Crowdsourcing for some feedback?

Two weeks ago, I laid down some ideas and thoughts about user interface for ShareMyCab.net. I finished the form that allows to save a new taxi trip, and which is the center-piece of the site. 

I’m an not a professional / full-time developer, so I’m quite proud of the behind-the-scene javascript that handles the form.But now i need help to make sure it works fine and fulfills a simple goal: I want the script to understand the user however the user understands the form. 

Please help me crash test the form and send your opinion/feedback by mail or in the comments below!

Thank you !

User interface thoughts for ShareMyCab.net

It’s been just about a month that I started testing the alpha of ShareMyCab. The feedback from my friends was very positive … when speaking about the concept. Speaking about the execution, they were, well …. let’s see, “polite” would be the term (I guess). To say things clearly: it sucks. And they pointed their finger at two things: 

• the fact that there are two forms to save cab trips; one if the trip is from or to an airport and another if the trip is from two random points,
• the fact that each of the two forms were not clear, complicated, cumbersome, uneasy to understand, …

There is no complexity in ShareMyCab.net. However, there are various ways to save a trip: type an address, click on the map, or choose an airport. And a user has to do it for the departing point and the arrival point. Then of course you can start over. One point, or the other. Then, you have to give a name to your trip, choose a frequency, a date, a time. The “airport trip” form has 6 fields and requires 1 “click” on the map. The “inside the city” (one random point to another) has 7 fields and requires 2 clicks on the map. 

And the I am working on a new version of the form. I tried to apply the following guidelines:

• Less is more: the less fields, the better,
• Clarity: I want a 3 years old to understand the form,
• Simplicity: the script has to understand the user, and not the contrary,
• Flexibility: the process has to adapt to the user, and not the contrary – knowing that each user understands and approaches the form his own way,
• Efficiency: the script makes clever decisions based on the user input, limiting the number of decisions/choices the user has to do – various scenarios are tested and the script reacts accordingly.

OK: in fine, this is a lot of BS to just say that the form looks more simple now and that the script is kewler now than it was before . So the features are: 

• 1 unique form and 4 fields to save a trip: where from, where to, when and contact.
• If you type something that resembles an airport, the list of corresponding airports will be suggested. If it’s an address, the map will recenter automatically on the typed address. And finally, if you prefer to double click on the map to indicate a starting or ending point, a reverse-geocoding request will give find the closest street (check the source out, really powerful). So whatever your method, I end up with the same result: an address and geographical coordinates.
• The date field is super simple, and I used the DateJS framework. Type anything close to a time indication (Sept 25th, 25, Oct, today, tomorrow, t+1, …) and the script will spit out the date.

That’s it ! Unfortunately, days are really busy right now, but I hope to launch into production soon !

Reduce the greenhouse gas emissions with ShareMyCab.net !

Minor improvements on ShareMyCab.net, but improvements that count !

First: when watching the details of a trip, you can now see the quantity of CO² emission of that specific trip, and how sharing this trip would reduce that quantity. The numbers, for the moment, are based on the average consumption of a 2006 Ford Crown Victoria and calculated thanks to TerraPass.

ShareMyCab CO2 reduction estimates

Second: instead of seeing a straight line representing your trip and having sky-distances, you can now see the real road directions as well as the real street distance of that trip. That could be practical for drop-offs or pick-ups if the cab ride passes near where you need it !

ShareMyCab.net trip details

Have fun and enjoy ! Launch soon !

2nd release of ShareMyCab.net: Dashboard, Messages,…

It’s been 5 days since the initial beta launch last week of Share My Cab.

Today, the second release was done with the following updates:

• an administration dashboard that allows each user to view his active trips and cancel them,
• each message sent to a user is sent by email but can also be consulted on the dashboard,
• trips displayed on the home page are more precise and sorting options have been added on the home page,
• google maps bugs were solved: now you can see the trips in any city in the world – not just the ones in the northern hemisphere west of Greenwich, UK )
• compatibility issues with Internet Explorer have been solved.

On the to do list for the next days are:

• upgrade and simplification of the “Save a trip” forms,
• twitter integration,
• user rating and feedback system,
• translation ?

Let me know what you think !