Would you use this to find good eats?

Question

Hey CH, my co-founder and I are both passionate about food and we've been building an app that is a community for people passionate about food to discuss and discover local eats.

It would mean a lot to us if you could check out our recent prototype and give us some feedback on whether or not this is a product that you'd use: https://invis.io/EY5PZQ884

We've already been gathering feedback and working with chowhound community members, so special thanks to @Bec215 & @MikeG

Answer

Brutal honesty here. 
-The graphics feel childish, the bear, the smiley heart eyes, colors..
- too much and too little information; the country and number of recommendations etc per profile on each page is visually distracting 
- whatever kharma points are no one is going to care or try to figure them out, just more clutter
- there is no pricing information anywhere...?

Answer

What do you mean by 'local'? Local to whom?

Answer

This is what CH does.

Answer

I'll pile on....yeah, the graphics are really childish. Also, how will this differ from Yelp, TripAdvisor, etc? Or Chowhound, for that matter (or what CH used to be......)?

Answer

Frankly I won't test anything if it requires me to give information or an email address...unless I'm compensated somehow. If you'd like more free feedback, consider changing that.

Answer

It's looks poorly made and undeveloped. The graphic are child like, there is no benefit to it and it's crap. I would not use it and I would not recommend anyone invest in it.

Answer

It doesn't seem any different than Yelp. Also, a cartoon bear doesn't seem to represent a food app to me.

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Isn't this just another version of yelp?

Answer

Aside from the amateurish looking graphics that seem to becoming standard, the whole expertise user ratings aspect strikes me as out of step. You're looking for free member content on a startup...placing value user content is a weird strategy for a food site.

Answer

"Messenger-Share"
I like the "Messenger-Share" screen. When I am asked for recommendations verbally from friends, coworkers, etc., it looks like wiya would make it easy to be able to just scroll through my contacts and ping over the restaurant info. It's also utilitarian (in the sense of the most good for the most people) to be able to send info to someone from an app without them having to be signed up and logged in. That's what I like about Dropbox; you can send/share things to Mac or PC users and they don't have to be Dropbox users to open the files. I still know people who aren't on Facebook, LinkedIn, etc.. If that's the case, or even if they are on that platform and they're not "connected" or "friends," then it's a barrier to sharing. This app makes it seem like all you need is their phone number. Nice.

Although that sharing feature is cool, what I usually do (from my phone) is search for the restaurant in a browser then copy and paste the link into text or occasionally email. So if I'm not already logged into wiya, I probably wouldn't log in just to text info to a contact. Therefore, I'm not sure how much value-add that feature is in terms of attracting new users. Still, it's a nice-to-have, and such easy text-sharing would at least speed the wiya brand.

Also, the graphic in the "Messenger-Share" screen text looks good; it makes it easy for bother the sender and the recipient to find/ distinguish the text and restaurant rather than some long or obscurely-named url. 

Expertise Badges
I'm confused by the "Expertise-Change" screen. It says, "You just changed your expertise badge to sandwiches." Does that mean that people can anoint themselves experts? Or, are those earned after X Karma Points in certain categories? If the former, then the badges are less meaningful to me.

Notifications-1
I like and don't like that I would receive a notification that someone left a comment on my review. I like it because it's engaging. I don't like it because I don't like like notifications unless I can highly customize them. My phone is already rife with badges and notifications. I also don't like it because I see it as a Pandora's box for trolling. Does it make sense to restrict comments on your reviews to come just from "Your Friends" or have some other way of keeping down arguments?

Karma Points
I can see how amassing Karma Points would be appealing to some, especially if they hold a lot of stock in things like number of connections, followers, etc. I don't lean that way as much as others, but still, the concept seems unique to me, and it could keep users coming back. Are there many other sharing platforms that have that system of rewarding others with points? 

Although I wouldn't care too much about having karma points, I do like the concept because (off the cuff, IMHO, and in theory) it seems like it would weed out some of the extremely negative reviews that don't offer any constructive feedback and are frequently marred with bigotry—the kind of reviews that litter Y*lp. It may also encourage reviews that are honestly critical, yet kind. However, my concern as a user would be that people just give their friends Karma Points, without any critical assessment of their friends' reviews—sort of like "follow for follow" types that just rack up as many impressions as they can. If that were the case, then the Karma Points would be less meaningful for me. Then again, I'm someone who only uses Y*lp as a last resort, mainly for cross-streets and phone numbers; I don't give much credence to their star system. So if you're looking to take away frequent Y*lp users, the Karma Points might be appealing.

The Bear
I hate to beat a dead horse, but I agree with others about the bear, the balloons, etc.

Prototype
At first, I, like someone else on this thread, thought I had to give my email or sign in with Facebook to test it. I finally figured it out after I saw your comment about not having give info, and I only saw your comment because I read nearly all the comments on the SF Bay Area board (or, at least the heading and the first few words) through my RSS reader. Think of how many others' potential feedback you could lose if it's not abundantly clear to people—who don't do see these things very often—that they don't have to log in. So maybe you should add a little "try it without signing in here" button/ graphic down near where the little white grid is.

Answer

You are asking us to judge a book by its cover! What maters is the content. That being said - why do I need to sign in? Is that the name you are going to use? Not very memorable or connected to food as best I can tell. Generally this seems like a good idea but again, the content is what matters. 

Basically it sounds like Posse but limited to restaurants.

And that's the problem - Posse is just click I recommend/love this place. What I need to know is what the place is like. Again, it is the content that matters to me. I don't care how many people love it.

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