I learned in the third grade that most of the world's surface is covered by water however I am betting that the majority of Surfline’s customer base lives between Point Conception and Tijuana. When I signed up I gave them my zip code so I am pretty sure they have a good idea where I surf. Yet they still force me to flash navigate through three levels of really small options to find what I am looking for. At 5am I don’t care what the waves are like Bali or if Sam Hammer scored in New Jersey I just want my surf report.
Contrary to what the marketing depart might tell you I am not interested in buying a new Honda Element so get that garbage out of my interface. Remember this is a pay service, if it were free I would tolerate it but it’s not so don’t interrupt me with it.
Surfline has great content but they are still only offering Web 1.0 community features. Forums are just not cutting it these days, users want RSS feeds for everything, we want to link up with friends who surf and we want user generated content, video, surf journal entries, pictures with tags etc.
I don't have time to build this all out here but I did add one community building feature that I think would be great, it is called "Where You Go'in?" I know the title sucks but the idea is solid. Before you leave the desk to hit the water tell Surfline where you are headed and the community members you have designated as friends will be able to see where you are padding out today. This kind of technology not only saves you time it makes sure you stay connected with friends and guarantees no 5AM phone calls, that my friends could save your marriage.
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