|
|
Post by abundance on Oct 22, 2015 16:18:51 GMT
Hi everyone, As some of you may have noticed, Abundance recently launched a new website (about 2 weeks ago). Our principal goal has been to keep all the positives that we had from the original website, and take on board all the feedback we have since received since we launched about 3 years ago to improve the platform. Take a look here if you've not visited recently - www.abundanceinvestment.comWe now hopefully have a more streamlined website, which is both easier to use, but also runs much faster. It should also now be a much more usable (and faster) website to browse on mobile and tablet devices. You can read a little more about specific changes on our blog - blog.abundanceinvestment.com/2015/10/updates-to-the-website/We also have a list of new features that we want to start developing now we have the new platform to work on - to start with we will be bringing back redesigned versions of some features currently missing, specifically the tax section of your account and the calendar of your future payments. We'd really like to start getting feedback on all areas of the new website from existing customers or people new to the Abundance. What do you like? What do you not like? What do you miss from the old website? What are you looking for in terms of features or ideas to come from Abundance? All feedback is welcome, however positive or negative! Tom (and the Abundance Team) |
|
|
|
Post by brokenbiscuits on Nov 10, 2015 19:29:55 GMT
As someone who mostly uses my mobile to browse, its much faster. That turbine used to really slow things down!
Apart from the blog there isn't much going on though?
With no obligation to go full cycle were people abusing the pledge system and pulling out of the process after getting support but before committing to being a funded project?
Will the pledge system be coming back?
Are there any pipeline projects? It's hard to know what's happening behind the scenes on the new look site
|
|
|
|
Post by abundance on Nov 12, 2015 16:24:15 GMT
Hi,
Glad to hear the speed improvements have made a difference! It's hopefully easier to browse on a mobile too (less scrolling around the page to find a button).
We decided to retire the pledge process because it was causing confusion with some customers and wasn't really representing what was in our pipeline in terms of new projects. The pledge process was originally designed to support projects in the earlier stages of planning and development, as well as to encourage early engagement with potential projects in our pipeline. Some of the projects available for pledging, especially those just going into the planning process, were still a fairly long time away from being open for investment (we only consider a project once it has received planning permission), and so the 'next' investment project was often a project that was not up for pledging before. There were also projects that we were in discussions with which didn't end up proceeding - this was for various reasons, for example either the project was not quite viable and was put on hold while costs continued to fall, or because the developer decided to seek finance from elsewhere. For this reason we dropped pledging for now - no plans to bring it back at the moment, but it could come back in a different form at some point to support planning projects.
Instead we have put up a new Coming Soon section on the website as of yesterday which is showcasing two coming soon projects. The aim is to show projects here that are close to opening for investment - there's always a chance that something could delay or impact the launch of these projects, but we will be putting projects up here which are in the final process of preparing an investment offer. There's no action for you to take at this stage, but the Coming Soon section is just to give customers more of an indication of what we're working on and what to expect.
Hopefully this will start to give you a bit more of an indication of what we're doing and we will be doing more on the blog as we have some new technologies (at least new on Abundance) and a new Debenture type to come!
We're also looking at other ways to enhance the portfolio side of your Abundance account. We've just brought back the Tax section and the payment Calendar, but if you have any feedback on what else you would like to see, any thoughts are welcome?
Best,
Tom
|
|
|
|
Post by mrclondon on Nov 12, 2015 17:02:59 GMT
In the spirit of constructive feedback, I have several major dislikes about the new website
a) I have the bulletin board page bookmarked and that is my entry route. I see some debentures I'm interested in, so I login. I'm redirected to some account summary page somewhere, from where I then need to select Invest from the menu bar, then scroll down and find some rectangular blob to link to the bulletin board.
b) I have the bulletin board page bookmarked. I see some debentures I'm interested in, so I login. I'm redirected to some account summary page somewhere, if I now reselect my bulletin board page bookmark I'm forced to login again so am forced to find the rectangular blob to reach the bulletin board
c) having found the bulletin board if I go to page 2 of the list of offers, and click on an offer, when I return to the list I'm back on page 1 of the list
d) whilst on the bulletin board list, if I right click an offer and select open in new tab so I can look at several offers simultaneuosly I'm forced to login on each new tab and once again I'm redirected to some account summary page somewhere.
Very poor usability, sorry. (That is with Firefox on a powerful desktop pc with 22" screen, and I'll never be using the website on anything else. I just wish websites provided two experiences - one designed specifically for desktop users and one for the users of mobile devices, but I recognise I'm in a minority in wanting websites to be usable on desktop pc's.)
|
|
|
|
Post by abundance on Nov 16, 2015 16:05:03 GMT
Hi mrclondon,
Thank you for the feedback, it is always helpful whether it is good or bad feedback!
c). This is a good point which we can fix - we will update the website so you are returned to the page you were viewing previously.
a). The 'Sign in' button in the top right will always take you to your Portfolio homepage after you've signed in - this is the main entry button for people who come to the website and first want to sign in and view their account. If you are looking at the Bulletin Board (not signed in) and want to make a bid, clicking 'Place a bid' will prompt you to sign in and you will then be returned to the bid process automatically so you won't have to click back to the Bulletin board.
b) and d). These issues are both linked by a security point - if you open a new instance of the Abundance website you will need to sign in again. This is similar to what you would expect from your online bank where you can't have multiple instances of the website without signing in each time. This is a default view that we have taken but we will review our security policy and discuss whether we can relax this to allow multiple tabs and have your login session carried across.
We will make the improvement to fix c) and have a look at fixing b) and d) too. If you have any other comments, be it specific things with the current website or features you would like to see in the future, please let us know.
Best,
Tom
|
|
|
|
Post by gusgorilla on Feb 5, 2016 11:43:51 GMT
There should be a prominent link to the upcoming loans page. This is one of the main reasons people might visit the site and I spent ages trying to find the small link on one page nestled below some buttons.
It is not clear what the arrangements are for emails to notify of loans or give news of loans; how are these switched on and off and how much notice is given of loans going live?
|
|
|
|
Post by abundance on Feb 8, 2016 16:35:53 GMT
Hi gusgorilla,
The 'Coming Soon' section can be found under the Invest section from the top navigation bar - Invest/Browse Projects/Coming Soon. I'll see if there is somewhere it can be linked to more clearly.
If you are signed up on Abundance you will be on our mailing list and will receive updates when new projects are added to the Coming Soon page and when they are opened for investment. At the moment you cannot unsubscribe from specific types of email, although we are looking at adding more tailored email notifications.
The time between going up on Coming Soon and opening for investment will depend on the project. Our aim is to only put up a project on Coming Soon if we are reasonably confident that the Debenture will open for investment - the time to then going live will typically be somewhere between a week and a month. We will try to give an accurate estimation of when we expect a project to open for investment, but there are always moving parts while putting the Debenture offer together so we will rarely be able to give an exact launch date.
Best,
Tom
|
|
kaya
Member of DD Central
Posts: 1,150 
Likes: 718
|
Post by kaya on Dec 26, 2016 11:42:20 GMT
This looks an interesting place, but I find the secondary market procedures cumbersome and offputting. I was wondering if abundance has any plans to bring the 'bulletin board' trading on-site. A simple 'confirm trade' click from buyer and seller could conclude a deal on the website, with no private e-mailing needed. Or is it not as simple as that? |
|
|
|
Post by windmill on Jan 14, 2017 12:16:32 GMT
Hi
As a fairly new investor I like the new website and easy to use too. I would like to suggest an improvement though for the bulletin board. Could we see the username of the people offering and bidding for sell offers. In the light of the sometimes unreasonably high bidding for sell offers, that would reassure me that the sellers are not bidding for their own offers, if that makes sense. It is not unusual for auction sites to do this
Thank you
W
|
|
|
|
Post by abundance on Jan 18, 2017 9:55:35 GMT
kaya - Thank you for your question. Unfortunately it is not as simple as that but we are working on ways to improve the Bulletin Board. There are regulatory rules which require the trade to be completed off of the Abundance website which is why we currently have the email process. We are currently looking at some options to see if we can improve the process, but for the time being we will not be able to bring it fully on to the platform unfortunately (there are various regulatory rule changes coming through that may change things so watch this space.) windmill Thank you for your question too. On Abundance your username is effectively your email so we don't want to make this publicly viewable to everyone on the website. Your email is only given out to the seller if they want to get in touch to finalise a trade with you after you have placed a bid. We do not allow anyone to bid on their own offer - the website will not allow you to do this as it is a false bid and would distort the market.
|
|
