Ask HN: How would you make PadMapper Better?
PadMapper (http://www.padmapper.com) is a site that tries to make apartment hunting suck less. It includes a variety of sources, including Craigslist, Apartments.com, ForRent.com, Move.com, and a bunch of other, smaller sources. It puts all the ones it can find locations for on the map, and ignores the others.
It's got an interesting interface. At the same time, much of what makes the interface interesting makes it difficult to add to. (there's limited space available to add things to, since one of the central tenets is to give the map as much space as possible).
I would love to get your feedback on what improvements you think should be made.
Thanks! Eric
3 comments
[ 4.9 ms ] story [ 30.0 ms ] threadOne thing I needed to do was keep track of which places I had visited (whether I liked or disliked them), which places I had scheduled appointments for (and when those appointments were), and which places I still needed to visit.
I ended up using a spreadsheet to keep track of it all, but I think there is room for improvement there.
Also, I found myself wanting an iPad version of the app (the website didn't work in mobile Safari, presumably cause of the drag controls).
I actually added notes more recently (as well as accounts to make those notes durable), which should help you stay a bit more organized from within the app without needing a spreadsheet. The iPhone app has seen another revision as well, which includes synching of favorites and notes.
You can also hide the ones you didn't like, while favoriting the ones you did like.
I have heard that the iPad version of the site doesn't work well - looking into remedying this (will probably need an iPad first...), but I will probably come out with an iPad version of the app before too long.