Need feedback on webpage (RainMan this means you!)
 

Ok, I am working on a new web service for people in the Texas bar industry(may expand to other states eventually). I have a prototype that is about 40% finished for the map reporting tool and would like to get some feedback before I go much further. There are still a number of small bugs that I am working on and the style will need a ton of work as well but overall I think the basics should function.

I'd mostly like to get feedback on the reporting itself and anything you guys think of that it may need added.

One thing that is being added but isn't yet showing is the ability to show sales data as it relates to Facebook activity(likes, checkin, events, etc) and Yelp reviews.

ok here is the site... Have at it!

http://barsalesmap.com/map.php

You should allow selecting comparatively and overlay two locations.

I would not really have a need for this information so I would use yelp or google maps personally. Kind of cool though. How do you get the data?

I thought you already did something like this?

The data comes from a bunch of different sources, mostly city and state government and of course yelp and facebook for the social data.

I wouldn't expect any consumer to have a use for this data it's for bar owners mostly. I have a friend in promotions that thinks it may be useful in his field as well but I'm not so sure.

In regards to comparing locations.. that is a different section of the site that gets programmed next. You will be able to do that and much more by creating and saving your own custom reports. That's a fairly huge next step though so I want to make sure the basic map reports are good to go first.

Good catch! Yep I did but nothing close to this scale. The old map report tool was VERY VERY basic and didn't include a fifth of the data that this one does... and most importantly the old interface sucked.

I actually though about approaching a few bar consultants like Taffer and seeing if they would be willing to give their input... but I figured you guys could get a first look and make sure it's not a complete embarrassment before I do!

Why the universal jump in sales in 2013 of each year? Does March Madness + Mardi Gras + St. Pat's Day make that big of a difference?

SXSW mostly.. you'll notice it only occurs in Austin. SXSW is just ridiculous.

So any suggestions regarding the data presentation?

In Chrome, Arlington and Downtown Austin look like the ocean (all blue) until you select a bar.

If you make the font size too big, you lose parts of the graph.

When you have the maximum font size to see the whole graph there is too much black space between the map and the graph.

The ocean map is because I haven't set a delay or event listener to make sure all the markers have loaded before the map loads... the map bounds are defined by the markers so that can cause issues on maps with a ton of info. I have a plan for that but it's a bit tricky.

I haven't messed with fonts yet, those will all get changed. The black space issue is actually a tricky one because of the way google maps handles DIVs... I am working on it but I don't think there will ever be a "perfect" solution there.

Thanks for the input! Otherwise it seems to work ok for ya?

Good concept, needs design help.

Thanks!

I have only done the bare minimum on design so far, just enough to make it functional. Design work will be much later. But yeah I agree the look and feel isn't exactly pretty or even consistent at this point.

Yep. Cool functionality.

I'm not a big design guy, but when I think about functionality and how people would use the site, I would see them using the site for:

1. Sleuthing a particular bar, in which case they'd want a search function and the map function. The map function seems good.

2. Looking at overall market trends, in which case it would be nice to do a "select all" and see their sales summed. And maybe be able to select different time periods.

3. Looking at particular groups of bars, such as all bars in an area or all bars that include restaurants or all bars that have dancing or whatever. It seems like a search function by bar attribute would be nice.

How do you anticipate this site being used?

Also, I'm intrigued with where you would get the data for this. Is it something that the state publishes related to liquor licenses?