User Experience Innovation: Live Statistics on the New Fiverr V2

Sometimes usability problems are caused by the smallest of details. This was the case with our financial statistics display in the old version of Fiverr.

For most people, making sense of financial data is a painful task. Both new and veteran users often get puzzled while trying to understand what led to their current account balance. This was a good reason for them to turn to our customer support, which was a big time waster both for them and for our team.

Here’s how revenue statistics used to look like:

Fiverr Old Statistics and Analytics View

As you can probably see, it’s hard to tell why in this case, the seller has a total of $260 available and how the other financials work together. There’s also a lot of clutter caused by lots of small text which was put there in order to explain what this stuff mean.

As part of the site’s redesign, we worked hard on making everything as simple as possible. The financial statistics area was one of our primary targets to overhaul.

The beauty of scientific typography

I was always intrigued by the typographical qualities of math and physics formulas. The fact that complex ideas can formulate into simple, short, mathematical expressions written in the universal language of science is nothing short of magic.

blackboard

Grabbing typographical inspiration from formulas felt right, but also presented some challenges:

  1. How do you make a simple formula that everyone could understand at first glance?
  2. How do you avoid the clutter of having too many details for people who don’t need them?
  3. How do you reveal the formulas only when the time is right?

A deeper look into related support tickets revealed that our users are looking at their statistics for two reasons:

Vanity Gazing

At the heart of the Fiverr experience lies gamification. People want to see how well they are doing. They want to watch numbers grow and bars move. We all like green gauges but can’t stand the red ones. This is a fun and rewarding experience on a very basic level. We find sellers focus much of their energy on improving their stats.

When you want to see how you’re doing, there is no need for anything other than a set of big, key figures, nicely laid out on the page. Any small type text or explanations will just diminish the experience.

Account Balance Evaluation

Unlike vanity gazers, users who are looking to really understand why a number is what it is, need a different set of tools, or in our case, a different display. We assumed that people looking for deeper understanding would be interacting with the display more than others, potentially looking for tooltips. This was the trigger of creating a live formula that comes to life as the user hovers over it. As you can see in the video below, a mouse hover action triggers the appearance of the formula operators who ‘wrap’ the stats with logic. It’s as if users can unveil a hidden layer of information merely by looking at the numbers (well, actually by pointing their mouse).

Here’s the Live Statistics bar in action in the New Fiverr:

I invite you to try this and other innovative ideas built into the New Fiverr: Try Now!

It’s official. Fiverr V2 is here, and it kicks ass!

As you might have heard, yesterday we unveiled the next generation of Fiverr.com, also known as V2! We’ve been working on this version, day and night, for almost a year now. Quietly keeping everything under NSA-grade secrecy. You can only imagine how excited I am to be able to talk to you about this at last.

The new version is nothing short of a game changer. It takes user experience to whole new level, allowing users to sit back and enjoy the endless pool of creative talent available on the site in a new stunning way.

The new version is not available for everyone just yet, but you can get a glimpse into the new features and join the waiting list here:

http://fiverr.com/v2/start

If you want early access, share this page and ping me.

A new Fiverr! Get early access to V2

Hacking Electronics

In the past few months, apart from working my ass off on our latest secret Fiverr project which will soon be revealed (shhhh), I’ve taken a deep dive into something that was always on my one-day-ill-do-that list.

Even though software programming was always my biggest passion, I found myself looking at people who can actually build physical things with great envy. I too, wanted my projects to go beyond the computer screen and into the real world.

Welcome to the wonderful world of microelectronics

A few weeks ago, me and my 11 year old son (Ori) who is totally hooked on programming and everything digital like me, started toying with the idea of building a light mirror, which digitally reflects your silhouette with light as you stand in front of it. We knew then, that it was time for us to teach ourselves electronics.

As we started, I had very little knowledge about electronics, both in theory and in practice. So we got ourselves some theory books for beginners. This was a must since unlike software, you really need to plan ahead (removing soldered parts is not as easy as changing a line of code). Even the simplest of circuits requires you to choose the right resistors, capacitors and other stuff you might want to put on there. This is why getting the theory along with the practice was so important for us.

As a programmer, microcontrollers are electronics nirvana. These amazing little chips let you control how current flows using C++ code! Watching leds flashing as a result of a programmed loop was nothing short of magic to us.

To make life easier while taking the first steps into this world, we chose Arduino as our development platform. Arduino is driven by an Amtel ATmega16U2 chip, and hosts a USB port that provides a smooth way to upload your code onto it. Arduino comes with 14 digital I/O ports and 6 Analog inputs which let you measure signals or send current through specific ports when you want to.

14 digital ports are not a lot, but as it turns out, there are several techniques to multiply them using daisy chains with other Arduino boards or by using Pulse Wave Modulation chips (PWMs).

Here’s our first project ever using Arduino. It’s pretty lame, I know, but you have to start somewhere:

IMG_6428

After getting tired of turning Leds on and off using code, we felt ready to take it a notch up. So we jumped into dx.com and got ourselves some sensors, engines, crazy RGB Leds and more.

Building a light meter

Playing with light was the first thing we’ve done. We wanted to try to build a light meter that will turn on a series of Leds based on the amount of light it detects. Luckily, one of the items we ordered was a photo-resistor. Since photo-resistors change their resistance based on the amount of light you throw at them, it sounded like the perfect tool. But wait, how do you convert this simple low-level functionality into a real light meter with Led graph? Well, after putting some thought into this, we decided to create two circuits: one for measuring the amount of resistance our photo-resistor produces, and another, that will light up a series of Leds as a result of the amount of voltage drop through the photo-resistor. It worked, and we were so proud!

Check out our first real project – a light meter:

Stay tuned for more amazing stuff soon. We have big plans for this new hobby, and we’re just getting started.

Been a while…

Guys,

I know it’s been a while since I posted something, but I can assure you it’s all for a good reason. You see, we are working on something big… really big, for Fiverr. Unfortunately, as much as I want to, I can’t share it with you just yet. Just trust me on this one, its worth the wait.

Don’t give up on me. Updates and sneak peeks coming soon…

The illusion of simplicity

Success stories such as Pinterest, AirBnB and Fiverr are inspiring entrepreneurs everywhere to pursue their own ideas and turn them into startups. Investments in consumer web grew by an astounding 500% last year alone and the familiar smell of a new gold rush is clearly in the air.

Unlike the dot-com bubble days, lots of startups are doing well by basing their revenues on rock solid business models. However, there seems to be another difference from the old days. Another element that is causing the startup scene to blow out of proportion again. It’s what I refer to as “The Illusion of Simplicity”. These days, starting up is just too darn easy!

Here are a couple reasons why:

1.Technology is undergoing a massive revolution. With rapid development tools and platforms such as Ruby on Rails and Amazon’s EC2, teams can now build a simple and (*seemingly) scalable web applications in a matter of days.

2. Eager, young entrepreneurs are bombarded by hubs, meet-ups, accelerators, and hackathons all sharing a common pitch – “Everybody can!” Just like fast food – it’s cheap, quick, and within everyone’s grasp. It may seem as if you’re getting real food, but you’re not. We don’t go to McDonalds for a meaningful, nutritious meal. What we’re really after is a dose of instant gratification. Our mind is under the illusion it got fed, but our body will later discover it was all just a bunch of crap.

In this new environment, it’s no surprise that groups of friends, co-workers, and fresh out of school students spontaneously turn into co-founders. While it’s great to see passionate young people take the entrepreneurial route, the wide availability of hubs and accelerators lowers the barrier of entry which, in turn, raises the signal to noise ratio in the industry. Young entrepreneurs who fall for the illusion of simplicity may jump on the startup wagon too soon, and as a result, have a high chance of failure.

In reality, building a startup is the hardest thing you’ll ever do. It takes a special character and insane amounts of stamina to survive this roller coaster lifestyle. As an entrepreneur you are often held to superhero standards which is asking a lot considering the relentless heartbreak and hurdles that will inevitably arise through the process.

The good news is, there’s a better option. Entrepreneurs who gained experience working for great companies have a better chance of understanding what’s involved in running a company. That includes working with budgets, handling customers, managing people and product life-cycles. As obvious as this may sound, it’s not always a part of a young entrepreneur’s mindset.

Working for a company involves patience, hard work and humility. But it also means delaying gratification and putting your next big idea on ice for a while. The upside here is that you’ll be learning tons of new stuff every day, while making money instead of burning it.

Choosing a company to work for is a big deal. Try to aim for the rising stars. Find those remarkably successful companies with a team that is small enough for you to matter, but big enough to have a significant budget to work with (40 to 200 employees). Look for companies who have thought leaders working for them.

When you have a good candidate, spend some time in the company’s office, absorb the atmosphere, let your intuition guide you. Watch the people who work there and how they interact with each other. You should be looking for a friendly open environment where people are nice and act as if it’s their at home.

An open minded organisation will let you lead and innovate. It will let you experiment and go wrong without making a fuss out of it. It prefers pragmatic people over die-hard ideologists. A place where great accomplishments are celebrated especially if they are achieved by junior employees. Most importantly, an open minded organisation is free of politics and self promotion agendas!

Go work for the best, learn from them, lead and grow your sense of ownership. Companies like Etsy, Spotify and Fiverr are open minded organisations who invest a lot in their culture and are the great places to take your Kung Fu to a whole new Zen Level.

Check some amazing job opportunities at Fiverr (Tel Aviv & NYC offices).

New Leica M Typ 240 Sample Photos and Videos

If you’re anything like me, you’re spending time each day looking for new samples from the highly controversial new Leica M Typ 240 (which unfortunately wasn’t named M10 as we all hoped). In the coming days I’ll be updating this post with links to Leica M samples as they emerge in hope to have a single place to refresh daily instead of 20 :)

If you own the new Leica M, please scroll down for more.

Image

Ping me if you want to add new sources here, either through the comments or my Facebook page. Also, I’ll be sorting the posted samples from top to bottom, so just keep looking for the new stuff here:

March 8th

Amazing shot and video sample with the Noctilux 0.9! Awsome!

Downloadable test samples in DNG format (Not very impressive)

First impression of the new Leica M, by Damian Heinisch (Concerning results)

Lots of snaps including a peek through the range finder (Not bad…)

March 7th

Simple comparison of the new Leica M and a Leica Monochrome (Very hard to compare)

March 3rd

Some Night Shots which seem to be posted by the new Miami Leica Store (High ISO)

Construction Worker Photo on Tulip Frenzy (Not bad, starting to see some 3D pop)
Lots of snaps on a cold day on Tulip Frenzy (showing some strange white balance and red tinting issues)

Some basic London snapshots on Flickr by Steve Harris (Worrying photos)

March 2nd

Steve Huff – First Look, Unboxing and Basic Samples
* We are all waiting for Steve’s review which seems to be scheduled for coming Tuesday (Mar 12). I’ll update when it’s out.

First day shots on Tulip Frenzy (I’m starting to notice an overly red / warmish tone in the results)

Some camera store photos and a very basic video by ephotozine (did they keep the camera still to avoid revealing the rolling shutter? hmm)

March 1st

Amazing street style photos by Ming Thein (Black & White)

Older

Some outdoor photos from Seeking Light

Leica M Owners

Please be so kind as to upload more stuff up. I’ll be happy to help you with hosting or anything if needed. We’d like to see more out of camera shots and videos, not sorted – just random snaps. This will really help everyone understand just how the new Leica M is performing. Also, If you happen to be a very lucky guy who owns both the new Leica M and a Leica Monochrome, we will be delighted to have some side by side shots of the two.

I expect to be posting my own shots in a few weeks (plan to spend some time at the Leica store and squeeze tons of samples from the new Leica M Typ 240)

Can Ruby on Rails Scale?

This is the first in a series of posts covering the challenges involved in scaling web apps. I’ll try to share the lessons we’ve learned while scaling Fiverr from zero to one of the top 200 websites in the world!

People often ask me what led us to choose Ruby on Rails back in the day. I hope this will shed some light on that choice which is, in many ways, more trivial today then it was when we started, around mid 2009.

Launch Day!

We planned to launch Fiverr quietly, staying under the radar while getting our act together. We were lucky, things did not happen quite as we planned.

March 2010 was a great first month for us, traffic was picking up nicely and users were pouring in. That night, I woke up to an SMS alert sent by one of our monitoring services. It seemed that our realtime analytics counters went crazy – it was showing insane numbers of concurrent users.

Turned out we were covered on Yahoo! that night. The counters were correct.

It took a few minutes before the downtime text landed on my iPhone. All hell was about to break loose if it wasn’t for our little secret weapon – the foundation of a scalable architecture.

Rails has you covered!

A lot has been said about Rails’s lack of scalability. While some of it may be true, it is after all a well structured framework for rapidly creating web applications that can easily support scaling from small to medium, and with reasonable effort, to large-scale as well. In fact, the very use of RoR at the time, enabled us to support Fiverr‘s insanely fast growth, from a single small database to a large master/slave configuration in the first weeks, and eventually to the dozens of database servers running under Fiverr’s hood these days.

If there’s one thing we’ve learned, it’s the importance of having an elastic architecture for your application, enabling immediate response to traffic spikes and occasional failures.

Like most web startups, we had our share of downtime and crashes. No framework in the world provides total immunity to mishaps. Looking back at 2012, most of our problems were caused by human errors and not lack of scalability. In fact, most of our downtimes, were caused by infrastructure failure and not our web application.

One could argue that infrastructure failure should not affect uptime at all if an app is built right. However, as an industry I think we are all paving the way for the next generation to come. One unfortunate example of this would be Amazon’s recent outages which brought down Pinterest and others.

In the past few of years, I’ve come across more than a few apps which were built without paying enough attention to scalability. Some of these apps had to go through massive code rewrites just to throw another database slave to the mix. For some, this meant hours and even days of downtime.

Whether or not you choose Ruby on Rails for your next app, make sure you invest significant time planning for scalability from day one, specifically when it comes to your databases.

The good news is that Rails makes mid-size scalability (millions of visitors per month) achievable. If you’re not going for an Amazon off-the-shelf scaling solution, I suggest you read the following:

Preparing MySQL for millions of users