6 ms·

[Show HN] Crowdspottr

30 points by shubhamgoel 15y ago

revorad 15y ago
That is beautifully designed. Here are some thoughts from first impressions of the web app: The Facebook login page looks like an error page. Coming from the beautifully designed homepage, it looks like a completely different site. Why don't you just add the facebook connect button on the homepage? Saves me a click and keeps it beautiful. Once connected, it lists events by default by Popular. The problem is that some of the most popular events in my Facebook feed are in the past. Since your focus is on getting people out, I'd not even list past events. Just sort future events by popularity and filter by location, friends and time. I just noticed the buttons at the bottom of the screen. I don't know how they look on a phone but on my computer screen, they are almost invisible. You might want to change the colour a bit. On a particular event's page, the text is almost unreadable, as you'd expect from grey text on a grey background. This seems to be the most common annoyance I spot on well-designed websites. Maybe designers can perceive tiny differences in shades of colours, but most normals like me can't. I'm not sure what the search function is for. It doesn't return any results for my friends' names, even when I can see events listed by them. [Edit: In the list of events, it doesn't show me which friend of mine has created the event. Putting a picture of my friends' faces next to each event will make me hugely more likely to click on them.] [Edit: Your blog doesn't link back to your main site. If I launched an app every time I spotted this on a startup blog, I'd be the appiest man in the world.] One social problem with this kind of listing of events is that while it's cool to see what events my wider circle of friends are attending, it's not very useful unless I've been invited. (edit: and if I've been invited, umm your app is not very useful.) If I can see Sally is going to the music festival next Sunday in the park near my house, that's cool but I won't join her unless she invites me or she's a really good friend who won't mind me turning up. Which brings me to the main problem with the concept of this app. Your taglines are: Don’t know where to go and whom with? Discover what your friends are up to! The first one (where to go) is often a question I have. Whom with? Never. I mostly go out with the same set of friends and their friends. Discovering what my friends are up to is not hard with Twitter, Facebook, SMS, email or a phone call. I haven't yet seen or used an app which recommends me things to do based on my interests and the events I've been to. Maybe Foursquare does this. I should try it out, but its focus (check-ins to get free beers) is something I'm not too interested in. If you made something which actually tells me really fun stuff to do (my kind of fun), I'd use it, even if the design was fugly. Like Google.
- paulocal 15y ago
  The homepage is beautiful and all but where do i sign up?!?! EDIT: Scratch that, found it... "Mobile web app" VERY cool idea. Dig it.
- manuelflara 15y ago
  Regarding your issue of "I already know what my friends are doing" and "I don't want to go somewhere I haven't been invited", I guess it all depends on what you define as "friends". Your closest 10 friends? Sure, it applies. But who doesn't have hundreds of friends on Facebook these days? Taking that angle it's easy to see how you'll find out cool events (not private parties to crash, but concerts, conferences, art exhibits, etc) that you can go to, that someone you know is also attending (even if you're not close friends, you'll probably give them a call to go together, meet there, or whatever). Having quite a busy social life, yet still some days when there's nothing interesting to do, I've found my app (see my other reply), and by extension, also Crowdspotting, to be useful. Also they make for good conversation when you happen to meet those friends from time to time ("Oh, I saw you went to X or Y, how was it?").
  - revorad 15y ago
    I agree that I might find some cool events through friends of friends. But I guess I was going by what I saw when I logged into Crowdspottr. Most of the events my friends post on Facebook are private parties or small events which I wouldn't want to gatecrash. By the way, fiestastic looks great. I signed in with my Facebook but then was told I can't use it because you're in private beta! I think you should make that clear on the homepage itself. Any chance you can let me try it now? I like that you show a map of events. That's another problem with Crowdspottr. A lot of the events it shows me are in another continent. I think this is why beautiful looking apps are often not as useful as ugly ones. Instead of making the app useful, more time is spent on making it look shiny.
    - manuelflara 15y ago
      You should be able to log in and use the site now :)
manuelflara 15y ago
Whoa! I feel like I've just been slapped in the face. Don't get me wrong, the design is beautifully, and the app is great. The thing is.. I've been working on something like this myself! And yours looks way more complete and polished. Here's mine: http://www.fiestastic.com http://www.fiestastic.com NOTE: It's now in private beta, but if you (this goes both to the Crowdspottr team as well as anyone reading this :P) would like to give it a try, just sent me an email to manuel@fiestastic.com with a link to your Facebook profile and I'll add it to the list of "allowed users". I've taken more of a regular website approach while you guys are doing first a mobile app/site, which makes more sense, but I'm not very skilled in native iPhone/Android development. I'm not sure if I should be depressed (someone else is doing what I'm doing, and so far, looks better!) or happy (someone else is doing what I'm doing, so must be something worth doing!), but anyway, good luck with Crowdspottr! I'll be keeping an eye on you ;-)
- paulnelligan 15y ago
  definitely don't be depressed, take the lessons learned and apply it to everything else you'll ever do .. and ask them for a job! really impressed by this app by the way - my only issue with most new apps like this is that they usually don't work so well in europe, due to low rate of adoption, and lack of focus by entrepreneurs on non-US markets ...
  - manuelflara 15y ago
    Well, the good thing about both Crowdspottr and Fiestastic is that, unlike classic social networks (Twitter, Facebook, etc), even if only 1 user uses the service, it's already useful for him/her, as all data (events and friends) comes from Facebook. Of course, being widely used (at least in a specific area) would bring extra benefits and more possible features, but I like that it's useful even to the very first user.
  - shubhamgoel 15y ago
    the company behind this app is actually http://www.pangalaktik.com/ http://www.pangalaktik.com/ which is based out of Hungary and other european countries :P and the people behind it are from 7 countries like Russia, Estonia ... check out http://blog.campus.carnationgroup.com/ http://blog.campus.carnationgroup.com/ for the complete story
tudorizer 15y ago
That comparison chart is all that matters.
masonhensley 15y ago
Im probably gonna catch some flack for being a negative nancy- Am I the only one that realizes that all this does is reorganize information on FB? It's pretty and works (slowly), but that's it.
- manuelflara 15y ago
  You're right, that's what they do (mostly). That doesn't mean they're not useful. Plenty of services have been creating around "reorganizing" (more efficiently) sources of information. Also, once you get some volume of events and user info, you can do more interesting things with this data.

30 points by shubhamgoel 15y ago

That is beautifully designed. Here are some thoughts from first impressions of the web app: The Facebook login page looks like an error page. Coming from the beautifully designed homepage, it looks like a completely different site. Why don't you just add the facebook connect button on the homepage? Saves me a click and keeps it beautiful. Once connected, it lists events by default by Popular. The problem is that some of the most popular events in my Facebook feed are in the past. Since your focus is on getting people out, I'd not even list past events. Just sort future events by popularity and filter by location, friends and time. I just noticed the buttons at the bottom of the screen. I don't know how they look on a phone but on my computer screen, they are almost invisible. You might want to change the colour a bit. On a particular event's page, the text is almost unreadable, as you'd expect from grey text on a grey background. This seems to be the most common annoyance I spot on well-designed websites. Maybe designers can perceive tiny differences in shades of colours, but most normals like me can't. I'm not sure what the search function is for. It doesn't return any results for my friends' names, even when I can see events listed by them. [Edit: In the list of events, it doesn't show me which friend of mine has created the event. Putting a picture of my friends' faces next to each event will make me hugely more likely to click on them.] [Edit: Your blog doesn't link back to your main site. If I launched an app every time I spotted this on a startup blog, I'd be the appiest man in the world.] One social problem with this kind of listing of events is that while it's cool to see what events my wider circle of friends are attending, it's not very useful unless I've been invited. (edit: and if I've been invited, umm your app is not very useful.) If I can see Sally is going to the music festival next Sunday in the park near my house, that's cool but I won't join her unless she invites me or she's a really good friend who won't mind me turning up. Which brings me to the main problem with the concept of this app. Your taglines are: Don’t know where to go and whom with? Discover what your friends are up to! The first one (where to go) is often a question I have. Whom with? Never. I mostly go out with the same set of friends and their friends. Discovering what my friends are up to is not hard with Twitter, Facebook, SMS, email or a phone call. I haven't yet seen or used an app which recommends me things to do based on my interests and the events I've been to. Maybe Foursquare does this. I should try it out, but its focus (check-ins to get free beers) is something I'm not too interested in. If you made something which actually tells me really fun stuff to do (my kind of fun), I'd use it, even if the design was fugly. Like Google.

paulocal 15y ago
The homepage is beautiful and all but where do i sign up?!?! EDIT: Scratch that, found it... "Mobile web app" VERY cool idea. Dig it.
manuelflara 15y ago
Regarding your issue of "I already know what my friends are doing" and "I don't want to go somewhere I haven't been invited", I guess it all depends on what you define as "friends". Your closest 10 friends? Sure, it applies. But who doesn't have hundreds of friends on Facebook these days? Taking that angle it's easy to see how you'll find out cool events (not private parties to crash, but concerts, conferences, art exhibits, etc) that you can go to, that someone you know is also attending (even if you're not close friends, you'll probably give them a call to go together, meet there, or whatever). Having quite a busy social life, yet still some days when there's nothing interesting to do, I've found my app (see my other reply), and by extension, also Crowdspotting, to be useful. Also they make for good conversation when you happen to meet those friends from time to time ("Oh, I saw you went to X or Y, how was it?").
- revorad 15y ago
  I agree that I might find some cool events through friends of friends. But I guess I was going by what I saw when I logged into Crowdspottr. Most of the events my friends post on Facebook are private parties or small events which I wouldn't want to gatecrash. By the way, fiestastic looks great. I signed in with my Facebook but then was told I can't use it because you're in private beta! I think you should make that clear on the homepage itself. Any chance you can let me try it now? I like that you show a map of events. That's another problem with Crowdspottr. A lot of the events it shows me are in another continent. I think this is why beautiful looking apps are often not as useful as ugly ones. Instead of making the app useful, more time is spent on making it look shiny.
  - manuelflara 15y ago
    You should be able to log in and use the site now :)

manuelflara 15y ago

Whoa! I feel like I've just been slapped in the face. Don't get me wrong, the design is beautifully, and the app is great. The thing is.. I've been working on something like this myself! And yours looks way more complete and polished. Here's mine: http://www.fiestastic.com http://www.fiestastic.com NOTE: It's now in private beta, but if you (this goes both to the Crowdspottr team as well as anyone reading this :P) would like to give it a try, just sent me an email to manuel@fiestastic.com with a link to your Facebook profile and I'll add it to the list of "allowed users". I've taken more of a regular website approach while you guys are doing first a mobile app/site, which makes more sense, but I'm not very skilled in native iPhone/Android development. I'm not sure if I should be depressed (someone else is doing what I'm doing, and so far, looks better!) or happy (someone else is doing what I'm doing, so must be something worth doing!), but anyway, good luck with Crowdspottr! I'll be keeping an eye on you ;-)

paulnelligan 15y ago
definitely don't be depressed, take the lessons learned and apply it to everything else you'll ever do .. and ask them for a job! really impressed by this app by the way - my only issue with most new apps like this is that they usually don't work so well in europe, due to low rate of adoption, and lack of focus by entrepreneurs on non-US markets ...
- manuelflara 15y ago
  Well, the good thing about both Crowdspottr and Fiestastic is that, unlike classic social networks (Twitter, Facebook, etc), even if only 1 user uses the service, it's already useful for him/her, as all data (events and friends) comes from Facebook. Of course, being widely used (at least in a specific area) would bring extra benefits and more possible features, but I like that it's useful even to the very first user.
- shubhamgoel 15y ago
  the company behind this app is actually http://www.pangalaktik.com/ http://www.pangalaktik.com/ which is based out of Hungary and other european countries :P and the people behind it are from 7 countries like Russia, Estonia ... check out http://blog.campus.carnationgroup.com/ http://blog.campus.carnationgroup.com/ for the complete story

tudorizer 15y ago

That comparison chart is all that matters.

masonhensley 15y ago

Im probably gonna catch some flack for being a negative nancy- Am I the only one that realizes that all this does is reorganize information on FB? It's pretty and works (slowly), but that's it.

manuelflara 15y ago
You're right, that's what they do (mostly). That doesn't mean they're not useful. Plenty of services have been creating around "reorganizing" (more efficiently) sources of information. Also, once you get some volume of events and user info, you can do more interesting things with this data.