Where has this thread been all my life? I can't believe I missed it.
Ok... my thoughts
1. Make sure you preview this stuff in Opera (which I use as well). Some of the rendering is a bit off:
1.a In
http://www.shmax.com/test.html the title is broken up with two arrows and a big blotch of white space
1.b In
http://www.shmax.com/test2.html there is the same as 1.b, but the date preview, today and next are not neatly aligned with the calendar.
2. GUI: I'm liking what I see so far. Some comments:
2.1 I'm sure this is still the 'advanced' view and people can simply add items to their collection without spending a few minutes to enter all of the information
2.2 I don't 'need' shipping information, but I respect the people who do. Maybe you can have a preference whether to use it or not? I can just avoid it if you do nothing.
2.3 Have a 'Total Paid' box that is greyed out that tallies up the paid and shipping costs. (Or if you want to get fancy, if a person clicks on the 'total paid' it will grey out the other two and allow for the total to be entered.)
2.4 Make sure these fields can be exported when we download collections. Ensure the 'total' is shown on the export as well (so people can easily to a =sum command in excel).
2.5 Do we know what insurance companies look for in our financial reports to insure a collection like this? I have to do the research, I am really behind on getting my collection insured. I am hoping SHMAX can help me get the financial information the insurance companies need. It would be great to tailer the fields and information to help people insure their collections. (This would also be a great 'niche' for the website).
2.6 My vote is for the 'test2' layout.
2.7 It would be great if pictures of the parts would popup when the mouse hovers over the name so people can easily 'see' and compare what they have with the checklist.
2.8 I'm assuming you have 'figures' in the checklist as well as the parts? Because it says 'Parts Checklist'.
2.9 'Customized' - I'm not sure how to take this. Obviously I don't know your full intentions but here are my thoughts.
2.9 A Unless the 'custom' job is a straight up repaint, it isn't going to be an easy task to just pick one figure and say this is a custom of that one figure.
2.9 B Are you going to say he now has this figure because he has a painted, modified and probably crucified version of the one listed?
2.9 C I think if you REALLY want to implement 'custom' figures you need a new category called 'personal' (or whatever) where people can add figures to their collection that are unique and can not be seen in the browse category (but can be seen if you view their collection). If you DO want to connect a custom figure to a figure in the main library, I would suggest implementing a feature where you LINK as many library figures to a single custom figure. For istance, I created a custom called "WAJO". So I add a custom figure to my collection and fill out all of the info and maybe upload some picture. Now if I want to link him to a library item I can add "G1 Optimus" and "Animated Grimlock" and "Masterpiece Starscream" to the list of figures I used to create this monstrocity. In short, I think your directional flow of customs are backwards. Customs are made from 1 or more official products, not that official products contain a custom.
3. Any chance to implement my buy/sell feature with this new roll-out? I have a lot of figures I want to sell and I think it can easily be worked into shmax and be great. I can help you generate the architecture, layout and functionality of it if you wish.
4. A bit off topic, but related to the revisions - I've been thinking about our conversation the other day and I think it boils down to the famous conversation everyone with a decent collection quite often has - "How many figures do you have in your collection". I think the responsibility of this website is to define a structured method of saying what a figure is and what a figure isn't. If you wish to add a point system on top of that, I'm not going to object; but I think a figure count is still vital. Now for 'memorabilia' items, like statues, bobble head dolls, etc I think you should create a third category in addition to 'figure' and 'accessory', which is 'memorabilia'. One SKU can have more than one 'memorabilia' pieces. This way, you have a clear distinction between figures and these other items.
Ok... maybe some of my other thoughts should go in another forum thread
