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Thanks - any thoughts on how to rank pro/cons? It seems like it would be a manual process. Is the ranking or pro/cons something you think users could "vote" on?

Thanks - any thoughts on how to rank pro/cons? It seems like it would be a manual process. Is the ranking or pro/cons something you think users could "vote" on? Interesting observations.

JoshTriplett 17y ago
Many people might come to the site asking the question "which laptop should I buy?". However, that doesn't mean they have the same question, because that question has a variable in it: "I". The laptop I buy as a computing professional will differ greatly from the laptop someone else might buy. I think you want to direct all people with that question to the same page, but then make it easy to distinguish themselves and their criteria with simple statements. For instance, under "Which laptop should I buy?", you could then have distinguishing statements like "I use my laptop more/less than 8 hours a day." or "I care more about weight/screen size.". Make a game out of it, and simplify the ranking process as much as possible. For instance, put the question at the top ("What laptop should I buy?"), put two "person" icons on either side of the page each with a speech bubble saying "I use my laptop more than 8 hours a day." and "I use my laptop less than 8 hours a day.". Then, users can drag laptops under the left or right user icon depending on which statement fits the laptop better. You don't necessarily even need opposing statements on the same axis; if you let users categorize laptops between any two arbitrary statements, you then have the information that user U believes laptop L better fits statement S1 than statement S2. Put enough of those together and you can derive some useful information. Then, when a user wants to ask the question "which laptop should I get?", they can rank some statements they agree with, and get a laptop that fits those statements.
- empire29 17y ago
  I 100% agree that each persons situation is the critical aspect. If it wasn't review sites (since they are usually general) would be able to fill this niche. The idea behind the slider on the Home page wasn't to make people think there is 1 question they should look at, but rather let them see all the questions other people have asked about that item (laptop). Maybe it would be better to have "clicks" on the slider to take the user to the "Ask a Question" page.

Thanks - any thoughts on how to rank pro/cons? It seems like it would be a manual process. Is the ranking or pro/cons something you think users could "vote" on? Interesting observations.

JoshTriplett 17y ago

Many people might come to the site asking the question "which laptop should I buy?". However, that doesn't mean they have the same question, because that question has a variable in it: "I". The laptop I buy as a computing professional will differ greatly from the laptop someone else might buy. I think you want to direct all people with that question to the same page, but then make it easy to distinguish themselves and their criteria with simple statements. For instance, under "Which laptop should I buy?", you could then have distinguishing statements like "I use my laptop more/less than 8 hours a day." or "I care more about weight/screen size.". Make a game out of it, and simplify the ranking process as much as possible. For instance, put the question at the top ("What laptop should I buy?"), put two "person" icons on either side of the page each with a speech bubble saying "I use my laptop more than 8 hours a day." and "I use my laptop less than 8 hours a day.". Then, users can drag laptops under the left or right user icon depending on which statement fits the laptop better. You don't necessarily even need opposing statements on the same axis; if you let users categorize laptops between any two arbitrary statements, you then have the information that user U believes laptop L better fits statement S1 than statement S2. Put enough of those together and you can derive some useful information. Then, when a user wants to ask the question "which laptop should I get?", they can rank some statements they agree with, and get a laptop that fits those statements.

empire29 17y ago
I 100% agree that each persons situation is the critical aspect. If it wasn't review sites (since they are usually general) would be able to fill this niche. The idea behind the slider on the Home page wasn't to make people think there is 1 question they should look at, but rather let them see all the questions other people have asked about that item (laptop). Maybe it would be better to have "clicks" on the slider to take the user to the "Ask a Question" page.