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App Developer Makes Craigslist Mobile, the Legal Way

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Re: App Developer Makes Craigslist Mobile, the Legal Way

#21

Post by sunkan »

ActVen wrote: post #11
sunkan wrote: post #3

I am the OP and CoFounder of Mokriya, the company that built Mokriya Craigslist. It has innovative UI that is never seen before in any other apps. Would love to know what HN thinks of the App. It is a complete redesign of Craigslist on Mobile from the ground up, with innovative UI. Here is some press about the app. http://blogs.wsj.com/venturecapital/2013/02/20/craigslist-ap... http://techland.time.com/2013/02/20/its…

Great work on the app. It is not only useful...but a joy to use. The small design touches make all the difference.

This comment makes me really happy. This is exactly what we were shooting for. We wanted to create a compelling user experience for Craigslist users and make it a joy to use craigslist. Wanted the experience to be on par with some of the best consumer Mobile apps on the market. It was a lot of hardwork in going through multiple design iterations to finally arrive at this.

Re: App Developer Makes Craigslist Mobile, the Legal Way

#22

Post by sunkan »

justjimmy wrote: post #16

It's always fun to experience new patterns and interactions. In case you're looking for feedback: 1. The location selection is reversed - ie: when I am selecting the city, the State (smaller column showing only 2 letters) should be on the left not right, since you're drilling down. (But for category selection, you have it the 'right' way, with the higher level/smaller column on the left). 2. There's something going o…

Thanks for thoughtful feedback. On number 1, we went back and forth on that and now my memory is a little hazy on why we decided to stick with the way it is.

Re: App Developer Makes Craigslist Mobile, the Legal Way

#23

Post by pocketlim »

sunkan wrote: post #3

I am the OP and CoFounder of Mokriya, the company that built Mokriya Craigslist. It has innovative UI that is never seen before in any other apps. Would love to know what HN thinks of the App. It is a complete redesign of Craigslist on Mobile from the ground up, with innovative UI. Here is some press about the app. http://blogs.wsj.com/venturecapital/2013/02/20/craigslist-ap... http://techland.time.com/2013/02/20/its…

I sent you an email earlier thru your site but it boils down to these few points (iOS version, on iPhone 5)

tl;dr Love the great design! Questionable usability due to animations; needs work before I keep it on my phone.

- Beautiful UI and subtle clean design choices. Very pleasing design!

- Animations need work. Animations are way too slow. Get out of the way of the user and let them get to what they want. If I am ever waiting for the UI to do something, you've done this wrong. Try to keep all transitions For example: When in the home screen, hit the search bar. The items that scroll up and push the search to the top: WAY too slow.

Another example: Tapping an item to open it. The photo rises to the top, then the thumbnails come down. Why can't this all happen at once? Another too slow, get to the point moment.

- Google+ style "zoom out" of new items: Visually distracting. After about ten seconds, I just want to turn it off.

- While "zooming out" of those items are happening, the user interaction is disabled so I can't actually stop the scrolling. Try this: Scroll the table down, then as items are animating in, put your thumb down. The scrolling doesn't stop.

Re: App Developer Makes Craigslist Mobile, the Legal Way

#24

Post by signed0 »

sunkan wrote: post #20
suyash wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have 2 questions for you: 1. What kind of license did you get from CL? 2. CL does not even have an API, how did you scrape the data?

1. There is some upfront fee and they get a percentage cut of the revenue we make. 2. You are right, craigslist doesn't have an API, so whether you are licensed or not, you have the same tools at your disposal. We did typical HTML scraping, but our amazing Dev team did some really smart tweaks to present the data in a beautiful way.

It's too bad that you had to resort to scraping. It's a shame that Craigslist hasn't built their own API for those who pay for a license.

Are you doing the scraping server side or client side (inside the app)?

Re: App Developer Makes Craigslist Mobile, the Legal Way

#25

Post by sunkan »

signed0 wrote: post #24
sunkan wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

1. There is some upfront fee and they get a percentage cut of the revenue we make. 2. You are right, craigslist doesn't have an API, so whether you are licensed or not, you have the same tools at your disposal. We did typical HTML scraping, but our amazing Dev team did some really smart tweaks to present the data in a beautiful way.

It's too bad that you had to resort to scraping. It's a shame that Craigslist hasn't built their own API for those who pay for a license. Are you doing the scraping server side or client side (inside the app)?

client

Re: App Developer Makes Craigslist Mobile, the Legal Way

#26

Post by sunkan »

pocketlim wrote: post #23
sunkan wrote: post #3

I am the OP and CoFounder of Mokriya, the company that built Mokriya Craigslist. It has innovative UI that is never seen before in any other apps. Would love to know what HN thinks of the App. It is a complete redesign of Craigslist on Mobile from the ground up, with innovative UI. Here is some press about the app. http://blogs.wsj.com/venturecapital/2013/02/20/craigslist-ap... http://techland.time.com/2013/02/20/its…

I sent you an email earlier thru your site but it boils down to these few points (iOS version, on iPhone 5) tl;dr Love the great design! Questionable usability due to animations; needs work before I keep it on my phone. - Beautiful UI and subtle clean design choices. Very pleasing design! - Animations need work. Animations are way too slow. Get out of the way of the user and let them get to what they want. If I am ev…

That is some fantastic feedback. I got your email too. We will be fixing some of these issues.

Re: App Developer Makes Craigslist Mobile, the Legal Way

#27

Post by chenster »

sunkan wrote: post #20
suyash wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have 2 questions for you: 1. What kind of license did you get from CL? 2. CL does not even have an API, how did you scrape the data?

1. There is some upfront fee and they get a percentage cut of the revenue we make. 2. You are right, craigslist doesn't have an API, so whether you are licensed or not, you have the same tools at your disposal. We did typical HTML scraping, but our amazing Dev team did some really smart tweaks to present the data in a beautiful way.

Does CL offer RSS feeds on their listing?

Re: App Developer Makes Craigslist Mobile, the Legal Way

#28

Post by chenster »

sunkan wrote: post #20
suyash wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have 2 questions for you: 1. What kind of license did you get from CL? 2. CL does not even have an API, how did you scrape the data?

1. There is some upfront fee and they get a percentage cut of the revenue we make. 2. You are right, craigslist doesn't have an API, so whether you are licensed or not, you have the same tools at your disposal. We did typical HTML scraping, but our amazing Dev team did some really smart tweaks to present the data in a beautiful way.

Does CL offer RSS feeds on their listing? Have you considered that?

Re: App Developer Makes Craigslist Mobile, the Legal Way

#29

Post by btbuildem »

It's slick. It's nice to use. Doesn't fix the decades-old problems with Craigslist - not your fault, the license they sell is incredibly restrictive (basically allows you to make a mobile client for them and pay for the privilege) and explicitly prohibits any kind of innovation.
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