My Latest Weekend Project Opinions Wanted

[gavdraper]

Over the weekend I developed a little webapp (http://www.splashactive.com) that allows you to search for and add activities in a given area. The idea being that you could find new things to do in your area, plan a weekend away (Stag/Hen kind of thing) and companies the organise these activities could add them to the site for free.

I'm aiming for sporty kind of activities rather than night clubs/shopping centre kind of stuff. I want something that get people out and active.

The reason I started this is I like to always try different things and am always looking for something new to do of a weekend and something like this would be perfect for me. I did a bit of searching and although there were some pages on activities in a particular town nothing seemed to be putting all locations in one easy to use place.

Its a bit scrappy at the minute with plenty of cross browser issues and css/mapping bugs but I'm keen to get other peoples opinions before I take it too much further.

For those interested its written in ASP.Net MVC 3, SQL 2008 and the mapping stuff uses Bing Maps SDK and the standard Geography type in SQL Server.

[ForrestN]

Interesting idea! Definitely could be useful, as others have said, once you get enough listings. Some design/UX feedback to think about if you do decide to take it further:

- First, biggest problem: I visit the site and I have no idea what it's for. The name doesn't help in this respect. SplashActive makes me think of some sort of aquatic physical therapy for the elderly. Consider changing the name, but even if you don't, have a big, visible, prominent explanation (at least for first-time visitors) that's easy and fast to read and that explains exactly what I can get from the product.

- The individual listing template is a major weakness. Functionally, the information you've included on the bottom line of each listing is very hard to read because the only thing separating the labels from the values is that the labels are bold. If I were searching for just the phone number, for example, it would be somewhat annoying to find it. Aesthetically, the listings feel extremely bare and boring, and I'm demotivated from continuing to read them. Definitely incorporate photos wherever possible, and make each listing larger. I would group the information currently running along the bottom into a vertical list, with the labels much more clearly differentiated from the content, and the description a smaller, tighter paragraph that doesn't stretch so long.

- Provide some feedback when I mouseover the title of the listings that reenforces that they are links.

- I agree with the comment that suggests removing the advertising bar. Not only does an empty advertising bar make you look weak/amateur, you already have a built-in revenue model that doesn't rely on regular advertising. Paid featured listings are more valuable if they are integrated into the site and just made more prominent. If they're set aside in a sidebar that we're trained to ignore, they don't work as well and you can't charge as much for them. They also dilute the experience of the site.

- More padding in most of your tables. It looks awkward when text is jammed up against the border of a box

- Maybe it's more popular in the UK, but Bing Maps looks pretty awful. I'd switch to Google Maps.

- My city shows up as a link on the front page in default blue, directing to what looks like a profile page even though I haven't made an account. Change the link color, and maybe prompt me to register or login if there's no session. Also, fix the spacing on this profile page, and hide the "My Activities" label if there's nothing there.

- While you're still getting started, why not post a message to users who are sufficiently distant from where you are saying that you're currently testing just in this market, and that if they want to request a new area for you to offer your service, they can leave the suggestion and their email to be notified. You can also redirect them to a portal for your town so they can see what the service is and what your offerings are. It's strange, right now, to see a big listing of things 4000 miles away.

- Put another link to register on the login page.

- Make the logo a link to the home page.

- The green color you're using is very subdued and moody for what you're doing. I like the idea of green, but choose a palette that feels active, energetic, and positive. Dark forest green, grey, and white don't say "fun in the sun."

- Eventually, you'll want to break things up into at least a few categories. Right now, it's not clear what makes something a "Top Activity", and the only other sorting option I have is to see what's recently been added, which doesn't seem that helpful either. Think through what someone using the service to find an activity will be thinking about and using to make their decision. Facilitate their search and make it as fast and easy as possible.

Keep up the good work!

[gavdraper]

Wow, thanks for taking the time to give that detailed feedback.

They all seem like good valid points that need to be addressed if I decide to take this further, which I think I am going to do.

Thanks again

[mattvot]

Nice idea, the problem I always have with sites trying this is that they don't have enough activities in my area (That I know exist).

You need people to submit events in their areas, so how about a gaming mechanic. If you get random people to submit as many events as possible (Don't specifically target the event owner (Only 1 event)) and reward them somehow (Badge, payment, physical prize), it could work.

Make it cool to use SplashActive.

I'd also get rid of the advertising until you are abit more popular, it's just a turn-off that no one will pay for until you have a large user base.

The title in the header could be shortened to "Find activities in your area"

Finally, I hoped you had fun making this, I like it's simplicity.

Good Luck! - Matt

[djb_hackernews]

Not to barge in here, but I've built a similar service that I feel like is different enough that this isn't rude.

http://impromptudo.com. The aim is basically to be the padmapper of local events. I am targeting the 15 largest cities in the US for now, give it a try if you are in one of those locations. And also even better if you can tell me I am missing something that you know should be there.

[mattvot]

Love this! Love the map!

I think the maps api allows you to use custom pins, so how about different icons for different types of events.

Also noticed you have an empty meta description.

Also, to both projects, how about implementing machine learning to find events (scan twitter, FB, G+ and sites). Hehe, someone smarter than me would have to figure out how this would work :)

This really is the key to success with sites like these, you needs events, and you need alot.

You don't really want to be entering events manually if you don't have to. The future isn't manpower, its algorithms.

P.S. I've bookmarked this.

[gavdraper]

Thanks for the input.

I'm trying to work out some sort of gaming mechanic, just trying to work out what the reward would be as I'm not sure badges on a site like this would be enough.

I take your point about the advertising, I think I will look at hiding that bar until there is much bigger audience.

[mattvot]

How about asking event owners to submit more events in their area while submitting their own, in order to gain a more prominent position on the listings.

[gavdraper]

I hadnt thought about that one but it sounds like a really good idea. I might combine it with something like exclusive offers for top submitters, I'm sure some of the venues would go for it in turn for the advertising.

[mattvot]

Nice! I'd love to see it in a few months.

[TimJRobinson]

Cool idea, you're going to face a chicken and egg problem though of companies not wanting to post there until you have users and users not wanting to go unless there are activities there.

The best way to grow it IMO would be to start in one town / city and just focus purely on that, then once that has a solid userbase expand. If you try to go global from the beginning it's not going to work.

[gavdraper]

Thanks for the feedback.

Its designed to work global but I intend to only push it in my local town to start with where I can seed the data myself with the hope that it will slowly grow outwards from there.

If you set your location to "Brighton, United Kingdom" you can see some of this seed data that I'm working on.

[martinshen]

Looks pretty cool! I like the simplicity of the design. I'm running a very similar startup UpOut.com targeting different cities from you.

I think the difficulty in all these sites as I have found is seeding the initial users. I'd love to talk further as we are also hiring ;)

[PatDamon]

Nice clean design. Didn't work very well on mobile though but I guess that it wouldn't as you made the comment about not being cross browser yet.

Looks good though, I'd use it if it had enough activities in my area. Maybe could also show offer.s

[nurik]

Maybe you could add a filter function that allows you to target and monitor specific groups: i.e. kids, singles, couples etc... Like the idea too! PS: Would be nice add on to Airbnb.com

[jackiecoder]

I really like the idea. It really depends if you can populate it enough to get an initial user base.