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I just tried using the site. It seems quite a bit rough around the edges. The search bar looks kind of strange with the black background and the bars between e
by robyates 16y ago
I just tried using the site. It seems quite a bit rough around the edges.
The search bar looks kind of strange with the black background and the bars between each character. I wasn't even sure where I should start typing as the search bar doesn't really look like a search bar. From http://sivers.org/quirks http://sivers.org/quirks, "The best design should do what people expect, and should not make them think."
Also, I tried searching for my flight today that had been canceled. It was American Airlines flight 5066, but I entered "5066", "AA5066", and "American Airlines" and searching the flights, and could not find it.
Finally, how you checked out flightcaster.com? It's a YC startup from 2009. I'm not sure how your site does much different than that website other than the google earth visualization. I was using flightcaster.com and flightstats.com to check the status of my flight today. Perhaps you could just focus on the google earth visualization and import the data from these websites?
Sorry to be so critical above, but I hope this helps in some way. Congrats on your first launch!
- whiskers 16y agoCriticism is welcome, no worries! The search bar is meant to give the feel of the old style departure boards with the mechanical displays - perhaps it's an analogy too far with the results also presented that way. I'll look into why AA5066 didn't work, it should have. Thanks for the heads up! I think flightcaster.com is doing something different really - flightlite.com is all about what's in the air at the moment, more a way to track the progress of a visiting friend or just take a peek at a flight you might be taking in the future (seeing what you'd be passing over etc). Maybe there aren't really enough people interested in that - who knows!
- whiskers 16y agoAA5066 is a codeshare operated by a different airline which is why it didn't come back in the search for AA5066 (it is instead CHQ5066). I'm looking into a way to support this though as it's not exactly helpful :)
- whiskers 16y agoI've reworked the search functionality somewhat - I hope it feels easier/clearer to use now.
- robyates 16y agoThat search functionality is much better! The changes you made look good. However, when I search for 'CHQ5066' and it brings a list of flights, I click on one flight and it brings up a page with the Fatal Error message: http://flightlite.com/track/CHQ5066/2010-12-28T09:55 http://flightlite.com/track/CHQ5066/2010-12-28T09:55 Also you say "flightlite.com is all about what's in the air at the moment". Think about how it would be easiest to present this information. Rather than make something that looks like a competitor to flightcaster.com or flightstats.com, try to make something that compliments it. As veb said, using the Google Maps API is probably better than Google Earth since users wouldn't have to install anything. Perhaps you could have a map of one city on the front page and show all the lines of each flight going into and out of the city. See the Facebook friend visualization for inspiration: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2002742 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2002742 Ok, that's it for now. I actually have a flight to catch tomorrow since that AA one got canceled. Feel free to contact me privately (contact info is in my profile) if you want more feedback after making some changes on your site. Finally, remember what Paul Graham says: It's better to make something a few users love than a lot of users only like. (Paraphrased from http://www.paulgraham.com/13sentences.html http://www.paulgraham.com/13sentences.html)
- whiskers 16y agoWise words! Thanks for the offer to take this chat further - I'll be in touch when I've worked on it some more. Version 2.0 anyone? :)