http://blogs.wsj.com/venturecapital/2013/02/20/craigslist-ap...
http://techland.time.com/2013/02/20/its-craigslist-only-on-a...
http://pandodaily.com/2013/02/20/what-if-craigslist-had-desi...
Happy to answer any questions on how we built the app and thought process behind some of the UI and UX in the app.
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.
However, there are some content issues with the map. It seems that it's only loading a page or two of listings. I checked a moment ago the area I'm looking at and there were 20 or so listings but the app shows no listings at all in that same area. What gives?
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 < 0.4s if possible.
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.
I am curious to learn more also about what kind of tools and libraries you used, if you have the time to elaborate.
Thanks !
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 on with the top stroke at the top of the app, below the 20px black status bar - it seems to get shorter then longer whenever I tap the search icon top right. I noticed it since it was quite jarring.
Really enjoy the full width pictures in the listings!
I'm playing with the app right now as I've been using Craigslist (and various apps of it) a lot lately.
I find the interface is really quite refreshing and nice. The real estate listings, the various photographic listings, the polish and animations. It really is a well done app.
Not to mention: it's officially licensed by Craigslist so there's a good chance it won't be taken offline anytime soon.
I will be using this app for my Craigslist browsing on my iPhone and sincerely hope an iPad app is soon on the way.
Maybe you should give it a shot? You might see something you like.
1. Despite being aware of the past issues other startups had had with CL, I was _not_ aware that there was a legit and not incredibly onerous licensing option (even if it isn't suited for everything).
2. I've tried some of the "7 million" other mobile apps and I've yet to find one that I didn't feel was at least a little sketchy. I'm happy to find one that is at least trying to push forward with a little polish and design ingenuity.
