Mapmelon

We decided to add more fields in the Coliving Page so users can filter their search and improve their experience on finding new colivings.

We also added videos of the building of the coliving we have been, to help users see the place before booking it.

#newfeature #newapp #coliving

After reading https://entrepreneurlist.io/course/brick-by-brick-communities a guide for communities, we realised that we were not giving users the space to communicate and help each other. We decided to build some social capital with Posts, specifically questions.

Yesterday we launched a new feature for users, they'll be able to create posts to ask questions about colivings and share their experiences in them.

We did a beta testing with part of the community and we had a lot of posts there, yesterday we were expecting at least one post but we got none. We even added templates to make it easier for the users to post.

Do you think the feature has no future? Should we do a tutorial? Contact with bloggers to start posting?

How can we make the users use it?

We decided to launch the platform again on Product Hunt as we made a big change in the app. In the first launch we got 44 upvotes but in this one we are not getting that much, I didn't send a newsletter or spammed my friends.

Do you think it is worthy to be spamming them again?

Take a look at it here👉🏼 https://www.producthunt.com/posts/mapmelon-2

We added a lot of features related to colivings, we got rid of the Spot Lists and some features of the past version (as the trending one).

Colivings Explore
Discover your next coliving:

• Look for colivings in one country.
• Filter by category.
• Check the reviews of other nomads.
• See who has been there!

Coliving Page
Find all the information in one place:

• Gallery.
• Reviews.
• Past and Future nomads.
• Categories.
• External links.

Coliving Map
Look for a coliving next to your current location.

This week we made a workshop with a Product Manager in Taghazout, Morocco.

Thanks to him we realised we were launching features without adding value to the platform. So first of all we had to find the core of the app, we were between these:

• Helping people see where are their nomad friends.
• Creating a social media for nomads. To share, inspire and journal your trip.
• Making find a new coliving easier for nomads.

We found it difficult to choose only one core as we were not starting from scratch and had the app developed.

So we decided to go step by step, choose two cores and start deleting small features that weren't adding value, just confusion.

We will see how it goes from now!

After reading a lot of IH, we decided to give it a try and start building in public our baby app Mapmelon.

You can find us on:

• Twitter 👉🏼 https://twitter.com/mapmelon_app/status/1595016504864538624
• Youtube 👉🏼 https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCdHcCgoEZnn_GTp6wZsqBKA
• Reddit 👉🏼 https://www.reddit.com/r/mapmelon/

We even created a Slack channel so users can be updated and help us improve the platform. I send some surveys and polls to understand the necessities and the use they made of mapmelon.

If you try the app (www.mapmelon.com) and want to join let me know and I'll add you 😊

After having the app basics we needed a name and a brand identity, mainly because we needed that to upload the app to the Play Store and having our own domain.

That's when Map connections (the name we used to talk about it) grow into Mapmelon 🎉.

We spent a full afternoon looking for names and overthinking until one friend told us: 'The name doesn't matter just look for some free .com domain and if the product is good, people will remember the name'.

So... Ramon loves fruits and specially watermelon, water-earth-map haha and we created mapmelon. The colors were super easy to choose (pink and green 😉) and the font was my one and only favorite montserrat ✨.

I started working in the copies and in two days the landing was ready! 🗺🍉

The process was a bit tough as it was the first time we built something from zero, and also the first time we worked together! 👩🏻‍💻🧑🏻‍💻

We started with some sketches of the main features: Locations, Feed and Profiles.

• Locations are the posts that users upload to let their friends know where they've been or where they are going to be. It has a map, a headline, the dates, and... You can add pictures now!
• A Feed to see all the updates on your friends' plans and see if you can meet with them in the near future.
• Profiles are a basic on social media. A place where users can show their trips, we added some travel stats to make it look more cool 😎.

After that we realised it would be useful to have a place where you can see (at the same time) where all your friends are, that's why we created the Explore Map. There you can see where they are and where they'll be.

Some months after, we started working around the idea of sharing information about the places the user visited so it will be easier to create Social Capital in the app, then Spot Lists appeared.
Spot Lists are a way to create a list to share your favourite restaurants, clubs, hotels, cities, etc. 📝

This was the first version of the app, the Alpha version with the basics that we shared with close friends.

Hi there! 👋🏼
We are Sole and Ramon, a nomad couple that had been travelling for two years while working remotely. I am a Growth Manager and Ramon is a Software Developer so we decided to build a project together related to our way of living 🌎.

These two years we met a looot of people from all over the world and meeting again with them is complicated as they are also travelling around. We even have a friend that visited our home country one week after we left 😅.

So we started uploading our plans on Instagram and sending messages to our friends but the conversations became super repetitive and not productive.
That’s why we decided to create www.mapmelon.com and help nomads meet their friends again in another place ✈️.