Your point is right on, one size does not fit all. One searcher's "works" is another's "fails". And highlights how complex the issue is, some people are the "feeling lucky" types and others are the I want to drill in and make sure I am getting what I wanted. The question may be, Are the "feeling lucky" types getting lucky?
This article begs the question "Why do people need advanced search skills when using a SERP?".
If the single search box "worked", the search would provide the results the user wanted without having to use arcane search techniques.
The expectation for a user presented with the single search box is for simplicity and accuracy.
I would bet that there are very few SERP "power users" that know all the ways to manipulate the searches.
Going away from the single search box or providing hard links for filtering results might be a way around this. I imagine that there are many bright minds working on this issue.
I would have very much liked to have a CS education (I have an MS in Neuroscience), but did not really know I had aptitude and a passion for it until later in my life. I took the long self-taught route to programming being very task driven, ie the first business I started needed certain things so I just did it. Was it ugly? oh heck ya! To some degree it still is, but for many years it has more than payed the rent.
I very much miss a mathematics background but these days there are many sources of information that can and do aid in the solving of programming problems.
I have railed against "credentialism" for years because ultimately there have been many people I have worked with who were capable of many tasks but not allowed to the opportunity because they lacked a degree, but not the skills. And don't get me started on people doing the identical job but one getting more due only to a degree.
A credential tells me what you might be able to do, a body of work shows me what you can do.
First, I dislike gamification on a personal level, but from a business level it makes huge sense. Trading a reinforcer(badges) of no real value for something of value(data) is smart.
Gamification may be the wrong way to look at this, I believe most of our behavior has rules and rewards much like most games. Gamification is just an explicit way of generating a desired behavior, look at the cliched "gold" star on the top of a students paper, or a badge.
From a business model(using badges as a simple example), what happens when the reinforcer loses value, ie everyone else has all the same badges? Do you invent a new set of badges that are more special than the old ones? Or if the community no longer cares what kind or how many badges a person has?
Disclosure: I do my house chores to avoid an angry spouse.
It looks great but I just want the data, I would like just text info, to make it as quick and clean as possible. Images and colors are sexy but I want to do a transaction not look at the site. This is my personal weirdness so take it for what it is worth.
I do not know the display requirements for each provider but a clean look, where I can sort by coupon category would be nice. I really don't care about the provider of the deal, just the deal.
That being said it looks like a really good start.
I became chronically depressed when I was 15. I was hospitalized between my first and second year of college.
What got me through it? Friends and a focus on school. Having a goal was huge, I also had a job that I HAD to go to.
Also don't be afraid of medication, for short-term it can help, used to stabilized so you can get your habits going that will organically help your depression.
At the end, even though I still suffer from it. I manage it. I finished college, did grad school. I am married, have a family and have been part of two successful ventures.
This makes me want to get a tinfoil hat. Now do I give up one of my most vital tools because someone knows where I am at almost all of the time? Do I trust the government to make sure this data is not misused? Or do just go all in and make sure the google, fb, twitter etc have it too and continue to whistle through the graveyard? There has to be a realistic middle ground to protect privacy but with the global data cloud surrounding us I have no idea what that would be.
How many payments? Are they really going to be every month or are you going to be at the mercy of an A/P department?
My experience, the best way is to go the primitive route and get a hard check that you can deposit manually if there are not too many of them, though I hope you have too many.
The reason is that entities hate to pay this kind of money and there are always issues (late or checks that are light etc), so having as much traceable, physical data is huge.
This does not scale well but for a smaller entity it actually works quite well.
I like your strategy but there are small local charities like food banks that can always use money. We give a significant amount every year and doing micro gifts would be very difficult so we research a few charities a give them the majority of our donations.
Sadly, these days homeless shelters and food banks need every cent and most are local and well run.