What About a MorphMarket App?

Marketplace Support
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When people ask this question, it’s usually because of one of two reasons.

Sometimes it’s kind of a knee-jerk reaction because it just seems like a typical component of online presence. The way this is traditionally done with native apps is by creating and maintaining three separate codebases for web, Apple and Android platforms, all using three different languages. This is very expensive. We are not against expenses; however, at this time we believe there are better investments to be made into MorphMarket than creating apps “just because”. This year some of those other investments included building the ratings system and creating this community site.

Other times, this question is asked because there is some kind of missing feature or usability issue. This feedback is a much more useful because it gets to the heart of a specific problem that needs to be fixed or improved rather than prescribing an assumed solution. There is more than one way to address these type of problems.

MorphMarket is a Responsive Web App, which means it’s designed to be great on mobile, tablet and desktop. This allows us to maintain a single codebase to support all platforms. This in turn means more new features and quicker bug fixes. Where there are specific usability pain points on our site, we want to improve them. However, it’s still missing some native-app type features.

Enter the Progressive Web App (PWA). This is a next generation technology that combines the benefits of Native App and Responsive Web Apps. It allows for app-like features like home screen install, notifications, and an immersive full-screen experience without even having to install an app.

This community site which uses the discourse.org platform is a good example of a PWA. You’ll note it’s very mobile friendly, provides the immersive full-screen experience, and after a few visits will prompts you to be added to the home screen. But it never required you installing anything.

If you’re interested, here’s more reading on PWA’s:

Our vision at MorphMarket is to continue to evolve the market site to be more mobile friendly and support more app-like features using PWA technology. Please let us know which specific areas of the site feel difficult to use on your device or what specific features you are wanting so we can improve it.

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I am a web developer by trade and develop with progressive web apps and otherwise “mobile-first” websites daily. One of the larger areas I would love to see improvements on morph market’s mobile UI is clickable area. Regular text links can be quite challenging to click on mobile for small phones (especially for the 45+ demographic). Using buttons with a larger clickable area on mobile screens and making as much content above the fold as possible would make a large impact on usability.

IMO drilldown style menus are particularly effective mobile over small dropdowns. They are easy to use and have a lot of flair.

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The option to deliver push notifications to your phone from the main site for things like inquiries would also be a helpful “app-like” addition.

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I agree. I have several email accounts on my phone so being notified that a potential customer is interested in an animal or that I have a message through some sort of push notification would be great. It would save me from only seeing these notify when I go through my email and would lead to faster response times.

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I was just thinking this the other day, morphmarket needs an app! I use morphmarket mutliple times a day, id love to be able to click an app to open it rather than going on google first, but its not a big deal at all. I also LOVE the idea of possibly being able to turn on notifications for when a certain snake is posted, like if youre looking for a adult fire ball python you can be notified as to when one is posted, some people look for very specific snakes

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Just copy the home page to your phone’s desktop and icon will take you right to the page

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Hey everyone, I feel like sometimes filtering and looking at morph market can be annoying on the phones. I was thinking, why you think they haven’t made an app for morph market yet. I feel like they should make one.

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@shifty1212 Can you post there what you would like to see different about filtering on your phone? Let’s talk about it in Market Mobile Usability Feedback

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I just feel like something I don’t have to scroll around so much when I’m filtering. Maybe have some type of present filter for prices on a drop down menu if no app is made. What I mean is like have drop down menu that has price 0-100, 100-200, 200-550, then a search your own price range. I just feel like having an app would be so much more convenient than a website on the phone because It would let us have the freedom to look around instantly at reptiles and have notifications through our phones. I always sit around and just look through all the snakes online but scrolling and moving the screen around to click buttons and stuff gets tiring. Sorry if that all made no sense, I just really would love to see an app and I think it would have good success with the amount of young people into reptiles! Thanks!

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You can actually filter the price range already…

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@shifty1212 Some follow up questions – for you or others if they have similar feedback – to understand your requests:

I just feel like something I don’t have to scroll around so much when I’m filtering.

On which page? Do you mean on the filter page or after you apply the filter? What do you mean by scroll around?

Maybe have some type of present filter for prices on a drop down menu if no app is made. What I mean is like have drop down menu that has price 0-100, 100-200, 200-550, then a search your own price range.

Okay so you want some pre-set price ranges so you can just choose one instead of typing values in. This is a good design request, though not app specific.

I just feel like having an app would be so much more convenient than a website on the phone because It would let us have the freedom to look around instantly at reptiles

Why would an app give you more freedom to look around instantly? Are you suggesting that if it downloaded all the ads so you could browse even if offline?

and have notifications through our phones.

Yes notifications is an app-like feature that is a top priority.

I always sit around and just look through all the snakes online but scrolling and moving the screen around to click buttons and stuff gets tiring.

Why does it get tiring? You still have to click buttons in an app. Is it because the buttons are too small to work well on a mobile device? That’s something we’re working on.

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Honestly, I personally find this website very easy to navigate on a phone. Notifications are the only feature that I think could be nice to opt-in for. Otherwise I don’t feel like it needs an app.

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Click your profile picture in the top corner, then click your username and then preferences. Tap the drop-down menu and select notifications :wink:

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I think we’re talking about notifications for the marketplace side, which I can also stand behind. Not sure how such a feature could be added to function through a web browser on mobile, though.

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Damn, I misunderstood :sweat_smile:

We have Wanted Section aka In Search Of Alerts in the pipeline which will notify you when a animal your after has been listed.

This forum is actually a web browser, it is just designed to hide the rest of the browser from the interface. You will notice that every page on here shows up in your browser history.

Even so, it is basically it’s own “app” but without the need for you to download anything to your device.

Also, take into account that John has a small, personal team working on these things. If a app was to be put together, a lot of other requested features will be pushed further down the queue

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We are working right now on this issue – turning the market into a Progressive Web App (as described in the OP) just like the forum – an installable “app” with many app like features and improved mobile usability.

Therefore, I welcome all mobile usability feedback in Market Mobile Usability Feedback.

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4 posts were merged into an existing topic: Market Mobile Usability Feedback