I built a website aimed at restaurant discovery

D

Darko

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Hey guys, I built a website that helps groups of friends plan events and hangouts outside the usual whatsapp group shenanigans.

From personal experience, organising dinners or drinks with friends is harder than herding cats, so I built a site that allows friends to vote on where and when they'd like to meet up.

It's all free, and it's mostly a lot of fun.

https://razzle.co.za/

The how it works link explains the actual concept in a bit more detail:

https://razzle.co.za/howitworks

I'd appreciate any and all feedback if you're keen to check it out and give it a test run.

Thanks for checking it out.
 
Very cool idea, all I need now are friends to have a night out with, that might be a bit trickier than arranging it lol
 
Our group of friends organise a dinner meetup every month, every month someone else chooses the place, organises etc. I think what would be great is if your site could do the booking as well, so once everyone has confirmed the location and details a mail is sent to the venue for a booking, or something like that.
 
Sepeng said:
Our group of friends organise a dinner meetup every month, every month someone else chooses the place, organises etc. I think what would be great is if your site could do the booking as well, so once everyone has confirmed the location and details a mail is sent to the venue for a booking, or something like that.
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That would require lots of resturant details and management of them
 
I'm going to be honest here, but please take it as positive criticism.

In the modern world nobody cares about websites any more, myself included.

Now had it been an App I might have checked it out as a foodie myself, but it being a website I won't even bother because the product is already lost to me in usage even if it's amazing.
 
Sepeng said:
Our group of friends organise a dinner meetup every month, every month someone else chooses the place, organises etc. I think what would be great is if your site could do the booking as well, so once everyone has confirmed the location and details a mail is sent to the venue for a booking, or something like that.
Click to expand...

I've reached out to the guys that run booking sites like dineplan etc, but they don't have any API integration and they would only consider if the volume was high enough via the site.

So need some traction and traffic before I could even request something like that unfortunately.
 
SauRoNZA said:
I'm going to be honest here, but please take it as positive criticism.

In the modern world nobody cares about websites any more, myself included.

Now had it been an App I might have checked it out as a foodie myself, but it being a website I won't even bother because the product is already lost to me in usage even if it's amazing.
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Hey man. I appreciate all feedback. Thank you for the time.

Is it just the convenience of having an app on your phone screen, or the fact that it's not as mobile friendly as it can be?
 
Darko said:
Hey man. I appreciate all feedback. Thank you for the time.

Is it just the convenience of having an app on your phone screen, or the fact that it's not as mobile friendly as it can be?
Click to expand...

I think it's just that the habits have changed with apps.

I don't find myself getting to work and opening up my bookmarks and going to my old favourites to see what's potting.

Instead I use "click through" services that guide me to content that could be just about anywhere and in many ways Apps do that.

Forums are about the only thing I visit in a browser out of habit. Everything else would be driven by apps on my phone. Even forums I refuse to use in a mobile interface and wouldn't even bother had it not been for Tapatalk.

I do like the concept though.
 
SauRoNZA said:
In the modern world nobody cares about websites any more, myself included.
Click to expand...

Definately disagree here. There's obviously pros and cons to both websites and apps(https://hackernoon.com/app-vs-website-which-one-to-choose-for-your-business-9a1409716d94). Personally I hate having tons of apps on my phone and prefer to bookmark sites, but to each their own. Back on topic, checked out Razzle, it's a good concept but tons of people would still prefer WhatsApp groups to organise these hook ups. It's the change of mindsets that would be your biggest challenge. How are you marketing/advertising your brand and website?
 
Gavin1205 said:
Definately disagree here. There's obviously pros and cons to both websites and apps(https://hackernoon.com/app-vs-website-which-one-to-choose-for-your-business-9a1409716d94). Personally I hate having tons of apps on my phone and prefer to bookmark sites, but to each their own. Back on topic, checked out Razzle, it's a good concept but tons of people would still prefer WhatsApp groups to organise these hook ups. It's the change of mindsets that would be your biggest challenge. How are you marketing/advertising your brand and website?
Click to expand...

I’m pretty sure you are in the minority.

Never meant nobody uses websites any more, just less and less.
 
SauRoNZA said:
I think it's just that the habits have changed with apps.

I don't find myself getting to work and opening up my bookmarks and going to my old favourites to see what's potting.

Instead I use "click through" services that guide me to content that could be just about anywhere and in many ways Apps do that.

Forums are about the only thing I visit in a browser out of habit. Everything else would be driven by apps on my phone. Even forums I refuse to use in a mobile interface and wouldn't even bother had it not been for Tapatalk.

I do like the concept though.
Click to expand...
I'm going to expand a bit on what SauRoN posted here.

Please, also take my advice in a positive light.

If you've written an app you have access to push notifications, google contacts, location services, google calendar integration, and many other google API's - apologies, I'm an Android user :)

Example would be someone would make a suggestion for a certain date, selects the people who he/she would like to invite, and your app server then pushes a notification to each party, prompting them to accept or decline, or propose a new date, or whatever. Once all are in the affirmative you create an event in each party's calendar, with a reminder going off an hour or 2 prior to the event which also gives them the directions based on their current location. There are a myriad of things you have access to by using an app!

Speaking only for myself, I am currently busy with a pet project where if people use a browser, the landing page will simply tell them "oh piss off, go download the iOS or Android app!"
 
Gavin1205 said:
Definately disagree here. There's obviously pros and cons to both websites and apps(https://hackernoon.com/app-vs-website-which-one-to-choose-for-your-business-9a1409716d94). Personally I hate having tons of apps on my phone and prefer to bookmark sites, but to each their own. Back on topic, checked out Razzle, it's a good concept but tons of people would still prefer WhatsApp groups to organise these hook ups. It's the change of mindsets that would be your biggest challenge. How are you marketing/advertising your brand and website?
Click to expand...

So I agree with you. I am definitely in the pool of people with app fatigue. I have maybe 4 or 5 apps I open daily (Chrome and Maps are used to find info on places and articles etc). The rest of the stuff, I genuinely don't use my phone for.

I spend 90% of my day behind my laptop and that's where I do most of my interaction with the outside world.

I am also aware that other people are not like me. There are people that spend 90% of their day on their phone and expect almost all interaction to go via their phones.

We can expand this discussion into another thread around this concept, but the basis here is not to create a social network (FB, Insta, Reddit, etc) which requires it's own app and something you access on the daily looking for new content.

The whole point of the idea is to create a fun way for friends to connect and discover places they might not have usually been privy to.

Whatsapp works 100% for this if you're just looking to set up a hangout with a friend. But that's not what I'm trying to recreate.

I also think that there are so many ideas out there that people have and in the end it's not the idea but rather the execution of that idea that actually generates interest.

I just wanted some feedback from a range of people to see what works and what needs changing and where potentially this can make an impact.

At the moment, there are no plans for world domination, just genuinely interested in making a cool concept that people are interested in using. Hopefully also expanding someone's world by suggesting a place they wouldn't have tried before.

That's it honestly.

In terms of branding and marketing, nothing has been set in stone. Like you mentioned, the biggest obstacle is getting the first users, then retaining those users for repeat visits and most importantly the mindsets. Posts like these and getting feedback from you and others is what turns an idea only I think is clever, into something people might want to use. So just looking for feedback and ways to improve / change etc.

I appreciate the time you've taken to reply and give me feedback. It's what it's all about. Thank you.
 
Honey Badger said:
I'm going to expand a bit on what SauRoN posted here.

Please, also take my advice in a positive light.

If you've written an app you have access to push notifications, google contacts, location services, google calendar integration, and many other google API's - apologies, I'm an Android user :)

Example would be someone would make a suggestion for a certain date, selects the people who he/she would like to invite, and your app server then pushes a notification to each party, prompting them to accept or decline, or propose a new date, or whatever. Once all are in the affirmative you create an event in each party's calendar, with a reminder going off an hour or 2 prior to the event which also gives them the directions based on their current location. There are a myriad of things you have access to by using an app!

Speaking only for myself, I am currently busy with a pet project where if people use a browser, the landing page will simply tell them "oh piss off, go download the iOS or Android app!"
Click to expand...

Hey man, I just appreciate the feedback! It has to be 100% honest, thank you.

I don't think that your choice of OS should predict the tech you use. I am heavily inside the Mac ecosystem, but I am fully integrated into Google around my daily interaction - maps, chrome, activity etc.

Razzle actually uses the Google Maps & Places API extensively.

Have you tried to create an event? Not sure if you have, but the voting screen actually does exactly what you describe with regards to push notifications. Once the votes have been tallied, a final invite is sent with a google calendar invite with directions and reminders set up already.

The concept behind the voting screen is to almost force friends into deciding on a date and time and place so a consensus is reached fairly quickly and with a bit of fun involved.

With regards to your last point, forcing people into a mobile app, there has been numerous feedback on usage done by the major social networks and almost all of them allow for a mobile view despite having an app.

Zomato was a prime example of forcing an app download - ( this was entirely based on their business model rather than convenience ) - and they eventually saw a massive drop off in users and subsequently restaurants couldn't justify the monthly premium they were paying for the exposure. They eventually pulled out of the country.

If you visit the site now, there are no more restrictions. You're free to browse the site.

I didn't want to make assumptions about the people that could be using the site. Rather just see how it went, and then adjust it to cater for the majority.
 
Actually, I haven't even tried to do anything on the site, my post was purely to reinforce Sauron's post. I'll give it a bash in a few, sounds like you've got something going.

My point still stands though. Right now I'm lying on the couch with my laptop on my chest in front of the TV. The only reason for this is because I'm busy working on the pet project I was referring to earlier. If it wasn't for that, and an idea popped into my mind for a get-together, I would not open my laptop, as things are just far more convenient using my phone.

Maybe its because some of us (read: the majority of the MyBB community) are power users of phones? This actually reminds me of people I know who bought S9's and only use it for WhatsApp and Facebook, so maybe you're right, you shouldn't force people to use apps.
 
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