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FYI: xpost from Shapeways forum, written by Henrik (Product).

And for those that don't know me, my name is Mitchell and I work for Customer Service at Shapeways

 

 

Hey folks.

 

Miniature categories have been a mess for a while we know, and we want to fix that! In the coming weeks we'll be introducing two things to help everyone find products better:

1) Improved categories under Miniatures

2) Give ways to filter category views

 

But before we release any of these changes, I want to introduce our plans to you and hear your thoughts.

post-10777-0-04408800-1475822695_thumb.png

 

 

Model Trains will split into two: Trains and Scenery—a place for all the other parts that go into dioramas.

From Vehicles, we'll chip out Aircrafts and Ships, and the Vehicle's itself will then remain for different types of automobiles.

Furniture will be renamed to Interior models, to cover more ground.

Scifi and Figurines will stay the same, but they'll also get filters

BONUS: We will be adding Wargaming category under Games in the coming weeks, that could give a good home for a lot of the Scifi products. More on that later.

FILTERS

Each sub category will get filters specific to that category. When you're viewing the marketplace category, you can apply these filters on to narrow down a set of products that really fit your need. So let's say I'm looking at Aircrafts, I could check on filters Scale: 1:48 (the scale I'm in), Type: bomber (the model I'm after), and Country: Britain (the set I'm collecting)... and I'd see all the British bombers in that scale.

 

We will create the new Miniature categories first, and release filters feature afterwards. There will be more information on the filters later, but here's a list to give you an idea what the filters would be for Miniature categories:

 

 

Trains

Scale: <current scales available in variants>

Type: Steam locomotive, Diesel locomotive, Electric locomotive, Diesel multiple unit, Electric multiple unit, Passenger wagon, Freight wagon

Era: Modern, 1945-1960, WWII, WWI, Early Steam

Country: United States, United Kingdom, Germany, Netherlands...

 

Vehicles

Scale: <current scales available in variants>

Type: Military, Car, Race car, Motorcycle, Truck, Bus

Era: 2000-, 1980-1999, 1960-1979, 1940-1959, 1900-1939, WWII, WWI

Country: United States, United Kingdom, Germany, Italy, Japan

 

Aircrafts

Type: Civilian Light Aircraft, Airliner, Fighter, Striker, Bomber, Spy / Intel, Helicopter, Spacecraft

Era: Modern, Vietnam, WWII, WWI, 1940, 1930, 1920, <1920

Country: USA, Russia, Britain, Germany, China, France

 

Ships

Scale: <current scales available in variants>

Type: Military, Passenger, Freight, Recreational, Submarine, Sailboat

Era: Modern, Cold War, WWII, WWI, <1900

Country: USA, Germany, Britain, Japan, Russia, France

 

Scenery

Scale: <current scales available in variants>

Type: Outdoor Furniture, Station Accessories, Trackside Accessories, Structures, Industrial, Infrastructure, Plant, Tree, Bush or Rock, Other

 

Figurines

Scale: <current scales available in variants>

Type: Fighter, Marine, Animal, Pet, Monster, Dragon, Dinosaur, Human, Robot, Skeleton, Character, Other

Combatible with: <to be defined> (think Lego and such)

 

Interior models

Scale: <current scales available in variants>

Type: Modern, Retro, Antique, Vintage, Victorian, Other

Style: Furniture, Structure, Lighting, Wall decoration, Tabletop decoration, Other

 

Scifi

Scale: <current scales available in variants>

Type: Starship, Space station, Space craft, Robot, Mech, Helicopter, Aircraft, Structure, Decoration, Other

Here's a quick draft of of how the filters would show on Marketplace. Don't read too much into the image as it doesn't contain factual data.

post-10777-0-41495300-1475822672_thumb.png

I'm excited for what these changes enable for scale model hobbyist and experts. What do you think?

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Hi Mitchell,

 

I think Trains "Country" should be the first selection.

This dictates the nomenclature.and everything else.

For the UK & Diaspora, Type:into Steam, Diesel & Electric,

Coaches, Wagons, Parts, and Scenery would be sufficient.

 

Generally the format eBay.co.uk has works quite well when

they stop gingering it about

 

Noel

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One problem when changing anything, is that it is fine for anyone putting items on, but updating older items is not practical in many cases.

I think much of the problem is that some people expect to find things instantly. We don't always know what we want, despite what some say. Categories which are too specific can actualy result in some interesting items being missed. It is only a minority of people who grumble because they can't have what they want.

On the search facility it does need tightening up, as it seems to treat searches with more than one word as either/or, not  'and'. I have not tried adding '+' to search but it is what should be done by default. Most multiple word searches are done to search for all those words, not instances of each word. This would make it easier for some to search for specific items.

 

I know from having run a real model shop, that people will come in for one thing, but then find there are are things they want because they have now seen them, and the person in shop is helping them,advising them.

Unfortunately there is also a minority of people who only want one thing, and if you don't stock it they will grumble. When they find noone else sells it, the grumble even more. They are not the people who will keep the shop open though, but then when the shop does close, guess what, they grumble again because there is no local shop. Online shops are better than nothing, but from trying to find something else not related to model railways, I want to see something in reality before I buy it, and that can prove difficult. This is unfortunately a hurdle for anyone producing items for 3D printing, but it can't be got around easily.

I enjoy looking though categories which are not too specific, as I sometimes find items that could be useful or inspire me.

 

What would be useful is a means to save links to items I might want to find again, in same way ebay does . I could save link myself, but a facility to store items I am interested in might be useful.

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What would be useful is a means to save links to items I might want to find again, in same way ebay does . I could save link myself, but a facility to store items I am interested in might be useful.

You can already save products you want to find again.

Save the product to a list or favorite it.

post-10777-0-56986300-1475840415.jpg

Those products can then be found here:

post-10777-0-09000100-1475840342.jpg

 

Example of a lot of lists that Aimee Moyer (merchandise at Shapeways) saved:

https://www.shapeways.com/designer/aimeemoyer/lists

 

 

I think much of the problem is that some people expect to find things instantly. We don't always know what we want, despite what some say. Categories which are too specific can actualy result in some interesting items being missed. It is only a minority of people who grumble because they can't have what they want.

It's not mandatory to use those filters, people can still browse like they used to, no worries there :D

But by filtering down on for example scale, you can already exclude the products you DONT want to buy.

 

One problem when changing anything, is that it is fine for anyone putting items on, but updating older items is not practical in many cases.

Having to update your existing products will take time, sure, but in the long term it will help your customers.

In the future we will also be looking into more sophisticated bulk updating tools which will allow you to make these changes without having to go each product separately.

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Hello Mitchell

 

Many of the things I buy from Shapeways for 00/H0 scale for railway layouts are small items, such as railway related figures, or passengers, street scenes etc. I cannot see in any of your categories how I would find them in future. Would those be in figurines or in railway scenery?

 

Likewise Accessories for railway layouts, such as road works signs, traffic lights, signals etc. There are many makers of these on your site. Not sure where I would find these either.

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Hey Mike,

The plan is to have those in:

Scenery
Scale: <current scales available in variants>
Type: Outdoor Furniture, Station Accessories, Trackside Accessories, Structures, Industrial, Infrastructure, Plant, Tree, Bush or Rock, Other

&
Figurines
Scale: <current scales available in variants>
Type: Fighter, Marine, Animal, Pet, Monster, Dragon, Dinosaur, Human, Robot, Skeleton, Character, Other
Combatible with: <to be defined> (think Lego and such)

 

 

Edit: we are discussing if it might be better to have a filter on Scenery for Passsengers/People

What are your thoughts, when "shopping", where do you expect to find passengers, on scenery or figurines category?

 

 

such as road works signs, traffic lights, signals etc.

They will be in Scenery and when filtered down likely to be found under Infrastructure (except for the signals, those should go under trackside accessories)

 

 

Shapeways will do their best to help with automatically moving products to the right filters when launched (I.e. cross checking tags, if tag 1:160 is used, automatically move them to that scale filter)

But in the end it will be up to the ShopOwners to make sure their products are added to the right filters

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Hey Guy,

 

Thanks for the feedback.

Can you help elaborate a bit on this?

 

post-10777-0-09594500-1475856913_thumb.jpg

 

Are you referring to the "extended description" we have right now?

Would you like to display different text for each Shop Section you have?

 

Let me know, if that's what you're looking for, it's definitely interesting!

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Hey Noel,

 

 

That's a good one, we call this Product Sets!

Product sets will allow you to compose a product that contains multiple files and thus multiple materials.

 

Since we have launched Product Variants, a project that took a lot of resources and a lot of time, a new door opened allowing us to implement Product Sets as well (without having to spend the same amount of resources as Variants)

However, we don't have it on our immediate roadmap :(

 

Maybe after the holiday season we can look into this again!

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Hey Mike,

 

The plan is to have those in:

 

Scenery

Scale: <current scales available in variants>

Type: Outdoor Furniture, Station Accessories, Trackside Accessories, Structures, Industrial, Infrastructure, Plant, Tree, Bush or Rock, Other

&

Figurines

Scale: <current scales available in variants>

Type: Fighter, Marine, Animal, Pet, Monster, Dragon, Dinosaur, Human, Robot, Skeleton, Character, Other

Combatible with: <to be defined> (think Lego and such)

 

 

Edit: we are discussing if it might be better to have a filter on Scenery for Passsengers/People

What are your thoughts, when "shopping", where do you expect to find passengers, on scenery or figurines category?

 

 

They will be in Scenery and when filtered down likely to be found under Infrastructure (except for the signals, those should go under trackside accessories)

 

 

Shapeways will do their best to help with automatically moving products to the right filters when launched (I.e. cross checking tags, if tag 1:160 is used, automatically move them to that scale filter)

But in the end it will be up to the ShopOwners to make sure their products are added to the right filters

 

Thanks but it makes me little wiser. I guess much will depend on how effective your "search" function will prove to be. If it relies mainly on your categorisation as above, then it will not be adequate. It needs to identify key words used by the makers/sellers, to zero into where I want to go, If it does not, I may well give up and look elsewhere and your clients will lose sales. At the moment, I rely on individual makers publicising their wares on sites such as RMWeb, and providing direct links within the Shapeways umbrella. If I relied on the Shapeways menu, I would need an hour or two just to find them at all.

 

Your problem is that makers prefer your site for the support it gives them, but end customers are finding it increasingly hard to find the makers. Look at sites such as Hattons to understand just how much better you could do this.

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Hey Guy,

 

Thanks for the feedback.

Can you help elaborate a bit on this?

 

Are you referring to the "extended description" we have right now?

Would you like to display different text for each Shop Section you have?

 

Let me know, if that's what you're looking for, it's definitely interesting!

 

 

Yes, I'd like to associate different text with each section. For example, all the buffer guides I sell need turned heads to complete and some cleaning out of the bore to remove support material. If I could put this information in a section heading it would save a lot of words.

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I keep hearing this that customers are having trouble finding things. I just hope it does not get too complex, as I don't want to have to add more info to my items when I upload them. Many don't put descriptions on their items. I try to add something even if it is only an expannded version of header..

warehouse systems are notoiously difficult to design in a way that satisfies everyone. there are a lot of logical rules to follow. Fortunately computers are a lot faster than they used to, so the extra searching and sorting they have to do is not noticable, but safeguards still have to be built in causing timeouts(at least that no longer happens when I am searching My Models now).

At least you don't have to have stock control built in, as very item is treated as being in stock. If there is a problem it is handled later. there is also no chance of conflicts between requests fro two different customers, so database security can ret easy there. It might be interesting to see what happens if someone is ordering a few items, and item already ordered is updated. Is it the original or updated item that goes through. This is a classic problem, one we used to have to consider 30 years ago. Hopefully when the checkout page is displayed, it shows the correct items.

Over past 4 years it has got easier from a designers point of view, but it has got difficult to find some control pages. One reason why I probably did not spot favorites option. A simple button at top of page might be easier.

When some have said , look at a shop web page such as Hattons, what you have to remember is that most shop websites are similar, do the same things, and maybe not much more tn an off the shelf system, personalised. you don't want to be messing around with these types of databases.

For me , being able to print off a simple catagoue would be very useful, far more useful than tweaking categories. That opens the door to being able to take message to those who are not online, or there is no online service available. Don't assume the technology is always there. It is also a good backup, if for instance the Shapeways website goes down. So please consider this idea.

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Thanks very much for addressing this issue -  many of the suggestions here wiould improve the current site.

 

If I add my two pennworth, when i browse websites such as yours or EBay, I am often not looking for a particular product but to see what is available.  For me, I would be interested in search criteria ranked "country/scale/company" (eg LNER or GNR) .

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  • 2 weeks later...

+

 

I was one of those who petitioned for UK Pounds pricing

for Shapeways Catalogue.

 

It is clear this has backfired with Shapeways converting

everything back into Euros for payment. This is costly for

buyers.

 

While we are all in such a dynamic situation, could Shapeways

please settle on one currency, preferably US Dollars, as the

international standard for all their trading..

 

Noel
 

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I had not thought of change to prices resulting from rate Paypal use. The invoices are in Euros, but it does have mixture when to set up order. To be fair, the increased price due to pound/euro rate change is less an issue,as exhange rate was worse a few years ago. It is the rapid changes that make it more difficult .

Assuming everything is online and up to date is short sighted, as other companies have found out with our hobby, which is why I would like some form of ability to print a catalogue of my items , with and without prices(which could be printed off seperately).

The market place search changes look OK, but I am still not convinced that large a number of people actually want it. From my own professional IT background, it is the type of request/change that is put in to satisfy a small user base which shout louder. A printable catalogue would be more useful for many designers like myself. The programming to do such a catalogue(nothing fancy) is typical of the regular requests I used to do, which could be done between bigger projects. 

To put it more formally my request would be to produce list with item name, description,material options and picture. Not much really, but adding selection criteria so can print only some items/categories.This may be only of interest for model makers like me, as much of our potential customer base is not online, and even if they are, they prefer other more traditional methods of seeing items.

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Although I understand that you would like to have a catalog, this is outside the scope of Shapeways at the moment.

 

We've done extensive research and do see that one of the biggest issues we see from Shoppers (both Shapeways shoppers as external websites) is discoverability.

In miniatures the biggest complaint we receive is customers seeing products they don't want to see (like different scales)

 

There used to be more then 30.000 products in "Trains", nobody would take the time to see every single product.

By adding variants we can finally just show the scale someone is looking for (I'm looking for H0, i don't care about all those N products i'm seeing).

Sure, the era and country might be less useful, but we had the opportunity to add it, so why not :) 

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sorry, but I don't agree. Trouble with most market research is that it tends to get results it expects to get. It is often only a very small percentage of customers who grumble, and everyone else is happy, so you never hear from them. I have no problem trawing through lots of pages. I sometimes find something, or a designer I would not have found if I was only searching for a specific thing. I have run a real model shop so know what some customers expect to find and then get surprised that there is even more to choose from.

I had to make a few items live last night, so had a chance to look at new system. Where do I start, I am lost for words. It is not easy but as an old analyst programer(waitin to de-compile!), I know how to design systems. You can get away with a lot of bad file/database designs these days because hardwatre is so much better, but as I had mentioned(and you now appear to have fixed),there are certain limits you have to set for search and display(any SQL based system), but you have to also take into account maintenance and there is no way some of us can go through our designs and add the new categories. It is not going to happen. This means the concept of searching by scale is not going to work properly.

 

This is one reason I designed my own front end for my items, and having a separate , what is in effect an alternate index works better. Extracting the data took a long time and would have been a lot easier if my idea of a catalogue search was introduced. It is not a complex programming/design concept.

Although modern systems can search databases very fast , it is still a lot more efficient to search a smaller external index file, and then point to items directly on database. I have seen so many clumsy, seriously rubbish errors in online systems, which have as their route, the use of clumsy search and display. 30 years ago, when we started using these types of systems, we knew what the limits were, but over time it has been forgotten. Most of the time there is no visible problem, but every so often I notice something, and suspect it is poor design using tools that cut corners.

 

Preparing for the future, then there is one huge elephant sitting in the corner. This first became visible, but ignored, when Shapeways had to rejig their pricing system. Sorry it was a catastrophy, and only just survived.Many of us lost a little money because items ended up being priced incoreectly, and even whenwe updated our shops we missed some items. Prices will eventually have to change again, so I hope Shapeways have a better plan next time. Again having something to extract our own data would be useful, in fact essential. The method using wahat is in effect an old data entry card/paper tape era system is not good enough. I doubt if it handles the new features introduced recently.

 

So I suggest looking at my idea of a catalogue, or at least some way to extract info, including pictures,

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I'm not sure if you understand what Product Facets is actually going to achieve Simon, i think there is a slight miss communication going on here.

 

 

 

 I have no problem trawing through lots of pages. I sometimes find something, or a designer I would not have found if I was only searching for a specific thing.

You can still continue doing so.

 

Right now you can scroll through 382 pages of trains which means 19864 products.

Or you can have a look at the newly added scenery category which includes 73 pages (3796 products) and is growing every day as people use their Category CSV file (shop settings) where you can easily bulk upload every model from "modeltrains"(where a lot used to be placed) to "scenery".

 

We will not remove the ability to visit all these 382.

 

 

 

 

 I have run a real model shop so know what some customers expect to find and then get surprised that there is even more to choose from.

So you know that people coming to the shop are looking for a specific scale (unless they haven't started with their modeltrains hobby yet).

 

Let's assume customer X walks into your store and tells you he wants to buy new stuff but doesn't actually know what yet, it might be signals, it might be a new train.

The only thing he knows is that it needs to be in H0.

Right now, if Shapeways would be a physical store we would end up saying: here is the modeltrains section, good luck scrolling through 20.000 products, we have mixed scale 1:1 to 1:10000 all together.

 

Using Product Facets, you can point the customer in the right direction: hey, in this corner we have everything that is in H0.

Now Customer Z walks into the store and is looking for some buildings in Z, perfect, now you can point him to all buildings in Z without having to see all buildings shown on the website in other scales.

 

So it's just to filter down, neither of the 2 customers were interested in 5000 products in scale N (1:160), so why not exclude them and only show what is relevant.

 

 

 

there is no way some of us can go through our designs and add the new categories. It is not going to happen. This means the concept of searching by scale is not going to work properly.

 

I assume you're referring to bulk edit versus having to change everything manually.

You're definitely right, this is way too much work to do manually if you have a big store.

We are working on getting a bulk edit tool.

 

At the same time we have done some automatisation, if you have models tagged with for example H0 & Building, we automatically move them to right facet!

This has happened to various "names" already, but new runs of this script will be happening throughout the week (I think later this week scale numbers will be done like 1:87 or 1/87).

Hopefully this will save time, but yes bulk edit is needed! (and not a csv file, we need a proper on the website bulk edit tool)

 

 

=

 

As for the database, we use SOLR to display products :)

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One problem with the way the classifications have now been done is that not everything can be categorised under just one banner. My track system can be used across different scales, even same items. That is why I put them under general category  trains. Trains should be a top category with sub categores for items which can be put in those sub categories. That does not help those whose models suit different modelling hobbies. Most modellers understand that and will search other modelling areas for items. Unfortunately there are some who expect to find only items they consider relevant to what they think their interest is. Model railways covers a lot more than just railways, and when there is something different in magazines I welcome it.

 

To get the complex mixture of scales, gauges and modelling hobby is difficult, especially from a database design, having worked on warehouse systems in the past. All those many to many connections make searching through them difficult.

From a modelling perspective I probably dabble in a far bigger range than most modellers. For that reason I tend to keep my eyes open and look around to see what is available. Unfortunately the hobby is not actually that good at scale and gauge, and the two terms are mixed up, even by experienced people in the hobby. I won't even mention how bad some companies have been over the years,and surprised some have not fallen fowl of traded description legislation.

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FYI: xpost from Shapeways forum, written by Henrik (Product).

And for those that don't know me, my name is Mitchell and I work for Customer Service at Shapeways

 

 

Hey folks.

 

Miniature categories have been a mess for a while we know, and we want to fix that! In the coming weeks we'll be introducing two things to help everyone find products better:

1) Improved categories under Miniatures

2) Give ways to filter category views

 

But before we release any of these changes, I want to introduce our plans to you and hear your thoughts.

attachicon.gifnew-miniature-categories.png

 

 

Model Trains will split into two: Trains and Scenery—a place for all the other parts that go into dioramas.

From Vehicles, we'll chip out Aircrafts and Ships, and the Vehicle's itself will then remain for different types of automobiles.

Furniture will be renamed to Interior models, to cover more ground.

Scifi and Figurines will stay the same, but they'll also get filters

BONUS: We will be adding Wargaming category under Games in the coming weeks, that could give a good home for a lot of the Scifi products. More on that later.

FILTERS

Each sub category will get filters specific to that category. When you're viewing the marketplace category, you can apply these filters on to narrow down a set of products that really fit your need. So let's say I'm looking at Aircrafts, I could check on filters Scale: 1:48 (the scale I'm in), Type: bomber (the model I'm after), and Country: Britain (the set I'm collecting)... and I'd see all the British bombers in that scale.

 

We will create the new Miniature categories first, and release filters feature afterwards. There will be more information on the filters later, but here's a list to give you an idea what the filters would be for Miniature categories:

 

 

Trains

Scale: <current scales available in variants>

Type: Steam locomotive, Diesel locomotive, Electric locomotive, Diesel multiple unit, Electric multiple unit, Passenger wagon, Freight wagon

Era: Modern, 1945-1960, WWII, WWI, Early Steam

Country: United States, United Kingdom, Germany, Netherlands...

 

Vehicles

Scale: <current scales available in variants>

Type: Military, Car, Race car, Motorcycle, Truck, Bus

Era: 2000-, 1980-1999, 1960-1979, 1940-1959, 1900-1939, WWII, WWI

Country: United States, United Kingdom, Germany, Italy, Japan

 

Aircrafts

Type: Civilian Light Aircraft, Airliner, Fighter, Striker, Bomber, Spy / Intel, Helicopter, Spacecraft

Era: Modern, Vietnam, WWII, WWI, 1940, 1930, 1920, <1920

Country: USA, Russia, Britain, Germany, China, France

 

Ships

Scale: <current scales available in variants>

Type: Military, Passenger, Freight, Recreational, Submarine, Sailboat

Era: Modern, Cold War, WWII, WWI, <1900

Country: USA, Germany, Britain, Japan, Russia, France

 

Scenery

Scale: <current scales available in variants>

Type: Outdoor Furniture, Station Accessories, Trackside Accessories, Structures, Industrial, Infrastructure, Plant, Tree, Bush or Rock, Other

 

Figurines

Scale: <current scales available in variants>

Type: Fighter, Marine, Animal, Pet, Monster, Dragon, Dinosaur, Human, Robot, Skeleton, Character, Other

Combatible with: <to be defined> (think Lego and such)

 

Interior models

Scale: <current scales available in variants>

Type: Modern, Retro, Antique, Vintage, Victorian, Other

Style: Furniture, Structure, Lighting, Wall decoration, Tabletop decoration, Other

 

Scifi

Scale: <current scales available in variants>

Type: Starship, Space station, Space craft, Robot, Mech, Helicopter, Aircraft, Structure, Decoration, Other

Here's a quick draft of of how the filters would show on Marketplace. Don't read too much into the image as it doesn't contain factual data.

attachicon.gifmarketplace-with-filters.png

I'm excited for what these changes enable for scale model hobbyist and experts. What do you think?

Is this supposed to be working.  What is the correct separator for search elements. I tried using commas per example above and the filters were not working. HO brought N scale items. USA brought New South Wales Australia and New Zealand items.  I tried the trains filter and got 90% scenic items. 888 pages of stuff to look through. This is making Shapeways useless to modelers.

 

Try this filter and see what you get: trains, ho scale, 1945-1960, passenger, USA

 

I am actually looking to see if anyone has made HO scale Globe vents for passenger cars. No such luck unless I want to page through 888 pages which is a waste of time. 

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