Dedicated website improves data display, provides mobile friendly view
Just in time for Gen Con, I'm extremely excited to launch a new home for $8k auction price tracking data:
https://td-auctions.com/#/
Many of you know that I've provided auction sales data in Google Sheets for years. The sheets served me well and taught me a lot.
As the sheets grew though, I became less and less happy with them. They became more difficult to update, limited what I could do and just didn't represent my vision. The turning point was at Ring Con this year, trying to show the sheet on an iPhone (biggest one available) and having to scroll around everywhere.
A dedicated website solves a lot of my problems! Thankfully, my years of were fairly easy to transition. This means the data from the sheet now drives the website, meaning you still get the same, high-quality information you need to make informed bids.
Read on to learn more about the site!
Designed with mobile in mind
Like I said, I hated that showing off the sheet at RingCon meant opening a separate app, clicking through lots of tabs, and scrolling all over the place to see data.
I designed the website with mobile devices in mind. That means the Prices page (the old Dashboard) shows all important details on your phone. A quick toggle switches between Last 5 and Full Year prices.
Info like price Timelines and Transmute costs also scale down nicely, including abbreviations for items when there's not enough space:
There's even a dark mode so you don't sear your retinas checking prices in bed!
Prices for all years, always
Spreadsheets have some natural limitations on how much data you can show. You either need a separate sheet for each data point or a slicer to change the data. But because the sheet is multi-user, anyone using the slicer affects it for everyone else!
The site fixes this. The Prices, Onyx and Timelines let you choose which year you want to see. No more multiple sheets. No risk of changing someone's view. Just the data you need, the way you want it!
Transmute estimates evolved
The transmute estimates were one of my favorite things to hate in the sheet. They were fun to do, but very fiddly, difficult to update and prone to break. They also had probably the worst experience - lots of scrolling all over.
The new Transmutes page solves all that. It shows information progressively, with clear relationships between Relics and their associated Legendary transmutes. The system is much more flexible, easily bringing in prices for non-auction items like Herald and Golem tokens.
Analytics deliver insight
The far reaches of the spreadsheet always held some analysis of the current year and historical data. Unfortunately, they were always a mess, with source pivot tables and errant charts everywhere!
That changes now with the new Analytics tab. The site hides tables that aren't immediately useful while still showing you important data like historical token prices, comparison of auction close velocity and who held which auctions in which years.
What's next?
You tell me! Drop a line here, on Facebook or the
True Dungeon Fans Discord
.
I already have some ideas, like layering in augment data, re-adding the quartile analysis and adding an export option. I'd also like to get a UI designer to have a good, hard look at the site. Right now it's functional, but I'd like more intentionality in the design elements.
But I mostly want to know what's most important to
you!
