The history of one site or how we made an application for a month on Google Maps

We launched a non-commercial site for Ulyanovsk on the basis of a Google map Cafes and restaurants of Ulyanovsk . They came up with the idea of ​​a year and a half ago, but as it came to real work - a lot of affairs on the horizon were drawn right away, so the project was moved to the background, then to the third, and then completely moved into the box and everything was covered with a thick layer of dust.
There are so many local sites now, but most of them only mow down all sorts of social networks and reference portals, and in fact is a naked, raw advertisement, from which it is very difficult to get something really useful. So after a year and a half, the project still has not lost its relevance, so we shook the dust from the far box and set to work. In the end - everyone should have a favorite hobby. The only negative - it eats, no - eats, a lot of time.
We plan to post the first meaningful version by mid-September, but I’ll tell you what we have done so far.

1 week of August

Started with a simple - with food establishments in Ulyanovsk. Phone calls took almost a month (there are about three hundred of them in our town). True, only 130 agreed to provide information, but to begin with, it is quite satisfactory, besides, we hope in the future for the help of the users themselves.

2 week of August

Drawn, and POTM rejected two design options for simbirsk.net. It seems that everything has been thought out and stipulated in advance, but you still miss various trifles when developing a design: blocks are illogical there, equivalent descriptions are not combined, etc. With a specific study of each design, it is always technically difficult to implement chips, sometimes they are not justified, and sometimes they are not even chips, but jambs. On the basis of the work done: there is still something to think about, except that this process is inactive. So work and work.
')

3 week of August

After a long debate and fisticuffs, it was decided to abandon the design excesses. Left only the most necessary. No unreasonable icons, dies and other beautiful things - everything is removed from the design with a firm hand. Those. if removed, and everything is still clear, it means it was overkill, it means to drive it off our white sheet. After the cleaning, there was no logo, no aqua, or any pictures, essentially stupid, but usually so sweet and pleasant. The designer fought hysterically.
Well, so if you decide to hold on to the main content, you should not give up any slack in anything. In the end, what's the difference in what background the text, if only it was interesting and easy to read.

4 week of August

It is finished. Yesterday we finally launched a more or less sane version and generated internal pages. So the site can already be safely started to use. Welcome to everyone.
The truth is not yet available advanced search and there is no registration with all the goodies that flow from it. There is also no opportunity to leave feedback , but you can vote and just use the resource as a reference card. And you can already praise or scold us, in general, lay out everything that we deserve.

1 week of September

Filtered and tagged filters tested. With the help of the first one, it is possible not just to bring out a list of institutions for any one parameter, but also to tie it all to a specific area. For example, we are looking for billiards in the center of Ulyanovsk and only places in the Center are displayed. The filter brought out the main parameters: the price and various additional services (business lunches, sports broadcasts), entertainment and certain types of establishments (sushi bars, pizzerias, etc.). Development in the districts is not official, but everyday Ulyanovsk, so we have the North, the 19th microdistrict, Kindyakovka, Zasviyazhie split into the Far and Near, the Left Bank - into the New City, the Upper and Lower Terraces. The list of parameters for the filter is only test. Let's see which items are chosen most often, and which, on the contrary, are never used by anyone. And on the basis of already real data we will correct them.
Since the filter field and tags occupy an important strategic space on the map, we gave the user the opportunity to get rid of them. One click on the red X-X familiar for the eyes and the panel disappears, but, naturally, there is a button for its return. In general, the main panel with filters is visible by default, on the inside it is vice versa - by default it is hidden.
Tags are all used types of kitchen and a list of types of institutions, but in the future they will focus more on the emotional impression and the atmosphere created inside the institution, so as not to duplicate the filter and the advanced search.