Interesting: Smalltown

April 24th, 2007

Smalltown.

Interesting I owe Smalltown a review because they put a coffee mug on my doorstep. This nice, vaguely Web 1.0 gesture fits in with their business model which is based around the local community. After checking out the site, they’ve built something fairly impressive, but unfortunately, I didn’t care for the user interface.

Smalltown is a user-generated community site promoting local businesses and connecting them with the local community. This is done with “Webcards.” The closest real-world analogy is the big bulletin board in your local coffee shop; plastered with business cards from local folks offering services, along with stuff for sale, piano lessons, and the like. Businesses create these “Webcards” on Smalltown and users can respond with ratings and reviews. Check out these slick promotional videos to get a better introduction from Smalltown itself.

I like the idea. After living in San Mateo and Belmont for several years, I have some opinions about the local restaurants and businesses, so I’m somewhat motivated to participate on a local reviews site. Another smart move was starting with two cities. When I first checked them out, they were only covering San Mateo and Burlingame. They’ve since added Belmont, Foster City, Hillsborough, and Millbrae. I guess this way they can solidify their technology with a smaller audience before trying to do the whole country all at once, although at this rate, it could take several years before the even have the Bay Area dialed.

Despite some good ideas, I really do take issue with Smalltown’s design. They use a Flash front end that adds a level of opacity to the information. I ended up with the feeling that I wasn’t interacting with the information but instead the interface.

Reading a restaurant’s reviews means clicking on the title of said restaurant’s Webcard to open it, and then the menu sticking out on the right side. Adding a star rating on the title bar requires writing a review. Personally, I’d rather see all the cards expanded and scroll down, rather than constantly clicking each Webcard to open them.

To see a local review site with an interface I prefer, check out Yelp, and for classifieds, I appreciate the bare-bones function-over-design of Craigslist. Both seem to own the Web 2.0 space of reviews and classifieds, and as a result, I think Smalltown has a real upward climb ahead of them. I like their idea; it’s just their execution I’m not into.

I’ll probably revisit Smalltown in a few months and see if they’ve improved their interface. Meanwhile, I’ll continue drinking coffee out of their cool coffee mug.

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