Ask HN: Feedback on my web app: govcheck.net

by rmanocha • 17 years ago

16 14 17 years ago

rmanocha3• 17 years ago

I've launched with approximately 20% of the data I'm collecting so far. I was not yet fully comfortable with the stability of those scraping scripts and so wanted to give myself some more time.

Any feedback on the data and/or presentation is welcome. I would also really love to know what people think of the design/layout - I'm not a UI guy, and I know there are many improvements I can make.

sgrove• 17 years ago

First off, best to indicate that this is for India.

The UI is not bad, but I would make the font bigger in most cases, particularly the link targets. For example, why not make the entire cell clickable for each entry here http://govcheck.net/party/ ? Would greatly speed my navigation through the site.

You'll need a subtitle, or a one line description of your site, otherwise I'm not sure what I'm supposed to be looking for. "Get information..." is good, but tell me what the purpose of the site it. Something like, "All the stats on your Indian politicians."

On the graphs here, http://govcheck.net/mp/111/ label the axis. I don't know how to interpret this, other than it's trending downward.

Overall a very cool site, I like the idea behind it, and I'm glad to see you launching and polishing it. Well done!

rmanocha3• 17 years ago

Thanks for the tips. The one about indicating this is for India seems to be something I should really do. Going through the server logs, it looks like lots of people are searching for states/cities in North America.

One more question I would like to ask people though is if I should try to make this site compatible with IE6. I have done no testing with it, and done very rudimentary testing with IE7. I have not yet had too many users using IE6 to view the site, but my target audience includes rural parts of India - places where people use antiquated machines. Is it a good idea to try to fix this issue now, or wait until I see more people using IE6 before diving in?

paraschopra2• 17 years ago

If it is not too much of an hassle, I would advise you to test on IE6. But, unfortunaltely, it is usually too much of an hassle.

gills• 17 years ago

At first I was disappointed that when I searched "Washington" (my home state), nothing came up. Then when I clicked the 'States' link, I saw it was not for the U.S.

But I think you are doing something that truly matters.

Keep up the good work, I think every country needs a Sunlight Foundation!

moe• 17 years ago

I, too, like the idea very much. But the color scheme could use some work. The red/blue contrast of the logo against the background is evil. Also orange on purple doesn't work too well for me.

I don't think I could use this site for longer than a few minutes before the colors drive me away. But well, that should be an easy fix...

okeumeni2• 17 years ago

Search need more work. I search for ‘Vishnu’ I get two names ‘Sai,Shri Vishnu Dev’ is one of them. Then I type ‘Vishnu sai’ nothing comes up. It tells me that you are doing a simple database search.

Database typical search is not going to cut it, think of other ways to do search; why not open source.

rmanocha3• 17 years ago

Yes - the search right now is a simple database search. Fixing it is high on my todo list - I've been debating between implementing something on my own or just farming it out to google custom search. Which is more recommended (given that I don't want to do anything fancy with search right now - just looking up names of Representatives, States etc. would suffice for now).

okeumeni2• 17 years ago

For Google custom search you will need to expose all your content, I’m not sure if you want to do that. I will advice for you to look at open source, stuff like Lucerne.

Who knows later in your evolution you may want to get Intelliverb DBCSS (http://intelliverb.com/DBCSS.htm) we are currently doing a private beta for enterprise level; the hosted solution will be a perfect fit for you but that is down the line.

fixie• 17 years ago

Good idea. UI-wise, I would get rid of the "Welcome to GovCheck" text and replace it with a tagline. Saying "Welcome to..." doesn't really tell me why I should be on your site. I need to know what's in it for me, otherwise, I'm heading off to another site. I would also de-emphasize the logo (eg. make it smaller) and emphasize the search box more.

On your search results page, I would change the label of the "submit" button to "Search" and remove that secondary search at the top right. If you need that global search for some other page than the search results, I would suggest adding a button to the right of the text field and label it "Search".

It would also be a good idea to add a "you-are-here" indicator on your tabs.

Colors could also use some polishing. Try http://www.colourlovers.com/palettes/ for some great color palettes to choose from.

Good luck on your application!

neetij• 17 years ago

This is a very cool site. I can quite appreciate the amount of work you've put in here. I was trying to get something along these lines going myself, albeit unsuccessfully - I was unable to do a good job scraping LS/RS :(

Second sgrove's suggestions. Further, it isn't immediately obvious that I can click on the graphs to get participation details, attendance details, party members in LS, etc. When comparing records, I found it difficult to identify exact values in the bar graph - there are no axes lines or values provided.

Testing in IE7/IE8 is a must. IE6 has certainly diminished in popularity, but your target audience doesn't necessarily live on cutting edge (or even close to it), so some testing is required (atleast so the site degrades gracefully).

As for UI, I think you could make better use of the white space on some of the pages. The search box at the top right is too small, yet search is a primary navigation tool. The logo is a bit jarring on the blue bg. A breadcrumb would be nice too. If my search returns a unique result, like your example for 'Gujarat', it would be nice to be taken directly to the result instead of seeing the intermediate page with only one result - one less click, but a big step in usability, friendliness. Also, are you using exact matches only, for the search? Would full-text be applicable here?

One thing I see you haven't addressed is localization (unless it's there and I'm missing it, I apologise). Translations to regional languages is important when targeting the rural markets.

It's important to make this information more accessible and I think you've made a great start.

PS: I know you've done a lot of the work already, but I'm interested in helping out if needed. Email is in the profile.

xenophanes• 17 years ago

you're not helping me get the US government to send me a check? what do you do? make it more obvious.

paraschopra2• 17 years ago

You know, today morning I was thinking of exactly same project. A bit like everyblock.com

I am interested in contributing to the project, if you need help. Let me know.

marram• 17 years ago

The purple logo on the blue background is a bit hard on the eyes. Maybe a softer purple?

Ask HN: Feedback on my web app: govcheck.net

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