3 ms·

My pleasure. :) - The site, on a cold start, took 5.95s before onLoad() fired (as reported by webkit). Most of that was spent loading your jQuery core and plug

My pleasure. :) - The site, on a cold start, took 5.95s before onLoad() fired (as reported by webkit). Most of that was spent loading your jQuery core and plugins and jQueryUI. See if you can minify and concat all of that together. - I like the simple UI. It seems like it's a buying assistant. I assume you'll ask basic questions and spit out some results. Let's see.... PS: a weird character showed next to the currency symbol (Â£ ) - Your images load up pretty fast! Quite happy with the snappiness of the UI. (You even did some planning for smaller screens...nice.) - It might be nice to have a way for the user to browse laptops without having to scroll all the way down the page to select a different one. (Might even be nice to have images in the results on the right.) - Now sure about the search bar across the top. I'm assuming eventually I'll be able to shop for other items and this is a placeholder for when it is complete? Would I recommend it to a friend? As it is today, I'm not sure. I don't immediately see any value here. Sure the site is pretty quick. But I think the way online commerce has come along in the past decade, you're going to have to bring a lot more to the party than just a fast web page. Not to mention that people go to different websites for very specific buying experiences. (Newegg handles laptop buying very differently than BestBuy...even though they both have similar gear.) Unless you're going to specialize on just one product or a VERY specific type of individual, I think it'll be hard for you to compete with that. I'm curious if anyone has said this to you yet, or if this is something you've considered.

revorad 15y ago
Mike, thanks a lot for the detailed feedback. Minifying and caching stuff is on my checklist. I purposely put the site to test in its unoptimised state to see how it performs and get some numbers based on my current hardware configuration. The next update makes it easier to browse laptops, so you won't have to scroll much or at all. You're right about the search bar on the top. I intend this to be a general shopping site, and will add other product categories sooner than later. It's interesting to know that you don't see any value. I'd spell out the value proposition, but I'd rather people recognise it on their own. Specialising along some vector is probably going to be crucial to get traction initially. In addition to product category and customer profile, I have couple of other options in mind. I'll choose one or two of them. Can you say what you think are the specific buying experiences people go to Newegg and Bestbuy for? Any other examples would also be useful. Once again, thanks a lot.
- mikegreenberg 15y ago
  I want to clarify my statement about not seeing value. I'm talking specifically about ME, as a technically savvy individual, not getting value out of this. Typically, I'm already aware of the technical landscape of laptops, specifically. And if I'm making a big purchase in an industry/market I'm not already familiar with, I prefer to do my research manually and make a personally well-informed decision. More about my process is found here: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2771521 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2771521 This may still be valuable to another individual with different research habits and time limitations. Regarding buying experiences at different websites... I think each website attracts a specific type of buyer. Newegg has a very technical audience, and as a result, you're able to refine purchases by VERY specific features and specifications. People who purchase at BestBuy are looking for convenience. You'll notice their buying flow is focused more on that (by offering in-store pickup for free, for instance). Another example might be Zappos...who has a customer base which really appreciates how they offer a worry-free shoe buying experience. They offer as much media as possible at point of sale, but more importantly, the user is reassured at each step of the process that if they don't like something, returns are easy and free. Each retailer specializes on specific parts of the market and for you to be successful, you need to identify what type of buyer you are trying to attract. And (most importantly) IF that type of buyer operates the same way across different types of products/verticals.

revorad 15y ago

Mike, thanks a lot for the detailed feedback. Minifying and caching stuff is on my checklist. I purposely put the site to test in its unoptimised state to see how it performs and get some numbers based on my current hardware configuration. The next update makes it easier to browse laptops, so you won't have to scroll much or at all. You're right about the search bar on the top. I intend this to be a general shopping site, and will add other product categories sooner than later. It's interesting to know that you don't see any value. I'd spell out the value proposition, but I'd rather people recognise it on their own. Specialising along some vector is probably going to be crucial to get traction initially. In addition to product category and customer profile, I have couple of other options in mind. I'll choose one or two of them. Can you say what you think are the specific buying experiences people go to Newegg and Bestbuy for? Any other examples would also be useful. Once again, thanks a lot.

mikegreenberg 15y ago
I want to clarify my statement about not seeing value. I'm talking specifically about ME, as a technically savvy individual, not getting value out of this. Typically, I'm already aware of the technical landscape of laptops, specifically. And if I'm making a big purchase in an industry/market I'm not already familiar with, I prefer to do my research manually and make a personally well-informed decision. More about my process is found here: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2771521 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2771521 This may still be valuable to another individual with different research habits and time limitations. Regarding buying experiences at different websites... I think each website attracts a specific type of buyer. Newegg has a very technical audience, and as a result, you're able to refine purchases by VERY specific features and specifications. People who purchase at BestBuy are looking for convenience. You'll notice their buying flow is focused more on that (by offering in-store pickup for free, for instance). Another example might be Zappos...who has a customer base which really appreciates how they offer a worry-free shoe buying experience. They offer as much media as possible at point of sale, but more importantly, the user is reassured at each step of the process that if they don't like something, returns are easy and free. Each retailer specializes on specific parts of the market and for you to be successful, you need to identify what type of buyer you are trying to attract. And (most importantly) IF that type of buyer operates the same way across different types of products/verticals.