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Show HN: Student wanted better way to discover clothes online

81 points by ryanio 13y ago

fibbery 13y ago
I like the visual design. The UX is a little weird. I clicked the top image expecting it to move into place but nothing happened. Ditto for the image to the right of the main one. It took a while to notice the controls at the bottom, and a little after that to realize they were keyboard shortcuts (maybe I am just slow). After I realized that, I tried '=' to show the bottom bar and nothing happened. I'm not sure what 'Z' does but for me it just cleared the page. In the bottom bar there's an orange square that is darker colored, and empty, was curious what that was for.
mkilling 13y ago
Looks broken for me in Chrome 27.0.1453.15 beta
- vasco 13y ago
  On Chrome 26.0.1410.43 Linux, it's broken as well.
- iray 13y ago
  Same for me. I thought it was broken, as without scrolling to the bottom of the page, the buttons are not visible and the content itself isn't clickable. Also it isn't obvious what X and Z are supposed to do before using them (as the explanatory text is hidden slightly behind the orange bar at the bottom for me at least). When Z is selected it is unclear how to return to the previous page, as the images on the previous page aren't clickable, but the only way to exit the 'Z' screen is to click the image. Just feels a bit inconsistent, that's all. Personally, I find the placement of the up arrow being adjacent to the left arrow but the right arrow being placed on the far right a bit jarring. I expect it to be a block of three buttons together - left arrow, up arrow, right arrow - in the centre of the menu options. Interesting idea though - good luck!
- Pyramids 13y ago
  Same here, Chrome 26.0.1410.43 Linux
- atacrawl 13y ago
  Busted to hell for me in Safari 5.
edouard1234567 13y ago
Pretty cool, I really like the use of the keyboard, it makes the experience more fluid. Some feedback : 1 - I would keep a flat design, I think the spheric design is a distraction and gives the impression the inventory is limited to the "circumference"... 2 - If you could find a way to keep the user on site (maybe load amazon in a iframe) to see more details, that would make the experience more fluid. 3 - Maybe let users save items they like since this is a discovery platform.
- ErrantX 13y ago
  > I would keep a flat design, I think the spheric design is a distraction and gives the impression the inventory is limited to the "circumference" I agree this is a major UI problem; it doesn't feel natural to browse.
dshipper 13y ago
Cool but the animation makes me dizzy...
jpwagner 13y ago
This is really neat. You should get rid of the words "a weekend project", you don't need an excuse if something is not perfect.
kgodey 13y ago
This is great, but price/size filtering would make it even better.
marquis 13y ago
Looking at the dresses (girl here), it's kind of awkward to see the compressed width on the next image to come up. If you can adjust the transform to make it look more natural then it would be more fun to use. Happy to look at never-ending pictures of dresses for quite a while otherwise.
- thomasbk 13y ago
  Agree with this-- I tend to naturally look at the next picture while it's coming in, but the way it transforms hurts my eyes. Just sliding it in would be much more comfortable, although look less pretty. Also: the man/woman pictures on your main page repeat in Chrome for windows that do not have a specific shape.
  - wtvanhest 13y ago
    I realize that I'm "me tooing", but it is well worth mentioning again. It felt so slick, but after just a few minutes of looking at the images I had to get off the site because of the eye strain. This feels really good, and is probably worth improving that aspect. I could definitely see myself shopping on a site like that.
bastijn 13y ago
Nice idea, points given for trying. the first thing that bugged me was the lack of overview. I actually like a 5x10 raster (or smth similar). Second, the buttons werent directly clear to me. I was half expecting to be able to slide every part of my body in there, like building a game character (that would be kinda cool). More importantly, my gf, as heavy online shopper (she never admits ofcourse ^_^) shot the idea. Basically the same arguments: not able to quickly see stock. Zoom is full picture, while most nowadays use magnifying glasses, etc. In the end, nice try. Fun idea. But it is not clear to me what is wrong with current webshops showing overviews in a grid, and details on click.
ParadisoShlee 13y ago
damn excellent. Id love to see a filter forwards region if you grow the aggregator sources.
seivan 13y ago
What about gender neutral students? They are increasing numbers. I have friends who don'tcare some times if it's for girls or boys.
- hcarvalhoalves 13y ago
  > I have friends who don'tcare some times if it's for girls or boys. Then they just browse both.
  - kingkawn 13y ago
    or use both bathrooms?
    - deleted 13y ago
      [deleted]
- seivan 13y ago
  Funny how I got downvoted for this. I think this is hardcoded into the DB as a boolean. That's generally a bad idea. :D
damon_c 13y ago
the general concept of this UI (besides the spherical part) is similar to that of a site I'm freelancing on right now. It even has some of the same hotkeys :) it's for girls only though... http://www.stunable.com http://www.stunable.com
chrisu_de 13y ago
Looks nice. Though it is annoying that the browsers back button does not work.
jak1192 13y ago
Open source it!
ereckers 13y ago
Very cool concept. I think there's an opportunity to reinventing the visual shopping experience for fashion/ecommerce sites. If this can easily go responsive for smartphone mobile screens that would be something.
Samuel_Michon 13y ago
Perhaps I missed it, but once I've chosen gender > type of clothing, the resulting page has no options to switch to a different category of clothing.
thomasbk 13y ago
I like the concept. Perhaps you could have multiple "selection rows" under eachother -- e.g. on top scroll hats, middle you scroll shirts, below that pants, below that shoes. You can switch between the rows to choose which one you want to be scrolling, but the rest of the outfit stays visible.
lbotos 13y ago
I'd suggest adding some type of loading animation or at least a message that says loading. Without this I didn't know if it was broken or if I was waiting. (I'm on a DSL connection...)
flippyhead 13y ago
I love this.
asimpletune 13y ago
Love the site! It would be neat too to allow the user to drag. That way they don't have to think about which button they want to use, they just drag in the direction they want to go.
jedanbik 13y ago
It looks very cool, especially the “Zoom” button interaction. Unfortunately, there is nothing about the site that screams “this is useful, I should bookmark this!” All of the suggestions are hopelessly generic, and prices are all over the place.
bsbechtel 13y ago
Clever idea....I hate browsing when shopping online for stuff. Looks like you're on to an interface that might actually make that enjoyable. I'd say some of the feedback from the other comments could improve it a bit, but I really like it. If you open up an online retail shop with this interface, I'd definitely buy something from it.
hnriot 13y ago
I find myself disagreeing with all the positive feedback on the ui. I really dislike the squished view above and the anorexic view to the right. Why not use a Pinterest grid. I want to see everything at once. I can scan much faster for things that catch my eye. I'd like social ranking so the top/left most images, or first images in your ui are the most popular. When choosing a gift it's helpful to get an ideas about what others liked. Too slow and annoying to see one item at a time.
kingkawn 13y ago
I like the interface, agree withs some of the comments about flattening it out. But let's talk about the actual stuff on there: not a single piece of interesting clothing for men on the entire site as far as I can tell. I don't think people want to endlessly browse nothing, they want access to new ideas.
brokentone 13y ago
Seems to be a dumb (random, possibly?) category-based item browser with keyboard controls and a unique UI. I wouldn't consider this a discovery tool as it doesn't seem to have the intelligence of other systems: 1. Learn what you like and suggest similar things (Pandora, Frank and Oak, Trunk Club) 2. Offer related things regardless of like (Amazon) 3. Allow you to follow people you like and see their latest creations or likes (Pinterest, Instagram) 4. See overall popular content (Pinterest, Instagram) Some of these would be easier to integrate than others, may be in scope of the project
jarrett 13y ago
My suggestions: 1. Let the mouse do more. It's cool that you can use the keyboard, because that's efficient. But I expected to be able to do things like click the thumbnail on the right and have it move to the center. 2. When you press X and then click the link that pops up, it doesn't open in a new tab. It probably should, like when you press enter. 3. Get the right price data. I found a number of cases where the prices listed on your site are way higher than on Amazon. For example: http://www.amazon.com/New-Borrelli-Orange-Shirt-16/dp/B008QI68TA?SubscriptionId=AKIAJDLEINSK47DZXWHQ&tag=window-shopper-20&linkCode=xm2&camp=2025&creative=165953&creativeASIN=B008QI68TA http://www.amazon.com/New-Borrelli-Orange-Shirt-16/dp/B008QI... 4. Add some filtering options. Price would be a good place to start, especially if this is for students.

81 points by ryanio 13y ago

I like the visual design. The UX is a little weird. I clicked the top image expecting it to move into place but nothing happened. Ditto for the image to the right of the main one. It took a while to notice the controls at the bottom, and a little after that to realize they were keyboard shortcuts (maybe I am just slow). After I realized that, I tried '=' to show the bottom bar and nothing happened. I'm not sure what 'Z' does but for me it just cleared the page. In the bottom bar there's an orange square that is darker colored, and empty, was curious what that was for.

mkilling 13y ago

Looks broken for me in Chrome 27.0.1453.15 beta

vasco 13y ago
On Chrome 26.0.1410.43 Linux, it's broken as well.
iray 13y ago
Same for me. I thought it was broken, as without scrolling to the bottom of the page, the buttons are not visible and the content itself isn't clickable. Also it isn't obvious what X and Z are supposed to do before using them (as the explanatory text is hidden slightly behind the orange bar at the bottom for me at least). When Z is selected it is unclear how to return to the previous page, as the images on the previous page aren't clickable, but the only way to exit the 'Z' screen is to click the image. Just feels a bit inconsistent, that's all. Personally, I find the placement of the up arrow being adjacent to the left arrow but the right arrow being placed on the far right a bit jarring. I expect it to be a block of three buttons together - left arrow, up arrow, right arrow - in the centre of the menu options. Interesting idea though - good luck!
Pyramids 13y ago
Same here, Chrome 26.0.1410.43 Linux
atacrawl 13y ago
Busted to hell for me in Safari 5.

edouard1234567 13y ago

Pretty cool, I really like the use of the keyboard, it makes the experience more fluid. Some feedback : 1 - I would keep a flat design, I think the spheric design is a distraction and gives the impression the inventory is limited to the "circumference"... 2 - If you could find a way to keep the user on site (maybe load amazon in a iframe) to see more details, that would make the experience more fluid. 3 - Maybe let users save items they like since this is a discovery platform.

ErrantX 13y ago
> I would keep a flat design, I think the spheric design is a distraction and gives the impression the inventory is limited to the "circumference" I agree this is a major UI problem; it doesn't feel natural to browse.

dshipper 13y ago

Cool but the animation makes me dizzy...

jpwagner 13y ago

This is really neat. You should get rid of the words "a weekend project", you don't need an excuse if something is not perfect.

kgodey 13y ago

This is great, but price/size filtering would make it even better.

marquis 13y ago

Looking at the dresses (girl here), it's kind of awkward to see the compressed width on the next image to come up. If you can adjust the transform to make it look more natural then it would be more fun to use. Happy to look at never-ending pictures of dresses for quite a while otherwise.

thomasbk 13y ago
Agree with this-- I tend to naturally look at the next picture while it's coming in, but the way it transforms hurts my eyes. Just sliding it in would be much more comfortable, although look less pretty. Also: the man/woman pictures on your main page repeat in Chrome for windows that do not have a specific shape.
- wtvanhest 13y ago
  I realize that I'm "me tooing", but it is well worth mentioning again. It felt so slick, but after just a few minutes of looking at the images I had to get off the site because of the eye strain. This feels really good, and is probably worth improving that aspect. I could definitely see myself shopping on a site like that.

bastijn 13y ago

Nice idea, points given for trying. the first thing that bugged me was the lack of overview. I actually like a 5x10 raster (or smth similar). Second, the buttons werent directly clear to me. I was half expecting to be able to slide every part of my body in there, like building a game character (that would be kinda cool). More importantly, my gf, as heavy online shopper (she never admits ofcourse ^_^) shot the idea. Basically the same arguments: not able to quickly see stock. Zoom is full picture, while most nowadays use magnifying glasses, etc. In the end, nice try. Fun idea. But it is not clear to me what is wrong with current webshops showing overviews in a grid, and details on click.

ParadisoShlee 13y ago

damn excellent. Id love to see a filter forwards region if you grow the aggregator sources.

seivan 13y ago

What about gender neutral students? They are increasing numbers. I have friends who don'tcare some times if it's for girls or boys.

hcarvalhoalves 13y ago
> I have friends who don'tcare some times if it's for girls or boys. Then they just browse both.
- kingkawn 13y ago
  or use both bathrooms?
  - deleted 13y ago
    [deleted]
seivan 13y ago
Funny how I got downvoted for this. I think this is hardcoded into the DB as a boolean. That's generally a bad idea. :D

damon_c 13y ago

the general concept of this UI (besides the spherical part) is similar to that of a site I'm freelancing on right now. It even has some of the same hotkeys :) it's for girls only though... http://www.stunable.com http://www.stunable.com

chrisu_de 13y ago

Looks nice. Though it is annoying that the browsers back button does not work.

jak1192 13y ago

Open source it!

ereckers 13y ago

Very cool concept. I think there's an opportunity to reinventing the visual shopping experience for fashion/ecommerce sites. If this can easily go responsive for smartphone mobile screens that would be something.

Samuel_Michon 13y ago

Perhaps I missed it, but once I've chosen gender > type of clothing, the resulting page has no options to switch to a different category of clothing.

thomasbk 13y ago

I like the concept. Perhaps you could have multiple "selection rows" under eachother -- e.g. on top scroll hats, middle you scroll shirts, below that pants, below that shoes. You can switch between the rows to choose which one you want to be scrolling, but the rest of the outfit stays visible.

lbotos 13y ago

I'd suggest adding some type of loading animation or at least a message that says loading. Without this I didn't know if it was broken or if I was waiting. (I'm on a DSL connection...)

flippyhead 13y ago

I love this.

asimpletune 13y ago

Love the site! It would be neat too to allow the user to drag. That way they don't have to think about which button they want to use, they just drag in the direction they want to go.

jedanbik 13y ago

It looks very cool, especially the “Zoom” button interaction. Unfortunately, there is nothing about the site that screams “this is useful, I should bookmark this!” All of the suggestions are hopelessly generic, and prices are all over the place.

bsbechtel 13y ago

Clever idea....I hate browsing when shopping online for stuff. Looks like you're on to an interface that might actually make that enjoyable. I'd say some of the feedback from the other comments could improve it a bit, but I really like it. If you open up an online retail shop with this interface, I'd definitely buy something from it.

hnriot 13y ago

I find myself disagreeing with all the positive feedback on the ui. I really dislike the squished view above and the anorexic view to the right. Why not use a Pinterest grid. I want to see everything at once. I can scan much faster for things that catch my eye. I'd like social ranking so the top/left most images, or first images in your ui are the most popular. When choosing a gift it's helpful to get an ideas about what others liked. Too slow and annoying to see one item at a time.

kingkawn 13y ago

I like the interface, agree withs some of the comments about flattening it out. But let's talk about the actual stuff on there: not a single piece of interesting clothing for men on the entire site as far as I can tell. I don't think people want to endlessly browse nothing, they want access to new ideas.

brokentone 13y ago

Seems to be a dumb (random, possibly?) category-based item browser with keyboard controls and a unique UI. I wouldn't consider this a discovery tool as it doesn't seem to have the intelligence of other systems: 1. Learn what you like and suggest similar things (Pandora, Frank and Oak, Trunk Club) 2. Offer related things regardless of like (Amazon) 3. Allow you to follow people you like and see their latest creations or likes (Pinterest, Instagram) 4. See overall popular content (Pinterest, Instagram) Some of these would be easier to integrate than others, may be in scope of the project

jarrett 13y ago

My suggestions: 1. Let the mouse do more. It's cool that you can use the keyboard, because that's efficient. But I expected to be able to do things like click the thumbnail on the right and have it move to the center. 2. When you press X and then click the link that pops up, it doesn't open in a new tab. It probably should, like when you press enter. 3. Get the right price data. I found a number of cases where the prices listed on your site are way higher than on Amazon. For example: http://www.amazon.com/New-Borrelli-Orange-Shirt-16/dp/B008QI68TA?SubscriptionId=AKIAJDLEINSK47DZXWHQ&tag=window-shopper-20&linkCode=xm2&camp=2025&creative=165953&creativeASIN=B008QI68TA http://www.amazon.com/New-Borrelli-Orange-Shirt-16/dp/B008QI... 4. Add some filtering options. Price would be a good place to start, especially if this is for students.