This morning we launched Product Hunt Collections, a simple way to bookmark and curate collections of products. This is by far the most requested feature (here's some evidence!). :)
Great work @shaunmodi and @stephnbain on the UX/design and @andreasklinger and @rstankov on the 1's and 0's.
To create a collection, simply click this icon on the homepage or product pages:
I shared more details in this blog post and we have some nice improvements planned but I'd love to hear everyone's feedback/ideas. Craziest ideas get a digital high five from yours truly. :)
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Been waiting for this feature for a long time. I will be creating a ton of collections this weekend :)
@rrhoover Sort of crazy idea...
Clearly there are products that are NOT on PH that other people may be using/like. I think if collections also included those, say, in their own tab of "other non-PH cool stuff I like/use", that would greatly expand the utility of the collections/interactions between members who want to find out more about how someone uses xyz etc.
Awesome! The idea of this was the main reason I became excited about PH. First collection : Apps for Lazy People and Companies http://www.producthunt.com/stonl...
+ Would be great to have sharing links in the collection page.
+ Link updates (with legacy fall back) when changing the collection name. Similar to how Eventbrite handles name / link changes.
+ Upvoting of lists and lists of lists would be nice
@eriktorenberg Cool idea, will be using it. Initially (without reading this post) I was clicking around looking for a way to create a new collection. Seems like you need to start with an item so its a bit buried. One idea would be that the "+" sign on the top right cornet can create a new post or collection.
@eriktorenberg@FrankDenbow I thought this might be a usability hiccup. :) We're updating the posting flow in the coming weeks so it's more clear on how to create and/or add products to a collection.
Love it. Started one on London apps (shamlessly: http://www.producthunt.com/joost...). Have you thought about how, if I wanted to add a product that's not on the site already, it could let me add it to a collection without necessarily having been approved?
Although... now that I typed that out, I can see how collections of unvetted product might devalue the highly curated value/impression of PH.
@joostschuur great question, Joost! We are planning to allow people to hunt any product and add it to a collection but to your point, we have to be very thoughtful in how we role this out.
That said, there's a big opportunity here to increase the usefulness of Product Hunt and as more people bookmark and curate products, we have more data to play with. :)
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@rrhoover Just noticed that's in your Medium post too. Looking forward to seeing this one evolve then. Including figuring out how others can recommend products to your own list (and having join curators on a list).
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Started one of Chicago products: http://www.producthunt.com/eric3...
Two feature requests that come to mind: 1) Export collection to CSV (would help me organize meetups easily). 2) Notifications when the product I made is added to a collection - thinking this is for makers, but there's a case for hunters too
@eric3000 we have yet to trigger notifications to makers when people take actions on the product. This could be adding to a collection like you suggest, or upvoting, commenting, etc.
I created two collections:
* Product Manager toolkit (tools & resources for PMs to kick ass!) http://www.producthunt.com/byosk...
* Products I Wish Were in Canada (Don't forget us in Canada, eh?) http://www.producthunt.com/byosk...
Enjoyed creating them and it was easy to do. Some feedback (echoed previously, I think):
* Being able to add to a collection from search results would be nice
* Some form of (vanity!) metrics on views, upvotes that show you that your collection is being used/appreciated
* Possibly: sorting inside the collection (so you can put certain things at top)
* Possibly: allow people to make suggestions (although this can get irritating quickly)
@kaz Nice! I added Google Docs from your list. There are a bunch of good ones there too but I don't use them as much. It was interesting that Balsamiq didn't seem to be on PH, I use that regularly for low fidelity mockups/sketches.
@OurielOhayon great point, Ouriel! You can add products to collections on the homepage (mouse over to see the button) but it's missing in search results. We'll add it soon!
@OurielOhayon@rrhoover Yea, I was looking for this too on the Search Result page. Looking forward to it!
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Hi Ryan, excellent job. I'm very excited to be able to use the new collection feature. In my view, these few additions would be very beneficial for curators:
1. Add to collections from search results
2. Being able to sort and rank items in a collection
3. RSS feed for each collection
4. Deleting a wrongly added item to a collection
Thanks for this fantastic addition.
@RobinGood good stuff, Robin! I had not considered an RSS feed until you mentioned it. How would you use it?
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@rrhoover Hey Ryan, I'd use it to keep myself updated on the stuff that really interests me. See, I love Product Hunt, but there is a lot of stuff, the majority of what comes through, that it's not really in my ball park. New-yes, cool-yes, but I can't follow everything. I want to keep my focus on the tools and services in the areas that interest me specifically.
Thus an RSS feed allowing me to follow specific collections as they grow would be quite useful to me, as it would reduce in one instance the overall noise to near zero.
@RobinGood gotcha! Thanks for sharing.
As Product Hunt grows it becomes increasingly diverse. This is good but it also broadens the categories of products that surface. Collections are one way of curating and discovering a subset of the thousands of products that have appeared on PH but long term I believe separate communities of people passionate about "X" is the right direction.
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@rrhoover Sounds good to me Ryan. Looking forward to it.
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This is a good news. @rrhoover, since PH has been a pathbreaker in few aspects, I find the term 'Collections' as too predictable. :)
I wish you could plan out something new such as 'Spaces', 'Drawer', 'folds', or anything else.
@isaacsrda, for your comment for what next is in store for PH, I would really like a 'embedd your profile' feature where I can add my PH profile badge/widget at my own website. :) I wrote to Nichole in late Oct and he really liked the idea! :)
@isaacsrda@vingar haha, we felt Collections was a good descriptor and general enough to apply to other product categories long-term. IMHO, it's best to not get too creative with naming, but you also don't want to be boring.
Embedding collections is a fantastic idea. We'll be exploring this. :)
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@vingar@rrhoover 'Collections' is good. The danger with these things is being too prescriptive, and limiting it's utility value.
Can we go meta with Collections & build Collections of Collections?
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@rrhoover, for widget, I meant a 'My PH profile widget' and not a 'collections widget'! :)
Successful organizational systems allow the user to impose their own mental models on the content. Something is intuitive if it aligns with your model of it. This is just what Collections allows Product Hunt users to do. Good hunt!
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