Ideas for big (and small) companies

Booking websites - Show me the map!

I have no idea where exactly Playa Mujeres is in Cancun, is it near interesting tourist spots and the beach and restaurants or is it hidden beyond the airport in a village far far away? So, help me out here, don’t make me google it, I might get distracted.

Personally I would would find it awesome if I could tell you what type of activities I am interested to visit and you could suggest me anything within a reasonable travel distance! Let’s say, I want to visit Rome, I’m interested in Tourist Attractions and Local Food and am in ££ budget.

Could you help me better?

E-Commerce sites - Sort me out

Having that ‘sort by’ is very helpful, but choosing ‘Average customer review’ usually gives me somewhat questionable results. If the average places the product higher, no matter the amount of users who rated it, it’s not useful. In that case I’d also need to have the option to organise the results by the amount of users who voted it, or you have to rethink this through.

I’m not as interested in a product that got five starts from 1 user, as I would be in a product that got four and half starts from 350 users. But that might be just me. In any case, it would be interesting to know if the whole 5 start system even REALLY works.. A product with 3 average stars to me seems so-so.

But is this because 3 is relative? What is 3 anyways?

Well, depends whether I’m a optimist or pessimist:

• 5 is best ever, 4 is very good, 3 is good, 2 is ok and 1 is bad, or
• 5 is best ever, 4 is good, 3 is ok, 2 is so-so and 1 is bad, or
• 5 is best ever, 4 is good, 3 is so-so, 2 is bad and 1 is terrible?

I can go on if you wish..

Also, did the people rating it really knew what they were doing? ( I would say not really. )

A lot of time it seems to be very mixed what the ratings are about: The shipping / customer service / product or the whole experience?

Would a Youtube-type Thumbs up or down system be better? At least it gives me a simpler answer.

So even if I personally am indifferent/everything-goes/don’t-make-ME-choose a lot of times, do we really need the so-so / apathetic meh-option?

___ Yes ___ No ___ Meh

Not loving the X ( no pun intended )

Ok, what’s up with this?

Lately, I've bumbed in to more than one websites wanting me, a random browser, to customize my experience ( actually limited only to registered users ) by adding the option to hide selected bits of their home page. Now, I hope this isn’t going to be a “thing”.. Customising users experiences is good, but filling your homepage with little x’s is unattractive and confusing. This sort of option should appear after the registration, and if this your way of luring me into the registration then you can do a better job with it, as I get a great urge to close your whole website rather than doing what you want me to. It's your website, not a round of tic tac toe.

Suggestions: Ask me my preferences, follow my navigation journey and customise it for me, or show a section and subtly ask 'Is this interesting to you' / 'Want to see more of this'?

ps. Soft drink companies

You need new websites. Not a question.