Looking for feedback on an idea
Hey all, I hope to steal a second of your time and get some feedback on an idea I've been having.
I threw together a rough (rough) prototype that helps you get the gist of things, check it out here:
https://www.snappiness.space/old-digital-camera-catalog/
The idea is a tool that lets you navigate information about old digital cameras in a format more similar to shopping. You could discover totally new cameras this way just by searching for cameras that are APS-C and under $150 used, for example. I often find myself digging through old websites or wikipedia articles to even see what kinds of cameras Olympus made, and then have to go search how much they cost, were there any other models that had different sensors or whatever. This would make it much easier to find gems.
The full idea has much more features than that but I wanted initial thoughts before I spend more time on it.
Would this be something you would use?
How important is the ability to search using attributes (like the kind of search that is traditionally found on a commerce site)?
Does keeping this tool specific to old digital cameras provide value to you over making it for all types of cameras?
I'll ask about more things later, but I wanted to check these assumptions first and get some feedback. Feel free to leave any other random comments as well. Thanks!
I think that's a great idea! I've tried a few interesting old digital cameras, like the Sony T10, which is a weirdly satisfying little camera that feels more like a "slider phone" or whatever those were; and a Lumix FX150, which was definitely the smallest digital camera I've held, but broke almost instantly. Anyway, I'd happily/mindlessly sort through a catalog like this for sure!
Quote from denniscrommett on November 19, 2021, 7:22 pmI think that's a great idea! I've tried a few interesting old digital cameras, like the Sony T10, which is a weirdly satisfying little camera that feels more like a "slider phone" or whatever those were; and a Lumix FX150, which was definitely the smallest digital camera I've held, but broke almost instantly. Anyway, I'd happily/mindlessly sort through a catalog like this for sure!
Thanks for the feedback. I thought it would be a fun/helpful thing to put together.
I've gotten enough positive feedback at this point that I've started building the actual prototype. It will probably be ready for a demo by the beginning of the year. That's my goal at least. I can only dedicate 2-3 hours a week to it, so it'll be slow going at first 😆
Great idea.
I would waste a lot of time trawling through it.
I think if well compiled, this would be a wonderful resource. I do have a question about pricing though, since prices are subject to change, both due to market fluctuations and differences in condition.
Quote from Justin Tung on February 1, 2022, 11:00 pmI think if well compiled, this would be a wonderful resource. I do have a question about pricing though, since prices are subject to change, both due to market fluctuations and differences in condition.
Yeah, and this leads to a bigger question I am having which is which features to release first. There's a concept in software development (and probably many other industries now that I think of it) which says that you shouldn't wait until you have all your features before you release a product and see if people even want it. And then if they want it, how they actually use it vs. how you think they will use it. The idea is to learn quickly what people want and build that to minimize waste. And seeing how I am doing a bunch of other things at the same time, I'm really interested in maximizing efficiency here.
All that being said, I think what I've decided is that the first prototype I will just use static prices that I decide. Just to make things quick and simple so people can demo the product and see if they would even use it (I call it a product, but it will be free).
The final idea would be to use eBay's APIs to collect trending prices, weighted with user inputted prices paid, to come up with an estimated cost that is relatively accurate. eBay has some powerful APIs that I would be integrating with anyway for other parts of the app.
I do actually have a working application that is MVP (minimum viable product, what I was talking about above. Gotta love the business acronyms). You can filter in search with super fast response times by lots of different camera attributes. Works on Web and also natively on iOS/Android (haven't deployed to app store yet, but using a testing app). I have one or two minor touch ups and then I want to figure out how to get it into a limited user group for some initial feedback. It's hard to release something that doesn't have all the bells and whistles I want the final product to have, but at the same time I don't want to invest 100s of hours into something and then find out no one wants it xD
Here's a little sneak peek.. it'll give me some good motivation to get it deployed somehow for people to use
Uploaded files:
Looking good!
Do you want "user stories" as feedback from a real-life BA? 😀
Quote from tristancarlos on February 3, 2022, 9:13 amLooking good!
Do you want "user stories" as feedback from a real-life BA? 😀
Actually, yeah, that'd be great. Might help me organize the chaos that is how I do projects 😁 Your perspective will be good. I think I'm only a few steps away from getting it in some of y'alls hands. There's a few things to tweak and then I have to figure out how to configure the test harness app that I've never used before but looks promising. And like I said all you'll be able to do is search, but since that's the core functionality and the main value proposition then that's MVP for now. I think even that's really helpful though without any fancy integrations, because otherwise I use my own excel sheets of cameras and specs and prices to figure out what cool gear to chase.
Just wanted to say my wife laughs at me when she sees my excel spreadsheets I use to help guide my decisions. 🤣Glad I'm in good company. 👍
The sneak peak image you posted is looking slick.
