UI updates for IndiaBookStore.net

August 5th, 2010 | View Comments

Cover images are here. And I find it to be a significant improvement. Makes searching more fun.

search results screenshot

Now I’m grouping books by ISBN. So the UI is much more scalable and can accomodate a large number of stores now. The best pricing is shown by default along with the name of the store. To see prices for any particular ISBN for all stores, just click on the [n other matches] link.

IBS_v0.9-2

I’ve added a status bar on the right which will update in case there are any errors from retrieving books from any store. It also works well as a progress bar and gives a sense that something is happening while the results stream in. I think it does a good job of keeping the user engaged and informed.

I’ve also updated the main page now to be more descriptive of what this search engine does. I quickly realized after seeing the high bounce rates from the previous main page, that I ain’t no google, so just a logo and a search box won’t quite cut it. I better not waste my visitors time in asking them to figure me out. So I hope to see some improvement with this new page

IBS_v0.9-3

Tasks to do :

  • I missed out on the in stock / out of stock info. Will be adding that in a couple of days.
  • Have to make the UI behave better in case cover images are not found for a certain book. It looks ok in Firefox as of now, but chrome and IE are a little ugly.

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  • Thanks for the suggestions Abhaya. In order

    1. Wonder if I should just rely on browser resizing. It used to be crappy, but most newer browsers fare pretty well.

    2. I think the UI lacks the overall polish that I'd want. I'm not a designer so can't get my mind's picture into the html canvas as of now. Will get some help to tidy this up in some time.

    3. you mean to say they're probably more relevant and should occupy a separate (more prominenent) space?

    4. good catch. something's wrong with fooled by randomness for sure. will look into it.

  • Hi Animesh,

    Yep, cover images are a nice addition! Here are my thoughts about the UI:

    1. I think you need to handle the different sized images. Right now the layout starts looking chaotic when images of different sizes come in.

    2. I think 6 in a row looks a bit crowded. 4-5 in a row is more like it.

    3. I think in the cases where you find exact matches, they should be shown separately from everything else.

    4. Try searching for "Fooled by Randomness" - Flipkart results doesn't seem right for that. When I search on their site, the right version shows up at the top.

    Overall it is starting to look pretty good :)

  • had been too busy to fix Flipkart results. Now working fine.

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