Re:Ask HN: Any of you who keep a journal like to try a beta ...
by staringispolite on Wednesday October 31, 2012 @04:59PM
(#4724902)
Feedback incoming! I enjoy the idea, it makes me imagine being a better, happier person, given the context I already have with gratitude and journaling. Looking forward to the invite! A few points that come to mind from my past usage of similar apps:
* Have you checked out OhLife? I love that it optionally reminds me once a day at the time of my choosing, with an email (Subject: "It's Tuesday, Oct 30 - How did your day go?"). Anecdotally, this greatly increases my retention and activation. Not sure about others.
* OhLife also reminds me of moments in my past, as it learns more about me. (It ends emails with "Remember a year ago? You were all like...".). I've always wanted it to be associated with a mood so it could constantly remind me of good things in my life (filter by mood > X or something). Think 'gratitude' journaling. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gratitude_journal. I've always wanted an app that would make me happier. Gratitude journaling 'coach' app would be as close as I can think of for this vertical, and MVP could be some simple notifications on top of your app.
Your app in particular:
* Mobile will be great for photos and quick notes, but web input (likelihood I'll be able to use a real keyboard) is important to me for journaling. I hope that'll be an available feature.
* I'm on a 15" Macbook Pro and the path that is supposed to visually draw you down through the product explanation to 'invite' were way off the fold for me. I almost thought you'd removed the invite link. I'd suggest scooting things up a bit, maybe cut off the bottom X% of the phones, since by then I get that it's a mobile app.
* I agree with others that I didn't immediately get that it was private. I'd also want assurances that I can get my data out at any time, but the latter may be a bias among HN people.
* This will suffer from a "Mint"-like bootstrapping problem. It's value is extremely low at the very beginning. Any chance it could import moments from an existing timeline (FB? Path?) that I then choose to keep or not in the app?
* There's a certain "one app to rule them all" mentality, and I'm curious what, in practice, I'll do with events that I want to both (a) remember privately, and (b) share with FB friends. Have you noticed anything with this in your own personal use?
* Have you checked out OhLife? I love that it optionally reminds me once a day at the time of my choosing, with an email (Subject: "It's Tuesday, Oct 30 - How did your day go?"). Anecdotally, this greatly increases my retention and activation. Not sure about others.
* OhLife also reminds me of moments in my past, as it learns more about me. (It ends emails with "Remember a year ago? You were all like...".). I've always wanted it to be associated with a mood so it could constantly remind me of good things in my life (filter by mood > X or something). Think 'gratitude' journaling. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gratitude_journal. I've always wanted an app that would make me happier. Gratitude journaling 'coach' app would be as close as I can think of for this vertical, and MVP could be some simple notifications on top of your app.
Your app in particular:
* Mobile will be great for photos and quick notes, but web input (likelihood I'll be able to use a real keyboard) is important to me for journaling. I hope that'll be an available feature.
* I'm on a 15" Macbook Pro and the path that is supposed to visually draw you down through the product explanation to 'invite' were way off the fold for me. I almost thought you'd removed the invite link. I'd suggest scooting things up a bit, maybe cut off the bottom X% of the phones, since by then I get that it's a mobile app.
* I agree with others that I didn't immediately get that it was private. I'd also want assurances that I can get my data out at any time, but the latter may be a bias among HN people.
* This will suffer from a "Mint"-like bootstrapping problem. It's value is extremely low at the very beginning. Any chance it could import moments from an existing timeline (FB? Path?) that I then choose to keep or not in the app?
* There's a certain "one app to rule them all" mentality, and I'm curious what, in practice, I'll do with events that I want to both (a) remember privately, and (b) share with FB friends. Have you noticed anything with this in your own personal use?