We were able to carry over some of the back-end work from the first version, but not the majority. Much of the old code was fairly convoluted, and we wanted the new codebase to be easier to maintain and build on. The good news is that we're very happy with how the new code is working for us, and it should serve us well for a long time.

You're absolutely right about how easy it is to get so wrapped up in the features that you completely forget how anyone will actually use them. From the moment we started developing the new ImThere, we really shifted the way we worked to avoid falling back into that trap. We're always looking for ways to get even better at thinking about new functionality from a user's perspective. We test every new line of code that goes out the door extensively not just for bugs, but also for usability and how it affects the flow of the site. It takes more time to do, but we've found it completely worthwhile.

Thanks for the great comment!

- Gorman