Hey everybody,
Recently I wrote a post here where I explained this idea I had for a simple journaling app.
The idea is to make a simple yet effective journaling app where you reflect on something you:
I was originally planning to just release this on a domain like glowandgrow.io where a user can log in and fill out the journal for the day.
Should I stick to this plan or should it be for mobile devices?
Thanks for your help.
Probably stick to a website only. Mobile apps will take up a majority chunk of your development schedule.
Sounds good. I’ll keep that in mind.
I have a contrarian view on this.
You should definitely go for an app! It makes your offering to serious users a lot more compelling. And doesn't take away the role that your website has to play in the open.
However, instead of developing a ground-up native in Swift/Objective C, go for a well-designed super-optimized web-app with strongly cached assets using a serviceworker. And use an airtight webview to render the screens of your app using your web-app.
My tool Red Goose can help with this, combined with Fastlane for deployments. Happy to loop you in our early beta group if you're interested.🤙🏻
Interesting. This idea is still up in the air but I’ll consider making an app. However, just for development time, I might stick with a website/PWA in the beginning.
Thanks!
who is your target audience and do you think they would have a preference?
I’m still working out the target audience, but it would be people who don’t want to write a lot to journals. (Lazy, but need an effective way to journal).
They want it to be quick and simple
I think having it on a website would be easier since then people wouldn't need to download an app.
True. I was also considering making it a PWA so if users wanted, they could add it to their home screen and use it without internet.
PWA is the key.
Think about YouTube PWA just launched
Niceeee
I made a web-only journal years ago and my number one support question was "is there going to be an app?"
I'm currently running a journal/mental health app with no web version and not a single person has asked for a web version yet.
So that might tell you something :)
Either way, how you find and excite users will probably make much more of a difference than web vs mobile. And ~if~ when you're successful, you'll probably wanna build the other anyway, regardless of which you start with.
Makes sense. Thanks for your advice!
I would do a web app that is responsive on mobile. Later you can go full-on PWA if you want app-like features.
Thanks for the tips.