Looking for some beta testers

gerry87

Hey, I'm looking for people to test something I'm thinking of adding to my site. As well as testing, I'm looking for some feedback on it - when i initially put the site up here i got some really helpful feedback.

The site itself is a barter site, at the moment it's a message board. One problem with this is that it would have to be pretty much kept to one country per message board, if not one per region to keep things organised - so at the moment it's only Ireland.

I've been toying with the idea of adding a search application to directly connect people offering X and looking for Y with people looking for X and offering Y, so I put this together (i'm not a programmer, so it's nothing too impressive). I'm looking to see 1) If it works, how it could be better 2) if people think it could actually be any use. 3) How it could look better maybe more web 2.0ish

The address is http://www.swoponomics.com/forum/swop.php

You have to register to use it (its free), it mightn't show any results for a while until a few people register with different things offered/looked for.

Thanks

(edit, disaster... doesn't seem to be working too well on internet explorer, i've been using it on firefox. I'll try and fix it.)

W!zard

Site looks interesting, abit more spice would help indeed.

IE does cause alot of programs, while FireFox keeps to the standard web rules, IE goes out of it's way to cause designers to fix problems where there should not be!
I can give you a hand with it if you want, just pm me.

gerry87

Thanks w!zard, pm sent.

I think I might have been sending people to the wrong search area on the site, so I set up a test account so you can have a look. To see it go to http://www.swoponomics.com/forum/swop.php

Log in using the following details
username: Bob
password: testpassword

random.stranger

Hi Gerry,
I like the layout of the site, its nice & simple, easy to navigate, it looks fine on Opera running on windows xp. I didn't like the idea of using Google Maps to select my location, personally, I found it a bit slow with my basic broadband connection.

I love the fish philosophy thing- it makes it much more human & shows you have a sense of humor.

Maybe I'm a bit blonde, but I found the search a bit tricky. It wasn't too clear to me wheather to click the "search" or "go" button. Also, I would expect to be able to browse by category eg. select "Architecture/Engineering" section & see all items posted in this section, but I couldn't do this from the search page.

I logged out and in & see after logging in for the second time it shows the screen where I can browse by category

I found it hard to find the link to log out, I would expect to see this at the very top or very bottom of the screen, I think it should be slightly bigger too. (I found the swoponomics link at the bottom of the screen the first time but it didn't seem too obvious to me.)

I hope I made sense & my suggestions were constructive.

I love the idea/name/logo. Best of luck with it.

gerry87

random.stranger wrote: »

Hi Gerry,
I like the layout of the site, its nice & simple, easy to navigate, it looks fine on Opera running on windows xp. I didn't like the idea of using Google Maps to select my location, personally, I found it a bit slow with my basic broadband connection.

I love the fish philosophy thing- it makes it much more human & shows you have a sense of humor.

Maybe I'm a bit blonde, but I found the search a bit tricky. It wasn't too clear to me wheather to click the "search" or "go" button. Also, I would expect to be able to browse by category eg. select "Architecture/Engineering" section & see all items posted in this section, but I couldn't do this from the search page.

I logged out and in & see after logging in for the second time it shows the screen where I can browse by category

I found it hard to find the link to log out, I would expect to see this at the very top or very bottom of the screen, I think it should be slightly bigger too. (I found the swoponomics link at the bottom of the screen the first time but it didn't seem too obvious to me.)

I hope I made sense & my suggestions were constructive.

I love the idea/name/logo. Best of luck with it.

Thanks for the tips. I've put a log out link on all pages. Also i think browse by category would be a great addition.

As for the google maps, I'm not thrilled with it either but it's the most universal way I could come up with without having to split each country into hundreds of small parts. I'm looking into some other ways or organising it.

Thanks!

Verbal_Kint

from a marketing point of view the domain name is a disaster. I had to recheck it a couple of times in the space of a minute. people are fickle and it only takes something that small to make sure a good business never gets off the ground. max 2 syllables excluding 'and'.

From a business point of view you are trying to break into one of the most competitive online business there are with no capital for advertising and you have done nothing to differentiate yourself from your competitors.

the buy and sell alone will stifle your growth never mind boards.ie or the thousand or so specialised sites for each service.

I am usually never one to put down a business idea, if you don’t try you'll never succeed however this really is not going to take off in my opinion.

this is similar to an idea I know someone who quit their job to do... setting up an online gym where people pay money to watch a fitness instructor give live classes to multiple users, never mind the logistics of trying to deal with many users simultaneously which trying to do jumping jacks but anyone who is technologically aware enough to avail of this service will have heard of youtube or at least a E2 fitness video in the bargain bin in their local pound shop.

if you are setting up a business on the internet these days you either need to do something different to all your competitors or do it cheaper right off the bat which is nearly impossible as the competition is driven the prices down and their cost base is minimal so there is not much room if any for undercutting especially when they get their economies of scale to work for them.

good luck.

Verbal_Kint

maybe remove your original quote from the home page unless your aiming for tounge in cheek humour.

Verbal_Kint

didnt mean to come across as condensending as it seems there but you should work smart not hard.