

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.<p>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.<p>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.<p>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.<p>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.
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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!

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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

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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

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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 ;)

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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

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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

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

