Topic: [Discussion] Trade page enhancements

Sebi and the gang, first of all I want to thank you for all the work you put into this site.  It is the most useful site I have related to deck building and  my MTG collection.

I realize you are in the process of finalizing an update for the site, so I don't expect you to sink a bunch of time into this one now.  I'm just going to throw this out there as one possible scenario to deal with something I know many have discussed (whether in this forum thread, or one of the other ones): improvements to the trade interface to reduce the likelihood that the same card will be included in multiple trades at one time (whether sending or receiving) without being aware of it.

Overall, I love the basic flow you have in the trade interface--agreement, confirmation of address, flagging as shipped, offering to adjust inventory/tradelist (outbound), flagging as received, and offering to adjust inventory/wishlist (inbound).  What I propose would augment what you already have in that flow, and also requests additional columns in the trade interface.  I'll do my best to lay out the details as I would with user requirements for a new system:

Objectives: Improve the trade interface to make it easier for both parties to see how a proposed configuration will affect their wishlist and tradelist at all stages of the trade process (from initial proposal until the cards are actually added to or removed from inventory).

Current Process:
1. Proposed Configuration
2. Negotiation/agreement
3. Cconfirmation of addresses
4. Flagging as shipped,
5.Offering to adjust inventory/tradelist (outbound)
6. Flagging as received
7. Offering to adjust inventory/wishlist (inbound)

Proposed Process (changes in CAPS):
1. Proposed Configuration (sent or received--more detail in attached flow chart)
2. ADJUST WISHLIST and TRADELIST
3. Negotiation/agreement
4. ADJUST WISHLIST and TRADELIST
5. Cconfirmation of addresses
6. Flagging as shipped,
7. ADJUST INVENTORY (outbound)
8. Flagging as received
9. ADJUST INVENTORY (inbound)

Screen Enhancements
The current trade interface shows the Quantity offered, the name of the card, and the price (using each trader's preferred method).  When considering trades, it is often helpful to know how the trade will affect your inventory and your tradelist/wishlist.  This is often easy to remember for rare/unique cards, but harder to remember for commodity cards, or cards one trades often.
Current Columns
[#] [Name] [Price]

Proposed Columns
[#] [Name] [Price] [On Tradelist/Wishlist (depending on which side of the transaction)] [Pending IN] [Pending OUT]

The proposed column changes would leave the initial three columns in place, but would bold the Quantity (#) column. The three additional columns are defined below:

[On Tradelist/Wishlist]
Allows for a quick visual reference to see how many of the specific card are on the user's Tradelist or Wishlist.  The Tradelist quantity would appear on the offering side of the trade configuration.  The Wishlist quantity would appear on the receiving side of the trade configuration.

[Pending IN]
This column would appear on both sides of a trade configuration (offering and receiving). It shows the total number of inbound cards from all active trades involving the logged in user.

[Pending OUT]
This column would appear on both sides of a trade configuration (offering and receiveing).  It shows the total number of cards from all active trades that the active user has offered in active trades.

The [Pending IN] and [Pending OUT] columns are desirable on both sides of the trade configuration because traders may have cards going both directions in different trades.

Reason for Cancellation
Enhance the "Cancel Trade" feature to require a reason.  Users should have the ability to select from a drop down list of pre-defined reasons, as well as an option to add brief freeform comments.

Suggested pre-defined reasons should include the following.  Exact wording may be revised for brevity. Explanatory comments are included parenthetically):

  • No response from trader

  • Could not reach agreement

  • Junk trade (penny cards for high value cards)

  • No rating/Low rating

  • Wrong trade type (e.g., user proposed mail trade when only local was desired)

  • Wrong editions offered

  • User did not read my profile

  • Other--add comment (this option should make available a brief comment field)

Last edited by HikingStick (2012-09-26 14:48:38)

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Profile - Wishlist - Tradelist

Black and Blue--not just for bruises anymore.

Re: [Discussion] Trade page enhancements

I agree with all of this big_smile

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Re: [Discussion] Trade page enhancements

Hello, thanks for a very in depth request description! It also came at a great point in time, as we're just working on the trade listing for the next release these days, and we've played around with various UI versions of the card listing.

I will start by acknowledging the reason for cancellation idea as cool. It's on the list now, probably not for this release, but for the next one. Secondly, I'd like to ask you to clarify what the adjust wishlist and tradelist mean in your flow description, i'm not 100% sure I get it right.

On to the cool part: the listing. The current version of our in-development listing on the trade page looks something like this:

http://i.imgur.com/J5M30.png

Cards are separated based on their details, so I have here added an "Alpha, German, Played Lightning Bolt" and an "M11 English Foil near mint Lightning Bolt" to this trade.

The counts on the left have tooltips explaining what they represent, but since there's no tooltips in a screenshot, I'll summarise smile. In green is the editable number of cards you intend to trade. Then follow the number in your inventory, your tradelist and the other person's wishlist. (it's 0 all the way, ignore that, normally it would show matching numbers there).

The red background cells are highlighted because you have 1 Aethersnipe from Commander in this trade, but none in your inventory. And here comes in a problem we still have with this listing. While you dont' have that exact type of Aethersnipe, you do have some Athersnipes with no specified edition, and a couple (not visible here) from Lorwyn.

We still have to find a way to enable you to see this information (all other aethersnipes you have in your inv/tradelist) and edit your traded counts quickly to show that you actually want to trade a Lorwyn Aethersnipe.

You could of course just put 0 instead of 1 in the count and then add your Lorwyn Aethersnipe with the autocompleted input above, but that is slow and awkward. I'm currently leaning in favor of somehow providing a button that would expand the listing adding your other Aethersnipes here, even if they have a 0 in the for trade count. You could then edit everything to the desired counts.

Lastly, to address your suggested "pending in-trade" counts, I can see why it would be a very useful information, but I'm a bit unsure if we can add many more other count columns to this listing without making it very confusing. We'll try out some things, but I'm a little skeptical. Maybe we find another way to show that info (in a "more information" tooltip somewhere maybe....).


I'm aware my previous description, with no actual website to click on might be a bit hard to read, and also that the listing might end up too confusing, which is what we're trying to avoid smile. Let us know what you think. We'll post more info as we go along.

Thank you very much for your feedback and interest!

Re: [Discussion] Trade page enhancements

sebi wrote:

I'd like to ask you to clarify what the adjust wishlist and tradelist mean in your flow description, i'm not 100% sure I get it right.

I'm pretty sure what he meant is to have the counts in Wishlist and Tradelist pages adjusted after the trade has been accepted so that people no longer offer you things you're already going to receive in trades. And the same goes for people requesting items from your tradelist that have already been traded. Right now they change after the items have been shipped or received.

You can leave the Inventory adjustment to take place on shipping and receiving like it is now.

Last edited by Sillvva (2012-09-26 21:42:28)

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Re: [Discussion] Trade page enhancements

Thanks for the reply, Sebi.  What you describe seems like a great set of improvements! I think I followed everything, but I'm sure all will be more clear when the next release is out.

As to the "Adjust Wishlist/Tradelist" points, those are points at which those lists would be adjusted by the system to reflect all active trades (configurations you've proposed, configurations others have proposed that you are willing to consider, and finalized configurations that are in the shipping phases).  For example [the quantities and values used are for illustrative purposes only, and are not intended to reflect realistic trades or valuations]:

My Wishlist has 3 [mtg]Ponder[/mtg] and 2 [mtg]Delver of Secrets[/mtg] on it (among other cards).  
My Tradelist has 2 [mtg]Chandra, the Firebrand[/mtg] and 4 [mtg]Hellrider[/mtg] [I added the card links 
just to make sure those cards stand out in that list.].

I make a trade offer to Player A, offering  1 Chandra and 2 Hellrider, in exchange for 3 Ponder and some 
other cards.  When I propose this configuration, the Deckbox system would automatically remove the 
1 Chandra and 2 Hellrider from my Tradelist, and remove the 3 Ponder from my Wishlist.  Inventory is 
not changed/adjusted, because no cards have changed hands, but now I, and anyone looking at my 
Tradelist and Wishlist, can see what I have to trade and want to receive if all pending trades go through.  
It potentially stops about a half dozen people from proposing configurations that ask for 2 Chandras or 
all 4 Hellrider.

Updated Tradelist (after adjustment):
1 Chandra
2 Hellrider

Updated Wishlist (after adjustment):
0 Ponder
2 Delver

Before that trade finalizes, I receive another configuration, requesting 1 Hellrider in exchange for 
2 Delver of Secrets. If I choose to entertain the received offer, I check a box or click a button in the 
trade panel.  I do so, and the Hellrider and Delver quantities are applied to my Tradelist and Wishlist, 
but not my Inventory.

Updated Tradelist (after adjustment):
1 Chandra
1 Hellrider

Updated Wishlist (after adjustment):
0 Ponder
0 Delver

Then, before either of the other trades has been finalized, I receive another configuration, offering 
me 3 Ponder and 1 Delver for 2 Hellrider and 1 Chandra.

Now, if I look at my Inventory, I still have a need for the Ponder and Delver, and I still have 
Chandra and Hellrider to trade.  Under the current system, my Wishlist and Tradelist would also 
still reflect their initial values (needing 3 Ponder and 2 Delver, and having available 2 Chandra 
and 4 Hellrider). With the proposed changes in place, I could immediately look at my Pending 
Wishlist and Tradelist columns and see that I have no need for any Ponder or Delver, and that I 
have only 1 Chandra and 1 Hellrider available--assuming all trades go through.  Should I choose 
to consider the configuration, my Wishlist and Tradelist would be updated (again, with no 
changes to Inventory), and I would see this (in columnar form):

Updated Tradelist (after adjustment):
0 Chandra
[b]-1[/b] Hellrider

Updated Wishlist (after adjustment):
[b]-3[/b] Ponder
[b]-1[/b] Delver

The negative numbers, shown either with a minus sign ("[b]-1[/b]") or parenthetically ("[b](1)[/b]") let 
me know that this trade would push me past what I wanted to trade (one too many Hellrider) and what 
I wanted to receive (three too many Ponder and one too many Delver).

Now, at this point, I'm presented with the option of selecting among the proposals I've made or received. 
I could reject the most recent one, or take it if I deem it a better deal (e.g., requiring fewer trades to 
achieve a desired result).

Let me know if that doesn't clarify things.

Last edited by HikingStick (2012-09-26 22:13:08)

Profile - Wishlist - Tradelist

Black and Blue--not just for bruises anymore.

Re: [Discussion] Trade page enhancements

sebi wrote:

We still have to find a way to enable you to see this information (all other aethersnipes you have in your inv/tradelist) and edit your traded counts quickly to show that you actually want to trade a Lorwyn Aethersnipe.

Just something I threw together quickly, so it isn't overly pretty or anything, but I think it gets the point across.  For each card you can click on some type of icon, just like the Inventory, to go edit the trade details for each different version of the card that you own.  In this case I just used Pacifism (all of the actual numbers are from my inventory).  Then you only need to show the ones in the main table that are actually included in the trade, but you can easily go in and swap them out for different ones if you choose to do so.
Edit: Obviously it could show separate entries for foil vs non-foil, a different languages and such as well, just like the other table, I just didn't include those.

http://i.imm.io/FKez.png

Last edited by NullParameter (2012-09-26 22:13:48)

Profile - Tradelist - Wishlist

Re: [Discussion] Trade page enhancements

Ah! and I envision those extra columns (Pending In, Pending Out) to the right of the card name, so they wouldn't get confused with the columns on the left.  The name field seems large enough to carve off two small chunks on the right hand side (except for that one {was it Unhinged} card with the longest name ever...).

Profile - Wishlist - Tradelist

Black and Blue--not just for bruises anymore.