App Developer Makes Craigslist Mobile, the Legal Way | Hacker News Reader

App Developer Makes Craigslist Mobile, the Legal Way

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58 pointssunkan29 comments

I am the OP and CoFounder of Mokriya, the company that built Mokriya Craigslist. It has innovative UI that is never seen before in any other apps. Would love to know what HN thinks of the App. It is a complete redesign of Craigslist on Mobile from the ground up, with innovative UI. Here is some press about the app.

http://blogs.wsj.com/venturecapital/2013/02/20/craigslist-ap...

http://techland.time.com/2013/02/20/its-craigslist-only-on-a...

http://pandodaily.com/2013/02/20/what-if-craigslist-had-desi...

Happy to answer any questions on how we built the app and thought process behind some of the UI and UX in the app.

I have 2 questions for you: 1. What kind of license did you get from CL? 2. CL does not even have an API, how did you scrape the data?

1. There is some upfront fee and they get a percentage cut of the revenue we make.

2. You are right, craigslist doesn't have an API, so whether you are licensed or not, you have the same tools at your disposal. We did typical HTML scraping, but our amazing Dev team did some really smart tweaks to present the data in a beautiful way.

It's too bad that you had to resort to scraping. It's a shame that Craigslist hasn't built their own API for those who pay for a license.

Are you doing the scraping server side or client side (inside the app)?

client

Does CL offer RSS feeds on their listing? Have you considered that?

Does CL offer RSS feeds on their listing?

I have been looking for housing for the last few weeks in Atlanta. I just downloaded your app to try it out looking for apartments. The UI is great. Really snappy, sensible, and out of the way. Well done.

However, there are some content issues with the map. It seems that it's only loading a page or two of listings. I checked a moment ago the area I'm looking at and there were 20 or so listings but the app shows no listings at all in that same area. What gives?

That seems to be a bug or those missing listings do not have lat/long. We will look into it and try to fix it. I wish craigslist provided API access to their data. Also there are licensing restrictions, so we do all the processing on the client and the app has no server component.

I sent you an email earlier thru your site but it boils down to these few points (iOS version, on iPhone 5)

tl;dr Love the great design! Questionable usability due to animations; needs work before I keep it on my phone.

- Beautiful UI and subtle clean design choices. Very pleasing design!

- Animations need work. Animations are way too slow. Get out of the way of the user and let them get to what they want. If I am ever waiting for the UI to do something, you've done this wrong. Try to keep all transitions < 0.4s if possible.

For example: When in the home screen, hit the search bar. The items that scroll up and push the search to the top: WAY too slow.

Another example: Tapping an item to open it. The photo rises to the top, then the thumbnails come down. Why can't this all happen at once? Another too slow, get to the point moment.

- Google+ style "zoom out" of new items: Visually distracting. After about ten seconds, I just want to turn it off.

- While "zooming out" of those items are happening, the user interaction is disabled so I can't actually stop the scrolling. Try this: Scroll the table down, then as items are animating in, put your thumb down. The scrolling doesn't stop.

That is some fantastic feedback. I got your email too. We will be fixing some of these issues.

Great work on the app. It is not only useful...but a joy to use. The small design touches make all the difference.

This comment makes me really happy. This is exactly what we were shooting for. We wanted to create a compelling user experience for Craigslist users and make it a joy to use craigslist. Wanted the experience to be on par with some of the best consumer Mobile apps on the market. It was a lot of hardwork in going through multiple design iterations to finally arrive at this.

The app looks really sleek and well designed. Could you give us some idea of your development process and how you approached this problem?

I am curious to learn more also about what kind of tools and libraries you used, if you have the time to elaborate.

Thanks !

What was your thought process behind placing the titles at the bottom of the images rather than the top when you scroll through listings? It was an interesting choice and I wondered if you have any specific reasons for it.

The music to the video is really annoying. I couldn't make it all the way through because of it. The app seems great though.

Nice. Seems well done from a brief look. :-)

did u guys built the app on native iOS or html5 (phonegap, titanium framework ) - well done on the UI

All development was done using native development tools on iOS and Android.

It's always fun to experience new patterns and interactions.

In case you're looking for feedback:

1. The location selection is reversed - ie: when I am selecting the city, the State (smaller column showing only 2 letters) should be on the left not right, since you're drilling down. (But for category selection, you have it the 'right' way, with the higher level/smaller column on the left).

2. There's something going on with the top stroke at the top of the app, below the 20px black status bar - it seems to get shorter then longer whenever I tap the search icon top right. I noticed it since it was quite jarring.

Really enjoy the full width pictures in the listings!

Thanks for thoughtful feedback. On number 1, we went back and forth on that and now my memory is a little hazy on why we decided to stick with the way it is.

It's slick. It's nice to use. Doesn't fix the decades-old problems with Craigslist - not your fault, the license they sell is incredibly restrictive (basically allows you to make a mobile client for them and pay for the privilege) and explicitly prohibits any kind of innovation.

Even though I said yes to allow it to use my location it put me in Santa Barbara and I'm San Francisco.

Awesome, it's about time someone made a nice-looking mobile experience

Hello, VP of sales at Mokriya.

There are only about 7 million iPhone and Android apps that let you browse craigslist..I don't see what makes this one different. @ethanparker, you can try to be a little less obvious when upvoting a product you are associated with

What a negative, hyperbolic and unnecessary comment.

I'm playing with the app right now as I've been using Craigslist (and various apps of it) a lot lately.

I find the interface is really quite refreshing and nice. The real estate listings, the various photographic listings, the polish and animations. It really is a well done app.

Not to mention: it's officially licensed by Craigslist so there's a good chance it won't be taken offline anytime soon.

I will be using this app for my Craigslist browsing on my iPhone and sincerely hope an iPad app is soon on the way.

Maybe you should give it a shot? You might see something you like.

I hope you checked out the app. If you really did checkout the app and feel that it is no different than the other craigslist apps on the market, then I have nothing to add and I will take your criticism of the App.

I find the post interesting for a number of reasons:

1. Despite being aware of the past issues other startups had had with CL, I was _not_ aware that there was a legit and not incredibly onerous licensing option (even if it isn't suited for everything).

2. I've tried some of the "7 million" other mobile apps and I've yet to find one that I didn't feel was at least a little sketchy. I'm happy to find one that is at least trying to push forward with a little polish and design ingenuity.

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