New Feature – Cafe Owner Registration

Posted on March 6, 2012 by Tim M

New to Wherespresso – Free Cafe Owners Registration

Last week Wherespresso launched Cafe Owners Registration.

This is a free service that lets owners identify themselves as the owner of a cafe listed on Wherespresso.com.

Benefits of Registering

As the registered owner of a cafe:

  • You can be notified via email whenever there’s a new review of your cafe on our website (and of course in our iPhone app).
  • Get notified if you receive any private feedback; Feedback is a paid service – read more about Wherespresso’s Feedback here.
  • Download some “We’ve been reviewed on Wherespresso” posters for your cafe.
  • Make changes to your cafe listing at any time

We have a bunch of more features on the way for owners, so don’t think this is it!

How to Register as the Owner

Visit this link and find your cafe. You can alternatively simply search for your cafe on the Wherespresso home page.

Once you’ve found your cafe, look for the pink “Are you the owner of this cafe” button in the header.

Click the pink button

Once you click this link, enter the information and we’ll get you approved asap – usually within the hour. We do go through a very quick check to make sure someone isn’t registering as the owner, if they’re not!

What to do if your cafe isn’t listed

That’s not a problem. Simply ask one of your customers (or you can do it yourself but keep it non spammy) to submit a review of your cafe and we’ll get it listed.

Posted in Owners | Leave a comment

Mayday Coffee – March 2012

Posted on March 3, 2012 by Tim M

Remember When You Were a Kid And…

You put a packet of Pop Rocks in your mouth, and they started fizzing, crackling and snapping like there was a party in your mouth?

Remember how awesomely fun that was?

Now we’re adults, such carefree hilarity is frowned upon. Well, phooey to that I say! Any world where I can’t have all kinds of intense chemical wizardry going on in my mouth is not a world I want to be a part of!

Mayday’s March Shipment is…Nicaraguan Pacamara

If you’re similarly inclined to such awesomeness, prepare to relive the outright rad-ness of your childhood with Bean Drinking’s Finca El Limoncillo Pacamara from Nicaragua. Bean Drinking are a sister company of Hario Gear (remember, if you need a grinder or other gear, hit me up for a deal) and run a cool cafe and roastery in Sydney.

I am going to have a hard time properly describing the sensational liquid delight that will bombard your mouth when you drink this coffee. It is by far and away my favourite coffee ever. I would love to play with some shots on a Slayer or commercial machine. Even on my home machine, it is an absolute CRACKER.

“Line 10 of those suckers up!” I say!

The Pacamara is a giant bean. Like, giant. Here’s a photo, next to a bean from another roaster we hope to have on board soon.

Giant Bean

Giant Bean

REGARDEZ! That is a giant mofo bean. As such, we need to treat it a little differently to eensy-weensy normal beans (the tasting notes cover all that stuff).

==> CHECK OUT THE TASTING NOTES HERE.

Importantly, this is a magical coffee. The whole beans last a very, very long time. I am still getting great coffee 1 month after receiving my batch, and it’s been at least 25 deg every day (and usually 30), and very humid.

“How do I get this Nicaraguan madness, Timbo?”

Well, that is a sterling question.

Toodle on over to the Mayday website, and either:

SIGN UP FOR A SUBSCRIPTION – this is the best idea if you just want us to send you coffee once a month, and charge you for each shipment automatically. Remember, you can cancel the subscription at any time, or even pause it if for instance you’re going on holiday (I just realised I keep pushing this point; this must mean it’s really very clever). This is also the cheapest way to get coffee from us.

OR

Buy the Pacamara as a ONCE OFF – this is a one time purchase via PayPal, so is good for a sample, or if you want to buy it as a gift.

Remember, if you have a Wherespresso login, you can create an account on Mayday with that.

Order Now

There are only 20 days until orders close, so buy now, set your calendars or subscribe for a monthly coffee subscription.

Posted in Coffee | Leave a comment

New Version of iPhone App – Feedback

Posted on March 2, 2012 by Tim M

Version 1.3 of the app is available

It’s been a few months in the making, but the new version of the Wherespresso iPhone app is here!

A few things have been fixed in the background but the main thing is the new Feedback button in the cafe listing both in the Wherespresso iPhone app and on the Wherespresso website. You can see the Feedback button in the app on each cafe detail page, and on the website as a button to the right of the header.

Feedback Button

Feedback Button

Feedback button on venue page

Feedback button on venue page on website

Cutting to the chase – get the new version now

You can get the new version of the Wherespresso iPhone app from the Apple ® App Store or from our App page.

Please note, we have not yet sync’d favourites between the app and your account on our website, this is slated for our next release.

What is Feedback?

As opposed to reviews, which go into the public stream, Feedback allows you to send feedback directly to the cafe owner’s inbox; Feedback does not appear in the cafe review stream with the other reviews, rather, it gets emailed to the owner directly.

“Why Should I Use This?”

I designed Feedback predominantly as a way to let cafe patrons tell cafe owners something directly. Whilst I envisage it will primarily be used for negative feedback, it can also be used for positive or neutral feedback. It can also be used for situations where you spot something and want to let the owner know about it.

From personal experience, I know how uncomfortable it can be to tell someone that something has gone wrong or the service is/was bad, even when you know the owner well.

I wanted to give all of us a way to tell our favourite cafes that something went wrong, or, tell them if something goes right.

Because if the owner doesn’t know, they can’t fix it for next time, right?

When it Would Be Used

Feedback will primarily be used for situations when something goes wrong. Why punish a usually-awesome cafe with a bad review (or by telling your friends) when you can let the owner know directly.

So, I recommend using this if you have an experience at a cafe that is not up to scratch. Maybe you got a bad coffee. Maybe a staff member was rude. Maybe the service was way too slow.

Hey, maybe you want to let the cafe owner know how awesome their service or cafe is, but want to keep it off the record. Positive feedback is as useful as negative feedback.

How it Works

In the Wherespresso iPhone app and on each cafe venue listing page on the Wherespresso website, there is a Feedback button which allows you to provide feedback on your visiting including:

  • How often you visit
  • The type of feedback (negative, positive, neutral)
  • Whether you’ll return
  • Date of your visit
  • More details about your experience
  • Whether you want your name/email passed on. If you choose yes, you enter your name/email. If you choose no, your feedback is anonymised.

If the cafe owner is signed up for the Feedback service, they’ll receive an instant email notification of your feedback.

If the owner has not signed up for Feedback, or we have no registered owner of that cafe, we store the feedback for whenever the owner registers in the future. So it is still important for you to give honest feedback to cafes if something goes wrong.

Can the Cafe Owner See My Details?

If you choose to anonymise your feedback, the owner will **NOT** be able to see ANY of your details. You can choose to pass your name and email on to the owner in case you wish the owner to follow up with you (you might want to provide further detail of your visit, or give the owner chance to follow up a bad experience) – the key thing is, the choice is yours.

In our database, we do stamp every Feedback with your Wherespresso username, but the owner cannot ever see this (we collect this information in order to protect against spam). We will NEVER give the owner your username or name/email if you anonymise your Feedback – not even if pirates have us on the plank, with sharks circling below.

Your privacy is SUPER important to us.

Anonymised Feedback

Anonymised Feedback

Pass on your details

Pass on your details

Who can leave Feedback

Only registered Wherespresso users can leave Feedback – this is to protect against spam.

Will the owner get back to me?

We can’t speak for every owner, but we believe they should, especially for negative feedback.

Don’t despair if they don’t though. They might not have signed up for the Feedback service yet.

Get the new version now

You can get the new version of the Wherespresso iPhone app from the Apple ® App Store or from our App page.

Please note, we have not yet sync’d favourites between the app and your account on our website, this is slated for our next release.

Posted in iPhone App | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Wherespresso iPhone App V1.02 – freezing bug fix

Posted on November 9, 2011 by Tim M

Wherespresso V1.02 Bug-fix

With downloads now approaching 800, the app is pretty solid now. The bugs we’re finding are the edge cases that the original beta testing didn’t pick up.

The latest version, 1.02, fixes a freezing bug whereby when you entered optional information when Adding a New Venue, then pressed “Back”, the app froze. Thanks to users Shannon L, Dan M, Chrizzle, Vadim and others for taking the time to give me the heads up.

We’ve pushed an update to the AppStore, which you can now download.

V1.03 News

V1.03 of the app will enable syncing of your favourites between the app and website. Whilst I really wanted to include it in the first version of the app, sometimes you have to make hard choices to exclude things in order to get something shipped. Given the app was 18 months late, I made the decision we could live without syncing.

This has unfortunately meant each new version of the app has caused the saved favourites list on the iPhone to be deleted. I know this is an utter pain, so this is the first thing I want to get fixed now all the bugs are pretty much fixed.

V1.03 will be released soon so stay tuned.

V1.04 onwards

There are multiple functionality sets and interface improvements slated for the app, and as usual, I’ll release those one by one to minimise the risk of new functionality causing an issue with the app.

The cafe rating input will be improved, opening hours entry fixed to be much easier; these are just to start with!

Posted in iPhone App | Leave a comment

Reader and beta tester madman Chris had a great feature suggestion for Wherespresso which led me to think: what other great ideas have you Wherespresso-philes got that are worth considering.

Before I throw open the floor, I’d like to highlight the Wherespresso Design Philosophy, which can be summarised thusly (yes, hugely inspired by our heroes 37Signals):

If you have an idea for Wherespresso (the site or app) I’d love to hear it. I can’t promise it will get implemented, but, if it’s a good idea, is in keeping with the Wherespresso Design Philosophy and makes the Wherespresso experience better for users, I’ll definitely consider it.

Some things to keep in mind.

  1. Features cost money. Each feature costs money to implement on the web site and in the app (2 sets of costs). Additionally, each feature causes feature loops (increased complexity). If I can’t remove a feature I generally won’t introduce one.
  2. Each feature request has to earn the right to be included (each request is met with a “no” at first).

And in case you’re worried that your request has dropped off the radar, I forget about each feature request until I keep seeing it get requested. Or, unless someone makes a really good case for it. So, don’t be upset if it appears as though it’s fallen on deaf ears; I am just making it earn its place.

So, Got a Request?

Drop your requests below in the comments.

Posted on September 27, 2011 by Tim M | Leave a comment

The Wherespresso site and app experience (UI and UX) has been hugely influenced by the guys at 37Signals. There’s no one who influences my thinking more than these guys (apart from maybe Seth Godin).

I wrote a case study on the Wherespresso Design Philosophy on one of my sites Get Implemented (GI is my small-business consulting business).

I think it makes for interesting reading – the WDP can be summarised thusly.

  • Have One Big Idea – Our big idea is to help you find and share the location of the best coffee. That’s it.
  • Build Less – We’re all so time poor these days that the last thing I want is to complicate things further. Keep it simple.
  • Perfection for Wherespresso will be reached not when everything is added, but when there is nothing left to take away.
  • Less Mass – this means simple and clean interfaces, making mistakes (but less of them) and everything else that goes with being lean and fast moving.
  • Embrace Constraints – Wherespresso has real constraints; constraints on having loads of money to be spent is the big one. I use my wages to fund development so funding is a good problem as it focuses the mind on what is truly important for end users and sustainability of the site.
  • Our Site and App takes sides – by building less, I remove decisions for users. Whilst this might piss some users off – “Oh why can’t I do such and such” – in reality, less decisions for users means more decisive action and a simpler user experience.
  • Build what matters – my first consideration with any new feature (suggested by someone else, or even that I think of is): “does this really matter? How will it make the user experience better”.
  • Feature Requests – are forgotten and met with a no, until the call for their implementation is too hard to ignore and I have to consider their worthiness.

This is a brief summary of a more in depth explanation, which you can read on GetImplemented if you’re interested.

Posted on September 25, 2011 by Tim M | Leave a comment

Why Isn’t There an Android Version of Your App?

Posted on September 21, 2011 by Tim M

I’ve had a lot of people Tweet and ask why there isn’t an Android version of the Wherespresso iPhone app.

Mobile Development is Expensive!

Mobile app development is expensive – mobile apps cost a lot of money to make. Think in order of $3,000-$5000 for a product you will essentially give away. On top of that, adding another platform means any changes to the site then have to be rolled out to two mobile platforms which makes things doubly expensive.

The feature roadmap for Wherespresso over the next 6-12 months is so strong and intense, that I would prefer to implement these features and get everything to where I want it to be, then implement an Android (and pure mobile) version. These development priorities will drive revenue, so they naturally crowd out a significant investment in a product that won’t directly drive revenue (yet).

Android Marketplace a Bit Flakey

Compared to Apple’s closed garden environment, the Android marketplace isn’t as clean and cohesive for users and developers (for those interested, I encourage you to read this article about the problems with Android).

Whilst this obviously is a result of Google’s choice to have a more open marketplace, it contrasts with Apple’s decision to concentrate on user experience above all else.

When the Android marketplace and the app ecosystem becomes a little cleaner, it will help the decision immensely.

Android Still on the Roadmap

Having said that, I definitely have an Android version on the roadmap, so I encourage Android users to show their support by signing up to the “Please Give Us an Android Version” mailing list here. By signing up, I’ll get a clear indication of the level of support for the Android version.

At the end of the day, Wherespresso has a clear revenue model that will see the iPhone app remain free forever and an almost total lack of monetisation through advertising – because really, when you think of features you’d like to see on a site, do you really say “I want more advertising!”? No way. So the planned features will help drive revenue, which will help support the rest of the site in a sustainable manner, which will see it grow for years to come, so we all win.

Posted in iPhone App | Tagged | Leave a comment

Wherespresso V1.01 Bug fixes + new feature

Posted on September 21, 2011 by Tim M

Wherespresso V1.01 Bug-fix

Well, after over 500 downloads, I have been pretty chuffed at the lack of bugs. We’ve had some, but our core group of beta testers (6 people) caught 80% of the bugs (Pareto’s Principle in effect once again!).

However, thanks to a few people who took the time to send emails and screenshots (Steve H, DrMitcha, @ThomBrookePhoto), we found we had two bugs.

We’ve pushed an update to the AppStore, which you can now download.

Bug Fixes

  • Users were having difficulty signing up with a WSP account in-app – this is now fixed
  • Users were having difficulty signing up with Twitter (token issue) – this is now fixed
  • Cafes with long names had their names chopped off – this is now fixed

New Feature

Directions from your current location to a cafe is now included in cafe detail screen.

We’re in Constant Beta

As an aside: Wherespresso will never be done as a web-app or mobile app. Wherespresso is in constant beta.

Got an Idea for the App?

Drop a comment below or email me from the contact page. Most ideas won’t get implemented (you learn what you truly stand for when you say “no” to things), but some ideas might. Start throwing ideas at me and we’ll see what sticks.

Read more here for my philosophy on feature requests.

Posted in iPhone App | Tagged | Leave a comment

We’re in Constant Beta

As I continue to evolve the website and iPhone app, it might occur to you that Wherespresso is in constant beta.

What this means is that I will never have a perfect product. Rather, I’ll be constantly improving and refining the app.

The benefit of this approach is that you guys can throw ideas at me for the app, and help make the app better over time.

I’m already working on V1.5 of the app, which is going to have some cool new features.

They won’t be huge, just small incremental changes that incrementally improve the usability of the app.

I’m a big fan of constantly shipping. Read more here about this philosophy from the masters, 37Signals.

Get the Wherespresso iPhone App

Get V1.01 of the iPhone app here.

Got an Idea for the App?

Drop a comment below or email me from the contact page. Most ideas won’t get implemented (you learn what you truly stand for when you say “no” to things), but some ideas might. Start throwing ideas at me and we’ll see what sticks.

Read more here for my philosophy on feature requests.

Posted on September 21, 2011 by Tim M | Leave a comment

I thought you guys might find this interesting. After two weeks I’ve been able to sit back and have a think about how the iPhone app has gone. I’m pretty happy with the numbers; nearly 500 downloads in two weeks and running at 15/day. It’s pretty healthy as even an average of 10/day is an installed base of roughly 3500 users after 1 year.

I use AppFigures to pull reports for the app, and below I’ve shown you screenshots of the downloads per day, and downloads by country.

This shows the downloads of the Wherespresso iPhone app since launch. It clearly demonstrates a power law distribution, or more simply, the long tail.

Interestingly, the growth in reviews in the past two weeks has clearly demonstrated Pareto’s Principle; 80% of the activity on the site has come from 20% of the users. This known as the rule of the vital few; that is, a few of you guys are madly running around submitting reviews (hi Tom, Angus, Raddles, Tico, egotripp, Paren, The_FishmanAU).

Similarly, roughly 20% of the number of countries generate 80% of the downloads (in this case, 2 countries actually account for most of the downloads so it’s more like 90/10 but the basic logic still applies).

This sort of distribution, particularly in regards to launch is pretty normal, and will repeat (although probably with lesser numbers) for any app updates (we are testing an update at the time of publishing), or if a big hitter on Twitter, Facebook or the net, mentions the app.

App Downloads by Day

App Downloads by Country

Posted on September 7, 2011 by Tim M | Leave a comment