECC Unbuffered DIMM [Rs. 4300(1x), 8000 (2x), 11000 (3x)]

Is this not better than seeing a table that takes up as much space as 5 such trades?

And, the fields you have omitted, views replies, interests, might have a lot of meaning for the seller and even some buyers to know the activity in the thread.

Correct me if I am wrong, but views and replies did show up in the old view at well. I am pretty sure of it. (In any event, if it is structured like a thread why shouldn't it be able to be setup like that?).

So that only leaves us with "interests." Frankly I don't really know how useful that information is that it *needs* to be seen in the top view. And in any event, is it worth losing all that screen space just for this one thing (as all the other stuff can be dealt with as I have shown above).

And I reiterate IMHO it really isn't a case of "getting used to." I can't empathize with people who don't switch from Hotmail or Yahoo to Gmail because there's somewhat of a learning curve involved. But in this case, I honestly believe the old system was more usable. To me this is a case where I have logged into Gmail only to find the Hotmail interface!!

 

[debabratad]

It does seem like too much information on a single page being dispalyed.

I think if some one just reads the title and is interested then only he/she looks inside. No need to give all the information on a single page, that just makes it clumsy.

I feel the last view that was there only lacked the city/place information, apart from that it was alright.

 

[Safin]

It is.

Well if you say so but it isn't for me.

Is this not better than seeing a table that takes up as much space as 5 such trades?

You are again assuming the person will enter it as in that format. The moderating team will have their hands full trying to implement a standard posting interface.

As such we work for the worst case and thats why we are doing it the way it is.

Is this not better than seeing a table that takes up as much space as 5 such trades?

It depends on the example. Even in the one you gave, the layout will break even for a normal thread at low resolution.

In any case, i will look at how the interface can be improved.

 

[redx]

One simple solution Can i have my old good forum look back that was simple and Did the job.