We just uploaded Swapit beta 10.6 to Google Play. You can now get it at: http://get.swapit.la
As you can see, we have already come a long way since beta 10. With many many improvements like the Citymapper integration, Christmas theming, the OnePlus X Give Away and so on.
Over the past weeks we have also been listening to a lot of feedback we have received from you – our great loyal users. Thanks again for your time and effort! While we are only humans and there is only so much we can do (… the day only has 24 hours unfortunately), we prioritized our product roadmap according to the kind of improvements we feel are most important to you and the ones we can implement in a reasonable amount of time.
MAKING IT SIMPLER
One of the things we’ve heard a lot about, was: it still needs to be simpler, easier and faster to close a deal. That’s from the buyer, but also from the seller’s point of view. At the same time, we looked at how people use Swapit and if that is how we designed it to be used. For example, we noticed that many folks actually misuse the comment function to show their interest in an item. We found this very odd, because we did actually have a “Show interest to buy” button there.
Nobody is perfect and as app developers we need to make sure, we create a product that feels natural to the user. So we realized we need to change and optimize our workflow – making it much easier for buyers to get to actually buy. As a result, we moved the “Show interest to buy” button from the middle of the screen to the very bottom and we called it “CHAT TO BUY”. Besides putting the potential buyer in the list of interested users, a click on that button also opens up a chat with the seller right away. At the same time, we turned it green to make it super-obvious to spot.
This now removes a crucial step and simplifies the buying process a lot. Previously, the buyer would have had to wait for the seller to invite him or her to a chat in order to move forward. In the best-case scenario, that would happen immediately. However, depending on what the seller is doing right now, it could take several hours until a seller takes action. That’s just not acceptable for most buyers.
THE BUYER IS IN CONTROL
Buy letting the buyer start the chat with the seller directly, we remove that barrier. The real instant and immediate look and feel is absolutely nurtured here. From a psychological point of view, though, we are now giving control back to the buyer. With the previous workflow the buyer showed his interest and his picture ended up in the “Interested Users” list – that was it. The buyer was left in limbo there and had to wait for the seller to react. While we consciously made a design decision early on, to create it like this, we now realized, we needed to rectify and evolve this. Our initial intention was to protect the seller from unwanted “spam” from potential buyers who just ask random questions. We now believe that won’t be much of a problem.
By giving control back to the buyer, we add this additional feeling to the buyer’s user experience with Swapit. He or she now feels much more in control of what (s)he can do to actually get the desired item. To be honest, most of us ordinary people are impulse buyers. Yes, sure, we do our research on important items (like a TV), search the web for the best price and then order properly. But more often than we want to admit, we see something really gorgeous and we just want it. Right now!
Well, now it’s drop dead simple to buy what you want – right now! Just click the “CHAT TO BUY” button and you’re ready to go.
Additional improvements in Swapit include a confirmation dialog in case you accidentally leave the “Sell Item” screen, so you don’t loose the data you entered already, as well as an easier and more stream-lined navigation according to Android’s latest material design guidelines. We are constantly improving on that front, to stay on top of our design game.
If you didn’t try Swapit yet, give it a shot now. It’s free. Download the latest version of Swapit from: http://get.swapit.la
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