4 ms·

This is aimed at helping bike newbies become bike experts, although frankly it has been easier to gain traction with experts. I try to imagine it as a bike expe

by spokey 17y ago

This is aimed at helping bike newbies become bike experts, although frankly it has been easier to gain traction with experts. I try to imagine it as a bike expert looking over your shoulder while you're looking at bike specs explaining why you might want or not want feature X (the online equivalent of what good salesperson might do at your LBS). There's a bit of that in place here and there on the site (for instance, the nascent "undestanding" articles, or trying hovering over the frame or fork parts of a bike details page). I guess it needs to be more in your face.

RyanMcGreal 17y ago
>This is aimed at helping bike newbies become bike experts In that case, you seem to be going at it exactly backwards. Take the search bar - if I already know the make and model to search for, I'm definitely not a newbie. Instead, the form could be something like this: 1. Why do you want a bike (check all that apply)? - Commute - Recreation - Exercise - Environment 2. How much money do you want to spend? - [low end] - [high end] 3. Where do you live? [type city and country or click location on a map] Then return a list of bikes that meet the criteria you selected in order by fit, with links to places where you can buy the bike.
- spokey 17y ago
  Thank you. That was my first thought as well, but in testing that's quite not the way people like to approach the problem. (In fairness, the form I have on the homepage currently also isn't quite the way people like to approach it.) For example, here's a sampling of posting from a general purpose (not bike specific) forum from the past 24 hours: * What is the best comfort bike/city bike for under $500? * Whats a light bike for city riding? * Recommendation for Cyclocross Bike for Winter Road Riding? * Whats a decent hard tail mountain Bike for under 500? * Suggestions for a $650 road bike? * I'm looking to spend around $2000 on a road bike. What should I get? This is the immediate need I'm trying to serve with that form on the homepage. I imagine I'll eventually have a bike "wizard" like you describe, but from my research (and watching others in the space) that's not quite an intuitive approach for users.
  - RyanMcGreal 17y ago
    You're probably right that the form I suggested isn't quite right - it was off the cuff. Still, I think the design needs to reflect the problems people are trying to solve. Given the sample questions you listed, the form currently on the site is still backwards - running from particular products back towards uses. Here's an idea: have you considered pushing the expertise out to the site community instead of having to hard-code it? I'm thinking of something like a stackoverflow for cycling. That way the site will respond directly to the precise questions that users have, rather than trying to force-map the 'typical' question into a form at all.
    - spokey 17y ago
      That's interesting. I'll need to noodle on it some more.
  - mwexler 17y ago
    Hmmm... I'm a bike newbie, and when I just bought my road bike, I never used the word Cyclocross or "hard tail". And I bet, if you looked at the answers to questions like "Suggestions for a $650 road bike?", they were all things like "It depends on whether you are commuting or riding for fitness, in what weather, what terrain, etc.?" That is, you get answers like "This Specialized is a great bike for..." where they provide the context around why they suggest it, or they ask for further details. You have the data, you just need to provide interesting ways to get at it. The wizard may not be it... but how you provide the answers should show that you understand what the person is trying to answer.

by spokey 17y ago

RyanMcGreal 17y ago

>This is aimed at helping bike newbies become bike experts In that case, you seem to be going at it exactly backwards. Take the search bar - if I already know the make and model to search for, I'm definitely not a newbie. Instead, the form could be something like this: 1. Why do you want a bike (check all that apply)? - Commute - Recreation - Exercise - Environment 2. How much money do you want to spend? - [low end] - [high end] 3. Where do you live? [type city and country or click location on a map] Then return a list of bikes that meet the criteria you selected in order by fit, with links to places where you can buy the bike.

spokey 17y ago
Thank you. That was my first thought as well, but in testing that's quite not the way people like to approach the problem. (In fairness, the form I have on the homepage currently also isn't quite the way people like to approach it.) For example, here's a sampling of posting from a general purpose (not bike specific) forum from the past 24 hours: * What is the best comfort bike/city bike for under $500? * Whats a light bike for city riding? * Recommendation for Cyclocross Bike for Winter Road Riding? * Whats a decent hard tail mountain Bike for under 500? * Suggestions for a $650 road bike? * I'm looking to spend around $2000 on a road bike. What should I get? This is the immediate need I'm trying to serve with that form on the homepage. I imagine I'll eventually have a bike "wizard" like you describe, but from my research (and watching others in the space) that's not quite an intuitive approach for users.
- RyanMcGreal 17y ago
  You're probably right that the form I suggested isn't quite right - it was off the cuff. Still, I think the design needs to reflect the problems people are trying to solve. Given the sample questions you listed, the form currently on the site is still backwards - running from particular products back towards uses. Here's an idea: have you considered pushing the expertise out to the site community instead of having to hard-code it? I'm thinking of something like a stackoverflow for cycling. That way the site will respond directly to the precise questions that users have, rather than trying to force-map the 'typical' question into a form at all.
  - spokey 17y ago
    That's interesting. I'll need to noodle on it some more.
- mwexler 17y ago
  Hmmm... I'm a bike newbie, and when I just bought my road bike, I never used the word Cyclocross or "hard tail". And I bet, if you looked at the answers to questions like "Suggestions for a $650 road bike?", they were all things like "It depends on whether you are commuting or riding for fitness, in what weather, what terrain, etc.?" That is, you get answers like "This Specialized is a great bike for..." where they provide the context around why they suggest it, or they ask for further details. You have the data, you just need to provide interesting ways to get at it. The wizard may not be it... but how you provide the answers should show that you understand what the person is trying to answer.