new classifieds - what problems is this solving?!!
Discussion
Hello all,
I'll try and deal with all the issues raised here, but it is important to say one thing right off:
We're having some performance issues with the new platform which are teething problems associated with launching a site of this size. They relate to network performance (ie how quickly it runs on your computer) and also data migration - affecting how many cars you can see, and how many search can find.
That aside, the original question was "what problems is this solving" so I'll try to list these as much as possible.
1. Stability. Laughable at present given the performance issues I realise, but when (that's when, not if) the site is running properly it will be far more stable and better able to cope with 100,000+ cars for sale and over 4m unique users per month than the old architecture, which was pretty creaky and really didn't have much growing space left.
2. search The old site had a pretty rudimentary search. It didn't allow you to search the full body text of the ad for keywords, and it allowed only some facets (such as price, location). The new site has far more facets, so whilst you can just go and look at all the Audi A4s, you can also narrow it down to just the 6 cylinder petrol versions in silver with alloy wheels. That's important.
3. orientation As we've got bigger, it has got harder and harder to navigate around PistonHeads, particularly if you're looking at a high volume make/model category. The site didn't tell you how many cars you were looking at, and you ended up with page after page of listings. All our analytics data told us that very few people were looking at individual cars as a percentage of people looking at search results. In other words, we were losing people who just didn't want to look at 2000 cars with little means of narrowing the selection down. The new site has a few key things to show people how many cars they are looking at and, hopefully, how to look at fewer or more cars as users see fit.
Along the way we've also done a few other things to improve performance and the user experience:
- Search for multiple makes/models. If you want to look at 350Z, Honda S2000, Porsche Boxster S and SLK, for example, you can search all of these makes and models together. So you could apply a price, colour and location search to just these makes and models. You can't do that, as far as we're aware, anywhere else.
- You can create a zero results search so that you can save it for when a car meeting those criteria is uploaded. So if you really only want a pink Honda NSX with more than 100,000 miles, 7 owners and a DAB radio, then you can save an alert for that car. Other sites will only let you search against facets which it can identify with cars in its database. That's fine for mass market stuff, but not good enough for rare PH type cars.
There's more, but hopefully all of this makes sense.
BUT, here's the important bit: you can carry on browsing PH exactly as you always have done. If you want to comb through 1600 Audi A4s, then you can. The make/model listing which was the primary navigation on the old site is still there, and you can still use it.
Similarly, we've tried to avoid all the grumbles with AutoTrader, notably around a compulsory PostCode. Postcode search is really, really useful. Particularly with our mapping view which shows you where cars are located (because travelling 15 miles across London on a Saturday is very different to 15 miles in another, right?) however we haven't made it compulsory. We haven't done that because we see it as a major barrier to usability if you simply don't want to use a postcode.
Hopefully I've described some of the problems we've set out to solve. Not all of them are visible, but these ought to make sense, even if they don't apply to you directly.
I'll try and deal with all the issues raised here, but it is important to say one thing right off:
We're having some performance issues with the new platform which are teething problems associated with launching a site of this size. They relate to network performance (ie how quickly it runs on your computer) and also data migration - affecting how many cars you can see, and how many search can find.
That aside, the original question was "what problems is this solving" so I'll try to list these as much as possible.
1. Stability. Laughable at present given the performance issues I realise, but when (that's when, not if) the site is running properly it will be far more stable and better able to cope with 100,000+ cars for sale and over 4m unique users per month than the old architecture, which was pretty creaky and really didn't have much growing space left.
2. search The old site had a pretty rudimentary search. It didn't allow you to search the full body text of the ad for keywords, and it allowed only some facets (such as price, location). The new site has far more facets, so whilst you can just go and look at all the Audi A4s, you can also narrow it down to just the 6 cylinder petrol versions in silver with alloy wheels. That's important.
3. orientation As we've got bigger, it has got harder and harder to navigate around PistonHeads, particularly if you're looking at a high volume make/model category. The site didn't tell you how many cars you were looking at, and you ended up with page after page of listings. All our analytics data told us that very few people were looking at individual cars as a percentage of people looking at search results. In other words, we were losing people who just didn't want to look at 2000 cars with little means of narrowing the selection down. The new site has a few key things to show people how many cars they are looking at and, hopefully, how to look at fewer or more cars as users see fit.
Along the way we've also done a few other things to improve performance and the user experience:
- Search for multiple makes/models. If you want to look at 350Z, Honda S2000, Porsche Boxster S and SLK, for example, you can search all of these makes and models together. So you could apply a price, colour and location search to just these makes and models. You can't do that, as far as we're aware, anywhere else.
- You can create a zero results search so that you can save it for when a car meeting those criteria is uploaded. So if you really only want a pink Honda NSX with more than 100,000 miles, 7 owners and a DAB radio, then you can save an alert for that car. Other sites will only let you search against facets which it can identify with cars in its database. That's fine for mass market stuff, but not good enough for rare PH type cars.
There's more, but hopefully all of this makes sense.
BUT, here's the important bit: you can carry on browsing PH exactly as you always have done. If you want to comb through 1600 Audi A4s, then you can. The make/model listing which was the primary navigation on the old site is still there, and you can still use it.
Similarly, we've tried to avoid all the grumbles with AutoTrader, notably around a compulsory PostCode. Postcode search is really, really useful. Particularly with our mapping view which shows you where cars are located (because travelling 15 miles across London on a Saturday is very different to 15 miles in another, right?) however we haven't made it compulsory. We haven't done that because we see it as a major barrier to usability if you simply don't want to use a postcode.
Hopefully I've described some of the problems we've set out to solve. Not all of them are visible, but these ought to make sense, even if they don't apply to you directly.
How did you muppets search for convertibles or slushboxes before????
Answer - with huge amounts of time and hassle.
Of course it is running slow - it's new. It will have bugs too, no doubt.
Lots of cars not showing up yet for starters.
This version WILL be better.
And you CAN do what you used to do - just click on the old format links on the homepage for the classifieds - IT'S JUST THE SAME but with slightly smaller pics!!
You lot remind me of the lower comic here:
http://theoatmeal.com/pl/state_web_winter/facebook...
Answer - with huge amounts of time and hassle.
Of course it is running slow - it's new. It will have bugs too, no doubt.
Lots of cars not showing up yet for starters.
This version WILL be better.
And you CAN do what you used to do - just click on the old format links on the homepage for the classifieds - IT'S JUST THE SAME but with slightly smaller pics!!
You lot remind me of the lower comic here:
http://theoatmeal.com/pl/state_web_winter/facebook...
NO!!! MY EYES!!!
These are good things though:
These are good things though:
Stuart said:
- Search for multiple makes/models. If you want to look at 350Z, Honda S2000, Porsche Boxster S and SLK, for example, you can search all of these makes and models together. So you could apply a price, colour and location search to just these makes and models. You can't do that, as far as we're aware, anywhere else.
Stuart said:
Postcode search is really, really useful. Particularly with our mapping view which shows you where cars are located (because travelling 15 miles across London on a Saturday is very different to 15 miles in another, right?) however we haven't made it compulsory.
Stuart said:
- Search for multiple makes/models. If you want to look at 350Z, Honda S2000, Porsche Boxster S and SLK, for example, you can search all of these makes and models together. So you could apply a price, colour and location search to just these makes and models. You can't do that, as far as we're aware, anywhere else.
*cough* cars.com *cough*Stuart said:
Similarly, we've tried to avoid all the grumbles with AutoTrader, notably around a compulsory PostCode. Postcode search is really, really useful. Particularly with our mapping view which shows you where cars are located (because travelling 15 miles across London on a Saturday is very different to 15 miles in another, right?) however we haven't made it compulsory. We haven't done that because we see it as a major barrier to usability if you simply don't want to use a postcode .
That little 'feature' of AT has always bugged me, indeed. I bought my present car from the UK (off the PH classifieds I might add) - to search for cars in the AT Classifieds I had to fake a UK postcode - contaminating the data they undoubtedly want to collate and 'sell' with this action in the process... black and green said:
Stuart said:
Chris_H said:
Currently, every search returns zero results!
It's dipping in and out at present for me. Just give us time, and we'll get it sorted. I promise!Wow, such indignation.
As I've already said, we've got a performance issue, and we've got a search index issue. Both of these are currently masking the way the site works.
On the question of user/AB testing, we've been user testing for the past six weeks or so, and we also used a user centric design approach. So the wireframes and designs were all tested on users all the way through (and look significantly different to the way they originally did as a result). We'll continue to do this as we evolve the site.
I know that the experience is frustrating at present, but we are only 4 hours into the launch of a completely new platform for a massive site. We're experiencing teething issues, but we'll get these resolved.
Cheers,
Stuart
As I've already said, we've got a performance issue, and we've got a search index issue. Both of these are currently masking the way the site works.
On the question of user/AB testing, we've been user testing for the past six weeks or so, and we also used a user centric design approach. So the wireframes and designs were all tested on users all the way through (and look significantly different to the way they originally did as a result). We'll continue to do this as we evolve the site.
I know that the experience is frustrating at present, but we are only 4 hours into the launch of a completely new platform for a massive site. We're experiencing teething issues, but we'll get these resolved.
Cheers,
Stuart
Rayan1986 said:
Its the saying:
if it aint broke dont fix it
It was a long post I realise, but if you read it you'll see that the point I was making that it was broken. Or at least it wasn't working nearly as well as it could.if it aint broke dont fix it
The other thing I said was that the current way of browsing the classifieds is still there. You can if you wish completely ignore the new search tools, and just get stuck into all the cars at make or model level.
We've tried really hard to make sure that the experience isn't compromised for users. I promise that once we've resolved the immediate performance issues, you'll see this.
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