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I recently spent a few months buying a new sectional sofa. Boy is the interface for that process terrible. The experience went something like this: 1. Pick the

I recently spent a few months buying a new sectional sofa. Boy is the interface for that process terrible. The experience went something like this: 1. Pick the overall style 2. Find vendors that make that style 3. Physically drive to far-away stores to get a sense for what our “comfort” KPIs are in terms of seat depth/height, back height, cushion fill, etc. 4. Go back online, manually compile a table of the above parameters across vendors, mainly pulling from PDF brochures with incomplete or incompatible information. Down filter to a few main candidates that satisfy major comfort and aesthetic objectives. 5. Take room measurements to understand constraints on configuration 6. With narrowed candidates, again manually compile available sectional piece options to determine the configuration that best fits our room. 7. Down to 2-3 options, go back to physical stores to test comfort (if they weren’t part of first round) and evaluate fabrics and finishes. 8. Final discussions, including considerations about price comp and lead times (varied from 2-6 months!). Finally make purchase. Maybe this is a little off-topic. But the point is this process was ultimately a couple of nested Sort/Filter operations, once the data was structured in a format relevant to our decision. That’s the biggest problem with online shopping - most of the data relevant to decisions is unstructured or unmeasurable. Once you get through that, then yes, filters are almost always the goal. I don’t really care about your fancy UI - I just want the information relevant to me in a spreadsheet so I can do a nested Sort.

tshaddox 3y ago
Which sectionals were your top picks, and what did you end up buying?
- plaidfuji 3y ago
  Had to pull up the old spreadsheet… brands were Norwalk, Huntington House, Arhaus and Crate and Barrel. Went with C&B. Very happy with it so far
purpleflame1257 3y ago
Wouldn't you have saved time by starting with point 5?
- plaidfuji 3y ago
  Ha, realized this when writing it out. We actually did start with measuring the room, but that only narrows it to a pretty wide range of configurations. This step was more about getting precise measurements to think about how different layouts would look and feel. We also just didn’t know what options there were until exploring some of the top candidates in detail. Definitely not as linear as I described it. The config is more like a layer of nuance on top of the hard constraints of style and comfort.. although I’m sure others would consider those soft constraints.
keenmaster 3y ago
LLMs with access to real-time data and reviews should be able to simplify this process a lot. “Show me a white and gold sectional in the art deco style for under $2500.” “Actually none of these look comfortable but I like the vertical lines on this one. Also make sure that any option you present does not contain toxic fire retardants or otherwise contains materials that result in the California prop whatever warning” “this looks great but can you find one with power reclining” Etc…buying something linked from the LLM will count as a referral and generate revenue for its developer.
- mrkeen 3y ago
  "I'm sorry, you are correct in pointing out that I returned couches containing toxic fire retardants. Here is the correct list:" [... same list ...]
  - keenmaster 3y ago
    Lol. I should have said AI rather than LLM because it would look at product images too - GPT-4 is already multi-modal. GPT-5 (and equivalents) is probably where services like this will start trickling out, and by then the model should have a lower error rate. The jump from 3.5 to 4 was huge. The AI doesn’t need to be perfect - even if it makes an occasional error such as showing you a couch with flame retardants, you can spot that in the listing yourself. Most other qualities of a couch are very visible and you’ll be able to tell visually how good of a job the AI is doing.
twic 3y ago
I recently bought some new bike hubs. There are many ways hubs can vary, many of which are critical for compatibility, so you have to get them right. Good faceted search makes this very easy, and its absence makes it agony. This is good: https://www.bike24.com/cycling/parts/bike-hubs?menu=1000,1868,1934 https://www.bike24.com/cycling/parts/bike-hubs?menu=1000,186... The worst sites would just have a "size" filter, with options like "135 mm", "quick release" and "32H", all describing different aspects of the hub!
marcosdumay 3y ago
I recently brought a computer chair. I guess I did everything on your list, for months, and couldn't find anything actually good anywhere, mostly because the dimensions that I cared for were never listed as filters. Then I came to a nearby manufacturer's store, just tried all the models and found an ok one. I also had to change a light-switch. No store would both let me filter the assembly, switches and finishing by model line and the complete trio. So I came into a physical store and got a preassembled set from the display. Webstores have became completely incompetent pieces of garbage since they all consolidated into an oligopoly.

tshaddox 3y ago

Which sectionals were your top picks, and what did you end up buying?

plaidfuji 3y ago
Had to pull up the old spreadsheet… brands were Norwalk, Huntington House, Arhaus and Crate and Barrel. Went with C&B. Very happy with it so far

purpleflame1257 3y ago

Wouldn't you have saved time by starting with point 5?

plaidfuji 3y ago
Ha, realized this when writing it out. We actually did start with measuring the room, but that only narrows it to a pretty wide range of configurations. This step was more about getting precise measurements to think about how different layouts would look and feel. We also just didn’t know what options there were until exploring some of the top candidates in detail. Definitely not as linear as I described it. The config is more like a layer of nuance on top of the hard constraints of style and comfort.. although I’m sure others would consider those soft constraints.

keenmaster 3y ago

LLMs with access to real-time data and reviews should be able to simplify this process a lot. “Show me a white and gold sectional in the art deco style for under $2500.” “Actually none of these look comfortable but I like the vertical lines on this one. Also make sure that any option you present does not contain toxic fire retardants or otherwise contains materials that result in the California prop whatever warning” “this looks great but can you find one with power reclining” Etc…buying something linked from the LLM will count as a referral and generate revenue for its developer.

mrkeen 3y ago
"I'm sorry, you are correct in pointing out that I returned couches containing toxic fire retardants. Here is the correct list:" [... same list ...]
- keenmaster 3y ago
  Lol. I should have said AI rather than LLM because it would look at product images too - GPT-4 is already multi-modal. GPT-5 (and equivalents) is probably where services like this will start trickling out, and by then the model should have a lower error rate. The jump from 3.5 to 4 was huge. The AI doesn’t need to be perfect - even if it makes an occasional error such as showing you a couch with flame retardants, you can spot that in the listing yourself. Most other qualities of a couch are very visible and you’ll be able to tell visually how good of a job the AI is doing.

twic 3y ago

I recently bought some new bike hubs. There are many ways hubs can vary, many of which are critical for compatibility, so you have to get them right. Good faceted search makes this very easy, and its absence makes it agony. This is good: https://www.bike24.com/cycling/parts/bike-hubs?menu=1000,1868,1934 https://www.bike24.com/cycling/parts/bike-hubs?menu=1000,186... The worst sites would just have a "size" filter, with options like "135 mm", "quick release" and "32H", all describing different aspects of the hub!

marcosdumay 3y ago

I recently brought a computer chair. I guess I did everything on your list, for months, and couldn't find anything actually good anywhere, mostly because the dimensions that I cared for were never listed as filters. Then I came to a nearby manufacturer's store, just tried all the models and found an ok one. I also had to change a light-switch. No store would both let me filter the assembly, switches and finishing by model line and the complete trio. So I came into a physical store and got a preassembled set from the display. Webstores have became completely incompetent pieces of garbage since they all consolidated into an oligopoly.