My thoughts on Foursquare so far
I signed up to Foursquare some time ago, but it was only after reading a fantastic blog post by Katharine Robinson (@thesourceress) that I decided to give it another look, and actually have a proper go at using it.
Katharine touched upon the user interface in her post, and this is something that I want to go into more detail about. When I say more detail, it’s pretty simple: the main website (that is, when accessed from a PC rather than a mobile device) is severely feature-anorexic. Instead, the service encourages users to download and install one of the mobile applications onto your device, or browse the mobile website in order to use the service and get anything meaningful from it. While I agree with this in principle I have to ask the question: why limit yourself?
One of the most fantastic little things I’ve ever been given is my netbook. It’s light, ultra-portable and has a fantastic battery. For this reason whenever I travel it comes with me. Wherever there is free wi-fi I will use it. But there’s the rub: I can’t check in on it, even though I may be out and about with it. Why not?
When I sign in on a mobile device I can see where my friends have checked in – something I find quite interesting; particularly if someone I know has checked in at the same place as me; yet on the main website I can’t see this information in the same way.
Somewhat amazingly I’m about to apply something I’ve learned in my degree to a real-world scenario…
One of the principles of web design, certainly something that is taught in e-Business, is that you design for your users, not for yourself, and that you make your service as universally accessible as possible; to overlook something is to cut off access for a significant portion of your users.
Surely I should be able to access the full range of Foursquare’s features no matter how I choose to access the service? Foursquare should tailor their service to my method of access be that full desktop browser, mobile web, or mobile client software – I shouldn’t be penalised for using/not using a particular method.
I would like to see Foursquare include more functionality into its main website, here is my checklist of ‘wants’:
- To be able to check-in through the main website.
- To be able to see a summary of my friends activities from the main website.
- To get a properly personalised home page when I go to foursquare.com, rather than a generic welcome page (I’m a user already – I know what the site does!).
- Allow me to delete check-ins from the mobile application (I use the Blackberry app; not sure about others). Occasionally Foursquare checks me in several times to a venue – particularly if I’ve got bad reception, yet the only way to correct the error is to log in to the otherwise useless main site.
- Allow users to report duplicate / mis-named venues and merge them into one correct one to avoid confusion (for example: there are two Clapton stations, but which one’s correct?).
- Let me see who has been Mayor in the past? Is there a secret Mayoral power struggle going on?
- Merge the stats generated by the mobile apps with the stats page on the main website so that I get the same information in both places.
I’d love to hear your thoughts on Foursquare. Do you use it? What do you find useful or annoying? What would you add to my list?
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Katharine Robinson, James Marshall. James Marshall said: My thoughts on Foursquare so far http://bit.ly/az3bSq [...]
hi,
The reason that you cant check in via the web page is because clearly you could just check in to anywhere without them being able to verify your location thru GPS positioning. Id hate it if people could do that. Itd spoil the game.
Your other points tho, im down with
I use it loads, and find it good for seeing what kinda places are around where I am. My main issues are the duplicates and the typos too and it would be cool to see the previous people visited.
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James Reply:
May 1st, 2010 at 00:45
I realise that relying on the GPS location of the user is important in keeping things relatively fair. I do think that there should be some way of allowing ‘full clients’ to check-in… I mean there is a way to fool any system.
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Cat Reply:
May 1st, 2010 at 15:42
Duplicates I agree should be merged, but that would require a lot of manual work.
This is sort of on topic, too: http://www.krazydad.com/blog/2010/02/mayor-of-the-north-pole/
Thing is, at the moment it doesn’t matter, but as soon as more businesses offer bonusses or Foursquare actually rewards those badges [I keep reading they're planning to] it’ll make a big difference.
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http://m.foursquare.com/
It’s how I sign in with my laptop and it allows you to see a feed of friend’s activities. Why that isn’t on the main site, I don’t know..
And you sum up everything I dislike about it, great post.
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James, have you got the new version of Tweetdeck for desktop v0.34.1 ? It now allows you to check in to foursquare from your netbook
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James Reply:
May 21st, 2010 at 10:59
I do – I downloaded it yesterday, and I have to say that it’s a welcome addition.
I also know of a Google Chrome extension that allows you to check in, but I’ll have to do some reading.
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[...] have been plenty of other posts about Foursquare, for example this one from @TheSourceress or this one by @JamesBMarshall or this one. James also sums up a lot of the things I dislike about the site [...]