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My first attempt at a start-up. Feedback appreciated:)

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wrack

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All right then. This is my first attempt at a start-up. I have created a site called HaggleHive (http://www.hagglehive.com). For the moment I have only enabled Australia as a country.

The idea is, it is community driven and works by users sharing their haggle (bargain) when buying certain (high-value) thing (e.g. A good deal on a washing machine). There is an option to upload the receipt as a proof. So if anyone else is looking for the same item, they can search for it, grab the receipt as a proof that someone else got a really good deal for the same item and go to a store and get them to either match that price or beat it (if the store does that).

There is no membership required at all. Just click the big glowing "Share My Haggle" button at top. It takes around couple of minutes to do so.

The whole thing in written from scratch using ASP.NET 4.5, SQL Server 2012 (Express) hosted in USA. From my end (Melbourne, Australia) the performance is amazing from a round trip of the globe perspective. Please go to http://www.hagglehive.com/en-au/HaggleList and navigate around by clicking "Next" "Previous" and tell me how it feels at your end. I have created my own static content handler to deliver css, js and images with correct compression, last-modified and etag headers. Everything is done using the routing and all the url's are seo friendly (I hope).

I have still got to get the About Us & Contact Us page working. Rest is good.

What do you think?

41 answers to this question

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Grand Master

+virtorio MVC

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I really dislike the colour scheme, background image, the flashing logo and bar at the top and the large border radius on all the rectangles. 

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szo

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Yup, seems like a nice idea. However, remove the watermarked currency background and the flashing headerbar. Also use a better color scheme with more contrast. I presume you're more of a developer than a designer. Go to themeforest.net by Envato (Another Melbourne based company). You can build off of a professional template from there or get some inspiration to help make your own design. 

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Grand Master

wrack

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Thank you all. First of all, appreciate the positive words on the idea. It came about 5-6 years ago but due to family and other commitments I could not execute it in timely fashion.

 

Second, as many (all) would have guessed, I am a Developer and not a Designer so those comments are welcome. I will work on it.

 

The idea sounds cool but I think the website should be redesigned. Something more modern and easier on the eyes.

Thanks. Yeah design is not my strongest point.

 

I really dislike the colour scheme, background image, the flashing logo and bar at the top and the large border radius on all the rectangles. 

The flashing logo on the right is the button for people to share their haggles. I needed to bring it to attention. The bar at the top should only show if the ads are blocked. Will work on redesign so those things are gone.

 

It works well from what I see and it's fast. The design is very difficult on the eyes.

 

The idea itself is interesting and if it were marketed correctly it would be a valuable resource. Keep at it.

Thanks. I tried all the optimisations (~95%) that I could do from coding perspective to make it fast and light weight. Yeah once I get the better design done, the next step is to use word of mouth to get things moving as well as using Facebook to promote.

 

Yup, seems like a nice idea. However, remove the watermarked currency background and the flashing headerbar. Also use a better color scheme with more contrast. I presume you're more of a developer than a designer. Go to themeforest.net by Envato (Another Melbourne based company). You can build off of a professional template from there or get some inspiration to help make your own design. 

Thanks. More of a developer is an under statement. Designer I am not. Looking at the theme-forest/template-monster now.

 

I don't like the aesthetics.

Thanks. Yeah I knew that would be the case, hence asking for feedback and advise.

 

Will get back here with more changes.

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Grand Master

Seahorsepip Veteran

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I might post a design guide thread this weekend when I have time, design isn't that hard it's just a matter of setting some design guidelines for your site.

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Grand Master

wrack

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I might post a design guide thread this weekend when I have time, design isn't that hard it's just a matter of setting some design guidelines for your site.

 

Thanks :)

 

I was looking for some templates online and this one looks interesting http://demo.linethemes.com/?theme=ostar. Obviously I won't for that funky just yet. I was something that is functional and looks pleasant enough.

 

If this thing takes off then there will be a whole lot of improvements I want to (need to) make anyways.

 

The thing I also struggle with the colo(u)rs.

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Grand Master

wrack

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And that's perfectly legitimate. Good developer != Good designer   :)

That is true but I really wish I had an eye for it. Coming from a Mechanical Engineering background, give me a task to draw an isometric drawing and I will do with my eyes closed but artistic design, damn.

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Grand Master

Seahorsepip Veteran

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Thanks :)

 

I was looking for some templates online and this one looks interesting http://demo.linethemes.com/?theme=ostar. Obviously I won't for that funky just yet. I was something that is functional and looks pleasant enough.

 

If this thing takes off then there will be a whole lot of improvements I want to (need to) make anyways.

 

The thing I also struggle with the colo(u)rs.

https://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/1235833-web-design-guidelines/

 

Here are some guidelines for modern webdesign, any color is good as long it's vivid and not used too much( I don't recommend using colored borders around every html object as example).

 

Also on the bottom I added a design example for HaggleHive, here's a direct link to it: http://fiddle.jshell.net/36ewjag8/15/show/light/

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Grand Master

xrobwx71

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Great idea! +1 As noted, the design needs work but it's a great start! I think this is going to blast off! 

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Grand Master

wrack

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https://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/1235833-web-design-guidelines/

 

Here are some guidelines for modern webdesign, any color is good as long it's vivid and not used too much( I don't recommend using colored borders around every html object as example).

 

Also on the bottom I added a design example for HaggleHive, here's a direct link to it: http://fiddle.jshell.net/36ewjag8/15/show/light/

Thanks. I already started on redesigning the site couple of days ago. Will post a new version soon. That design example doesn't show anything. May be I am missing something at my end?

 

Great idea! +1 As noted, the design needs work but it's a great start! I think this is going to blast off! 

Thanks. I hope it takes off.

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Grand Master

Seahorsepip Veteran

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Thanks. I already started on redesigning the site couple of days ago. Will post a new version soon. That design example doesn't show anything. May be I am missing something at my end?

Weird, It should only show the header if you mean that there is no content. I didn't had time yet to write some content example.

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Grand Master

+Zlip792 MVC

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Weird, It should only show the header if you mean that there is no content. I didn't had time yet to write some content example.

 

He is right, example does not work in Firefox, he should try Chrome or IE.

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Grand Master

wrack

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Weird, It should only show the header if you mean that there is no content. I didn't had time yet to write some content example.

No problems. Don't worry about the content for the moment. I am redesigning so give me a day or two and I will update the site so y'll can get a better idea of what I am doing.

 

He is right, example does not work in Firefox, he should try Chrome or IE.

I tried IE, FF and not working. Chrome works. Thanks :) Nice one with the word "Brands". I would not have guessed it.

 

Hmm I guess its a jsfiddle thing since fullscreen embeds aren't standard(I just took the iframe url instead of the share->fullscreen url)

IFrame url is same as the one you posted.

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Grand Master

wrack

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Ok then. This is my next effort in order to make it more pleasing on the eyes. I still need to work on the colours but I think it is a lot better than before thanks to y'll feedback.

 

Check out http://www.HaggleHive.com (You may have to do hard refresh Ctrl + F5 to reload all files to overwrite files already in the cache).

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DrJohnSmitherson

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Ok then. This is my next effort in order to make it more pleasing on the eyes. I still need to work on the colours but I think it is a lot better than before thanks to y'll feedback.

 

Check out http://www.HaggleHive.com (You may have to do hard refresh Ctrl + F5 to reload all files to overwrite files already in the cache).

I agree. It is heading in the right direction.

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