Krause's Numismaster... I'm starting to warm to the idea
coinpictures
Posts: 5,345 ✭✭✭
I've been a vocal critic of Numismaster, given what was included and the seemingly ridiculous price levels, but now with the "All-Access Pass" I think it has potential, especially since several volumes have recently been added.
$149 a year isn't cheap, but it now includes quite a few volumes:
North American Coins Online Guide
World Coins 1701-1800 Online Guide
World Coins 1801-1900 Online Guide
World Coins 1901-2000 Online Guide
World Coins 2001 to Date Online Guide
Unusual World Coins Online Guide
I'm not 100% sold on the idea yet, but it's definitely becoming more of an option. However, I do still have concerns about adopting this product as opposed to the printed books.
Here's an email I just fired off to Numismaster:
Good morning,
I've been a rather vocal critic of Numismaster during the early stages of its development, given the subscription rates. However, given the recent additions of the 1701-1800 volume and the Unusual World Coins volume, in conjunction with the All-Access Pass pricing, the cost seems more palatable. Before subscribing though, I do have some questions:
1. Is the 1601-1700 volume forthcoming and is there an approximate timetable for its inclusion?
2. The web site alludes to the $149 annual rate being only available for a limited time. Will early subscribers be "grandfathered" in at this initial rate or will we have to resubscribe at a higher rate? If this is an introductory rate, I cannot find any indication of what the actual rate is. My concern (not only for myself but for other heavy users) is the possibility of finding myself in the untenable position of having forsaken the printed books only then to be faced with a significant increase in the subscription rate for the online service. What pricing assurances are there?
3. While the interface is handy for the casual user, I find it clumsy for heavy usage. When I sit down to attribute and/or price coins, I may do 50-100 coins at a time, spanning multiple countries and centuries. There needs to be a faster way to "jump" from country to country and century to century, preferably one that is keyboard-centric rather than mouse-centric. Some examples:
a. When I am done with a search and go back to do another search, the search options are always reset. I always have to reselect the coin origin or guide or country. A great timesaver would be to have that page retain the last search that the user performed and use that as the starting point rather than forcing the user to start from scratch each and every time. That alone would GREATLY speed things up.
b. Many "old school" computer users prefer to use the keyboard exclusively. When I am browsing the web, I utilize the keyboard shortcuts to move within the page and work with forms. Suggestions:
(1) When the "Price Guides" page loads, please set the focus to the "Coin Origin" field. That way, someone who is using the keyboard can immediately start setting options (the way the page is coded now, I have to press the TAB key 15 times to get the focus to that field).
(2) When a user selects a country and hits ENTER rather than TAB, have it execute the search. Right now the ENTER key is trapped.
There need to be faster ways to do simple things. For example, let's say I want to browse Danish coins of all denominations across all time periods and sources. This is what I have to do using the keyboard:
TAB (15 times)
DOWN ARROW
TAB
DOWN ARROW
TAB
TAB
D
E
N
ENTER
TAB (5 times)
ENTER
A bit lengthy, yes?
I realize that interface design is a daunting task and that there are tradeoffs with speed, functionality, and error trapping.
If you don't want to change the interface from its current functionality, perhaps a compromise would be to allow the user to set "Favorite Searches" that could then be accessed via hotkeys (or hotlinks on the page). For example, I might want to have one favorite be all countries all years, another be British 1/3 farthings, and another be German States thalers. So the user would set the search options they want, and then rather than clicking on the "Find My Coin" button they could click a "Save Favorite Search" button which would then save that set of parameters. Then have an option to "Delete Favorite" for each saved search.
Anything to streamline the search process would be a great benefit.
Thank you for your time.
-Dan
$149 a year isn't cheap, but it now includes quite a few volumes:
North American Coins Online Guide
World Coins 1701-1800 Online Guide
World Coins 1801-1900 Online Guide
World Coins 1901-2000 Online Guide
World Coins 2001 to Date Online Guide
Unusual World Coins Online Guide
I'm not 100% sold on the idea yet, but it's definitely becoming more of an option. However, I do still have concerns about adopting this product as opposed to the printed books.
Here's an email I just fired off to Numismaster:
Good morning,
I've been a rather vocal critic of Numismaster during the early stages of its development, given the subscription rates. However, given the recent additions of the 1701-1800 volume and the Unusual World Coins volume, in conjunction with the All-Access Pass pricing, the cost seems more palatable. Before subscribing though, I do have some questions:
1. Is the 1601-1700 volume forthcoming and is there an approximate timetable for its inclusion?
2. The web site alludes to the $149 annual rate being only available for a limited time. Will early subscribers be "grandfathered" in at this initial rate or will we have to resubscribe at a higher rate? If this is an introductory rate, I cannot find any indication of what the actual rate is. My concern (not only for myself but for other heavy users) is the possibility of finding myself in the untenable position of having forsaken the printed books only then to be faced with a significant increase in the subscription rate for the online service. What pricing assurances are there?
3. While the interface is handy for the casual user, I find it clumsy for heavy usage. When I sit down to attribute and/or price coins, I may do 50-100 coins at a time, spanning multiple countries and centuries. There needs to be a faster way to "jump" from country to country and century to century, preferably one that is keyboard-centric rather than mouse-centric. Some examples:
a. When I am done with a search and go back to do another search, the search options are always reset. I always have to reselect the coin origin or guide or country. A great timesaver would be to have that page retain the last search that the user performed and use that as the starting point rather than forcing the user to start from scratch each and every time. That alone would GREATLY speed things up.
b. Many "old school" computer users prefer to use the keyboard exclusively. When I am browsing the web, I utilize the keyboard shortcuts to move within the page and work with forms. Suggestions:
(1) When the "Price Guides" page loads, please set the focus to the "Coin Origin" field. That way, someone who is using the keyboard can immediately start setting options (the way the page is coded now, I have to press the TAB key 15 times to get the focus to that field).
(2) When a user selects a country and hits ENTER rather than TAB, have it execute the search. Right now the ENTER key is trapped.
There need to be faster ways to do simple things. For example, let's say I want to browse Danish coins of all denominations across all time periods and sources. This is what I have to do using the keyboard:
TAB (15 times)
DOWN ARROW
TAB
DOWN ARROW
TAB
TAB
D
E
N
ENTER
TAB (5 times)
ENTER
A bit lengthy, yes?
I realize that interface design is a daunting task and that there are tradeoffs with speed, functionality, and error trapping.
If you don't want to change the interface from its current functionality, perhaps a compromise would be to allow the user to set "Favorite Searches" that could then be accessed via hotkeys (or hotlinks on the page). For example, I might want to have one favorite be all countries all years, another be British 1/3 farthings, and another be German States thalers. So the user would set the search options they want, and then rather than clicking on the "Find My Coin" button they could click a "Save Favorite Search" button which would then save that set of parameters. Then have an option to "Delete Favorite" for each saved search.
Anything to streamline the search process would be a great benefit.
Thank you for your time.
-Dan
0
Comments
I give away money. I collect money.
I don’t love money . I do love the Lord God.
Guess they couldn't give a hoot...
1/2 Cents
U.S. Revenue Stamps
<< <i>What about the CD Krauses? Has anybody bought those yet? I think I am about ready. >>
You mean the Krause DVDs? The report back in this thread by Chris @ NEN leads me to stay far away. Rather than splitting the catalog into smaller "chunks" for faster loading and browsing, each entire catalog is one huge PDF, several hundred MB in size.
Incredibly stupid on the part of Krause, effectively making the product unusable by most people, especially on laptops, where DVD-ROM and hard drive speeds are usually slower than on a desktop.
Another example of great idea, but piss-poor beta testing...
1/2 Cents
U.S. Revenue Stamps
Apparently they consider having a "remember me" box to be a security concern, which is a total farce...what's so valuable there. It didn't seem to me that they were very open to my idea, which is too bad. I like the idea of being able to search up-to-date coin prices while I'm at the computer anywhere, but don't care for the clumsiness of the site which apparently they don't care to fix. If things do not change, I doubt that I'll resubscribe to the service once my year is up.
<< <i>What about the CD Krauses? Has anybody bought those yet? I think I am about ready. >>
As soon as my budget allows it, I am getting a copy from my wholesale guy in northern Illinois. I tried to get a copy cheap on "flea-bay" but got outbid. It realized just under $60 but there is shipping, which the winner, from France, will have to fork over $9 in addition to the final price.
I hope that Krause will in the near future sell the DVD's individually (the 20th & 21st Century DVD's will be outdated sometime in the summer). I would like them to produce a DVD for the world currency series (would make looking up stuff less of a hassle).
<< <i>I wrote to NUMISMASTER asking if they could get a "remember me" box on the sign in page to eliminate the need to repeatedly sign in during the day if not remaining on the site. >>
From the time I had the 1-month trial, I remember that being one of the bigger headaches about using it.
<< <i>
<< <i>I wrote to NUMISMASTER asking if they could get a "remember me" box on the sign in page to eliminate the need to repeatedly sign in during the day if not remaining on the site. >>
From the time I had the 1-month trial, I remember that being one of the bigger headaches about using it. >>
I get those one-month deals in my e-mail - and I proceed to send them to the trash pile. Need a world coin reference that I can use on a computer and DOES NOT require me to get on the internet to access.