Someone asked this question recently in the buUuk forum and I thought is deserved an explanation longer than 140 characters. So here it is….
We’ve had a lot of discussions about restaurant pricing and how to best display it in buUuk. At first we chose to just ignore the issue, but users requested it so often we gave in. Why the reluctance? Well mainly because we weren’t comfortable with the way price is usually displayed in restaurant guides, but we couldn’t think of an alternative. Most guides give a 5 point scale and try to associate a price range with each point on the scale. This has some problems. For example, it’s possible for me and you to dine at the same restaurant at the same time and pay vastly different amounts depending on our choices. Also, a coffee shop that charges $7 for a coffee could get a 2 on the scale, even though it’s the most expensive coffee shop in the city.
But we all have a sense of value right? So that’s what we’ve tried to build into buUuk. The pricing for a location in buUuk is crowd sourced; users use a slider to set a position along a scale. The scale has no values associated with it. Users can set the slider position wherever they like, for any reasons they choose. We then simply take the input, convert it to a value between 1 and 10 and average it along with all other users’ input. So it’s perfectly valid for a hawker stall that sells the most expensive Wanton Mee in Singapore to have 10 $ symbols for price, if that’s what the average user input is.
So we’re trusting the wisdom of the crowd and removing any of our own subjectivity from the problem. The more users who set price for a location the more useful this data will become. You can set the price on the buUrp screen for any location, just set the slider, you don’t need to add any other information if you don’t want.
Once a price has been set it will show up in the restaurant detail page (see below). Why 10 $ symbols and not 5? We started with 5 but didn’t think it effectively showed up the variance in prices across restaurants.
Short answer to the question “How to Interpret the buUuk Price Range”, whatever way you think best….
Let us know what you think and how we could do this better.
May 7th, 2009 at 1:18 am
The current price range indicator is quite confusing at a glance. I think what would be helpful and what I would wanna see is a range of costs, e.g. $20-50.
May 7th, 2009 at 4:51 pm
qw
May 7th, 2009 at 4:57 pm
I agree with your concept of “Value” but then again, value is a matter of perspective. By using the slider I am informing others about the value which I derived from the place. However, someone else may not derive the same value (as individual choices differ) and so may be mis-lead by the 10$ slide which rates value.
I also do not agree with your coffee and Wanton Mee example. The $7 coffee may be the most expensive coffee in the city but from a perspective of absolute dollar terms it is only about $5-$6 more expensive than other coffee. This amount is insignificant when I compare it to a $200 dinner at Rang Mahal (both of which are high “value” in their category). I think that the $7 coffee rightfully deserves a 2 on the scale. The Mee maybe the most expense Mee in the city but if it is for $10, it is only marginally expensive (in absolute terms) and it does not deserve to get a 10 rating. The fact of the matter here is that I am not comparing price for similar products. I am rather comparing price on a single scale across all products. This will help the user to analyse on a comparative level of what the price will be.
July 20th, 2009 at 3:31 pm
I agree with qwq… It is much better to use an absolute range, simply cos we need to compare apples to apples…. And frankly, the user needs to be a bit more savvy too. I mean, you don’t go to Lawry’s for their vegetarian food do you?
November 26th, 2009 at 12:29 am
I guess the confusion comes from a few parts:
1. Firstly, the naming. Price range indicates a range of prices, a range must have a limit which is typically either more than, less than, between, not within etc. However despite the name being called “price range”, the dollar scale shows an absolute number, For example 6 out of 10 dollar signs. That itself is not a range. It is saying 6/10, not “> 6″ or “<6″ or ” <6<” etc..
2. Secondly “price range” is misleading as a restaurant can charge $0.20 for water and up to SGD600 for maybe lobster or some exotic fish? do you put it as 0.2<x<600?
3. Thirdly, what you have attempted to collect is very good but it is not the price, rather a measure of utility, an economic term that loosely implies satisfaction. In this case if I slide to 10 or 1, it just shows how much I think is the satisfaction I obtained from the money that I have paid. In short what is my opinion on the “value for money”. For example if I had paid $0.10 for a sweet that is high in supply and low in demand and gain maximum satisfaction, the slider would be at 10. If I had to pay $100 (maybe supply shortage and demand increased) for the same sweet, and still felt that the sweet gave me maximum satisfaction, it would also be rated 10. So this “price” is not just “price as in the financial sense” but satisfaction normalized by price, the utility.
4. My suggestion is to name is as “value for money?” a question post to the users, and they will grade 1 to 10. this average will make more sense.