Share, Swap or Rent anything with anyone - Review Requested of ShareSpark.com

gimpotronitus

Hi,

ShareSpark.com is a new site that allows anyone to share, rent or swap anything with anyone. It's a site that is trying to help people to maximize their resources in these lean times.

We would love to hear your comments on the design, and any comments are greatly appreciated. Site was launched last Sunday.

http://www.sharespark.com

Thanks a lot.

Information for reviewers: What does the site do?
===============================
1. Have an item or an asset that you don't use all the time or need to take on a partner to release value or relieve financial pressure? Sell a share in it to 1 or more other like minded individuals. From businesses, boats, property (all kinds including investment properties), events, equipment, farms and farm inventory and lots more, basically any type of item or asset: you can sell a share in anything and release tied up value or release financial pressure by taking on a partner.

2. Got stuff lying around you don't use anymore? Swap it for something you actually will use instead of leaving it lying around losing value.

3. Feel you have something that can be rented out? Rent it out on Sharespark.com. Anything from boats, planes, cars, businesses, musical equipment, office equipment, farm machinery, services, home and garden stuff, basically anything that you think has rental value.

jabaroon

Nice site. Think I like the idea / concept too!

Just a few suggestions from me so far. The menu's dont work too well on a mobile device as they require a hover in order for them to display. You should probably change this so that a click also causes them to expand etc....

I did try to register too and the mail sent got sent to my spam folder, so you may need some tweaking on the mail content to get around mail filters etc....

Other than that, the usual HTML checkers do report a good few minor warnings that you probably should take a look at, but nothing that looks too major.

Nice site overall.
Jab

Groinshot

Make the ad title clickable!!!

Cianos

Some quick thoughts;

There's too much on the home page. You've got half a dozen calls to action, and no real focus. The composition isn't fluid enough so the user will feel at a loss for many seconds before they figure out what to do next.

A cleaner, trimmed down home page would be much easier to take in for a new user, and ease them in to the process. The core concept of the site is sharing/renting, so you should focus on this, and use the full page space to explain in very simple terms how it works.

Each tab on the slideshow has way too much text, most of which is redundant;

"You can maximise the value of the things you own by renting them out or you can save a fortune by renting the use of something instead of buying. The ShareSpark community is here to help. Lets get started!"

You shouldn't try and convince people of the economical benefits. The types of people who will partake won't need to be converted to sharers/renters, and they certainly won't be converted by a couple of sentences on a website.

Instead you should focus on making it as easy as possible for people who are natural sharers/renters to share/rent. And that means ease of use, minimal barriers to participation, a streamlined process with no faff etc.

Not only is your navigation bar too cluttered, but you're whole approach to categorisation is wrong imo. You're dealing with two types of users here. Those who want to get something, and those who have something. As someone who wants to find something, I don't want to have to decide first off if I want to rent, trade or buy. I just know that I want that thing. The site should present me with the sources for obtaining that thing, and then I can decide if I want to rent it or buy it.

For example, if I need a hedge trimmer. I go on to your site...do I want to buy it? I dunno. Rent it? Dunno....trade? Dunno. But if I hit your site and can easily perform a search and am then presented with Option A, buy the trimmer for X, or Option B, rent the trimmer for Y, it's much easier to decide. You don't walk in to an electrics store and go to the Hire Purchase section, or go to the Buy section...you go to the section that has the stuff you want, and are then presented with the various options of how you may obtain that stuff.

Similarly, if I have something to give away, I might be happy to rent it for X or just sell the thing for Y...so again, it's down to your categorisation. The focus should be on products, not on the method of transaction. If I'm listing an item for sale, why not present me with a "Would you rent this item? Yes/No" option? Or if I'm listing an item for rent, "(Optional) List your sale price for this item"

In summary I think you need to rethink the approach for this, and bring the focus to the products themselves rather than the method of transaction. People go to these types of sites because of a want to buy or sell a particular thing. Make it easy for them to do so and it could work.

Hope some of that helps

gimpotronitus

jabaroon wrote: »

Nice site. Think I like the idea / concept too!

Just a few suggestions from me so far. The menu's dont work too well on a mobile device as they require a hover in order for them to display. You should probably change this so that a click also causes them to expand etc....

Point taken, we will fix this.

jabaroon wrote: »

I did try to register too and the mail sent got sent to my spam folder, so you may need some tweaking on the mail content to get around mail filters etc....

Yes, we are working on this issue - mail is getting v. strict at the moment we might us a mail cleaner for this.

jabaroon wrote: »

Other than that, the usual HTML checkers do report a good few minor warnings that you probably should take a look at, but nothing that looks too major.

We spent a lot of time making sure the HTML was up to a good standard with as few warnings as possible. Will take a look...

jabaroon wrote: »

Nice site overall.
Jab

Thanks for the help, appreciate it.

gimpotronitus

Groinshot wrote: »

Make the ad title clickable!!!

You mean when looking at an ad, the title text should be clickable and should bring you back to the ad?

Thanks for the comment.

gimpotronitus

Cianos wrote: »

Some quick thoughts;

There's too much on the home page. You've got half a dozen calls to action, and no real focus. The composition isn't fluid enough so the user will feel at a loss for many seconds before they figure out what to do next.

A cleaner, trimmed down home page would be much easier to take in for a new user, and ease them in to the process. The core concept of the site is sharing/renting, so you should focus on this, and use the full page space to explain in very simple terms how it works.

OK, we thought having the slideshow would explain how the site works in simple terms but will look at it again. The user can "stop" the slideshow by hovering over any of the tabs.

Cianos wrote: »

Each tab on the slideshow has way too much text, most of which is redundant;

Yep, fair enough.

Cianos wrote: »

"You can maximise the value of the things you own by renting them out or you can save a fortune by renting the use of something instead of buying. The ShareSpark community is here to help. Lets get started!"

You shouldn't try and convince people of the economical benefits. The types of people who will partake won't need to be converted to sharers/renters, and they certainly won't be converted by a couple of sentences on a website.

Instead you should focus on making it as easy as possible for people who are natural sharers/renters to share/rent. And that means ease of use, minimal barriers to participation, a streamlined process with no faff etc.

I get your point but the whole idea of the site is to try and convince people who would not normally share, rent or swap their stuff to consider this as an option since I think most people if they thought about it would have something of value that they don't actually use much and could be shared or rented out. The site also caters for those who are used to sharing and renting stuff already.

So I disagree that the site should cater only for natural sharers/renters - we are trying to create a new mindset in these difficult economic times

Cianos wrote: »

Not only is your navigation bar too cluttered, but you're whole approach to categorisation is wrong imo. You're dealing with two types of users here. Those who want to get something, and those who have something. As someone who wants to find something, I don't want to have to decide first off if I want to rent, trade or buy. I just know that I want that thing. The site should present me with the sources for obtaining that thing, and then I can decide if I want to rent it or buy it.

For example, if I need a hedge trimmer. I go on to your site...do I want to buy it? I dunno. Rent it? Dunno....trade? Dunno. But if I hit your site and can easily perform a search and am then presented with Option A, buy the trimmer for X, or Option B, rent the trimmer for Y, it's much easier to decide. You don't walk in to an electrics store and go to the Hire Purchase section, or go to the Buy section...you go to the section that has the stuff you want, and are then presented with the various options of how you may obtain that stuff.

Similarly, if I have something to give away, I might be happy to rent it for X or just sell the thing for Y...so again, it's down to your categorisation. The focus should be on products, not on the method of transaction. If I'm listing an item for sale, why not present me with a "Would you rent this item? Yes/No" option? Or if I'm listing an item for rent, "(Optional) List your sale price for this item"

Understood and I think you make a sound point there.

Cianos wrote: »

Hope some of that helps

Yes, thanks a lot.