A Tool to Visualize the Passing of Time
simple-timeline.com
I revived a school project because I enjoy using it myself.
My personal use case:
The older I get, the harder it is to remember where I was X years ago. This simple tool helps me visualize periods of my life and remembers the exact dates for me. For that, the app is perfectly fine as it is now.
I'm wondering if I should make it a product and if so, how to monetize it?
Maybe making timelines easily embeddable?
Would you use such a tool? If yes, for what? If not, why not?
PS: This is a revived school project, hence the use of JQuery, JQueryUI and the many questionable UX/UI choices 😂
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Your emphasis on timelines resonates with me. For about 10 years now, I have kept a timeline-style log of my travels and experiences. I would check out a tool that allows me to do the same thing within a web interface. Would be worth seeking further validation though, if your end goal is monetization.
Felix,
I think this is a really cool idea. I would probably use such an app. Your current UX design (colours etc.) may need some touches, but otherwise: Go for it
About the import/export of .json files instead of user signups
I chose that way of saving timelines rather than a classic account creation flow for maximal privacy.
The first version of Simple Timeline had users creating accounts and saving their data to a database, but virtually 100% of people (friends) had the same concern: "Won't you be able to see my timeline?". Indeed, I can hack my own websites quite easily.
I first thought about adding client-side encryption, but, for users, that's about as complex and inconvenient as keeping files. Also, to be really sure that I actually implement that encryption, users would have to look through the code.
With export/import of a simple .json file, you can turn your internet connection off and disable all cookies while using the app. It still works and nobody, not even me, can peek at your data.
On top of it, no user management and no database makes it much simpler to develop and much cheaper to host, of course.
Personally I'd even prefer a cloud based store for this data. This is an app you'd want to use over several years where a file may get lost (?)
Yeah, it took about 24 hours before I realized how inconvenient it is as a user to worry about losing a file... (almost lost mine!)
I'll implement a cloud based store and keep the file import/export option available.