Seasons Journaling

It's been a while since Seasons had a major feature release. Really proud of this one because I started to work in SwiftUI for the first time. It was a challenge to figure out how to get used to declarative programming. I still have a lot to catch up on, but had many breakthrough moments and ultimately got the job done. I put in a lot of work and when I felt stuck, I kept putting in the effort and was rewarded for it.

On to the next one. I'm looking into rich text editing libraries and am looking forward to jumping into the deep end once again.

While we didn't add any new features, this still ended up being a decent sized release with a lot of smaller or under the hood improvements. It felt good to finally update our app icon and onboarding images & copy. We also integrated a new feature survey (in lieu of actually building a new feature). I refactored the Face ID / Passcode lock feature, which ironed out some of the annoying glitchiness. We've had a fair number of downloads come in from lock/passcode related keywords so it felt good to fortify that feature.

Along with other minor UI/UX improvements I'm glad to say that this is mostly likely 98% of the product we are going to launch with on Product Hunt.

Now, shifting gears even more to marketing, I am feeling overwhelmed all over again. The updated landing page is coming along slowly, but surely. There are reasons to be hopeful with the ASO optimizations that have been made. Now, I need to really dive in an get involved in building a following for the PH launch. It feels very forced to me and I'm not even sure if it's worth my time and effort, but I need to do it or else I'll never know if it was because of a lack of effort or not.

This released introduced another customization item type in journal stickers. A week was spent looking into e2e encryption, but ultimately it felt like too big of an undertaking to take on at the moment. I also integrated One Signal to lay the foundation for marketing push notifications.

I'm fairly satisfied with the state of the app. It feels stable and the UI is clean and elegant. I can make a strong case that we've done a good job with prioritization. Things like end to end encryption, mood tracking, and a more robust text editor may all be important for the app's long term success, but customization is our primary differentiator, so I'm glad that feature set feels a bit more full.

I'm going to shift gears towards marketing the app now. I've overhauled our ASO strategy with this release. Up to this point, I've only tried to use keywords that accurately described and branded the app. With this release, I am targeting some specific keywords that we might be able to rank for. I really hope it works.

There are still product/engineering tasks remaining, but most will support marketing efforts.

This release primarily featured the introduction of a new customization type - journal bands, but also included a lot of less glamorous behind the scenes fixes.

There were fixes made to address edge case crashes (refreshing access tokens, date conversions), a fix for an issue related to the iOS 16 update that left the app unusable, and optimizations to how files were being saved to AWS. I learned more about Core Data. Data can only be updated in the same context it was created. I don't really understand this, but I wasn't about to try and rework Core Data to work from a background thread. Instead, I limited the data being updated to recent entries based on date to prevent my UI from being locked up while data was being stored to Core Data. I even squeezed in a long overdue security measure to store tokens in a Keychain.

On the UI side, I'm very happy with the continued progress. The design is more and more skeuomorphic and really highlights the customization aspect of the app. The design looks more professional and minimalistic. I can see parts of the app that have taken big steps forward, which makes it clear that other areas of the app have room to catch up as well.

All in all, it was a very productive release. I kind of sputtered near the end (as I often do). My friend says the last 10% is the next 90%, but as always we got it done, and I'm very satisfied with the results.

On the business/marketing side, we have new app store previews, I'm continuing to tinker with ASO keywords and Apple search ad bids and keywords. I'm not sure how much I'm learning. It's a very unscientific process, but I hope that at least I'm getting a feel for what is working and what isn't. A few more purchases have come through, which is encouraging.

There are two remaining features I plan on implementing before slowing down on the engineering side and ramping up marketing. 1) encryption - it will be very nice to be able to say with full confidence that journal data is private, even from me and 2) I want to add another item (stickers) - I feel like this will give users plenty of fun ways to customize their journals.

I am eager to focus more on marketing. I know people always say not to wait to market your product, but I will be happy to market a product that I am proud of, even if it still has a ways to go. I've also decided that it's just hard to do both at the same time, even harder to do both well.

This release features a redesigned journals screen to highlight the ability to customize journal designs. After our previous release, it was nice to be able to focus almost entirely on the front end. The big challenge in this release was embedding a collection view into a table view. This is a common pattern, but as with all features on this journey, it was new to me! I'm very happy with the end result.

From a UX perspective, a big goal was to highlight the ability to customize journal designs and I think we were successful in doing that.

https://apps.apple.com/app/id1547099008

It has been way to long since a release! A lot of roadblocks and distractions, but could not be happier and more relieved to get this one out the door.

I knew it was going to be challenging and complex, but we made it happen. Offline support is just something I felt like had to happen and I didn't want to put it off any longer.

Along the way, I had to learn how to use Core Data, rewrite or repurpose nearly every existing API endpoint, and find a workflow for syncing data back to the web server. I can't express how challenging this was for me, but it is yet another example of how an intimidating objective can be overcome with time and effort.

The other enhancement I'm excited about is the tab navigation controller and a new UI/UX for creating posts. This is the new foundation for the app, and I'm ready to get back to a more regular cadence of releases.

Next up, the plan is to update the over design of the app to highlight customization features. There is probable one more major product milestone I want to hit after that, but I think we are still on track to do a major marketing push by the end of the year :)

This is a pretty significant milestone, as the foundation for the app's revenue model is now in place. I've heard many say they are in favor of implementing a revenue model from day 1, but as the only one coding, a lot of work had to be put into just building the core journaling features. How can you charge without providing value? In many ways, I still feel as the app is pre-launch. I released the app as soon as I had something functional and collected data and feedback along the way, a decision I will always stand by.

I held off multiple times from prioritizing the paywall. While there is still a ton of uncertainty (pricing, length of subscription period, free trial, what features to put behind it, etc), I feel like the app now (barely) provides enough value to justify a paid experience. The paywall appears when users try to create more than one journal and it unlocks all the customization options that until now could only be bought a la carte.

What's next?
UI updates including transitioning to a tabbed navigation, updating the way a journal is displayed, and revisiting the general brand aesthetic to highlight the ability to visually customize journals.

Feature-wise, first, I want to implement offline journaling (it's been on the back of my mind for a while). Not the most glamorous feature, but needs to be done. Second is TBD and will fit into the new tab navigation and live behind the paywall.

Oh, and some long overdue website updates...

When it's all said and done, I think the app will be ready for a real launch :)

After about 5 weeks of development, v1.10 has been approved into the iOS app store!

Retrospective:

1. I bit off more than I could chew. I knew this as I was doing it, but in an inspired, manic frenzy I just started "going for it". As we should all know by now, the work needed to complete and stabilize a feature always expands as you progress through it and test various use cases.

2. The idea and execution of photo and audio uploads was not based on any particular user feedback. I am uncomfortable with this fact, but there is a correlation between users creating their first journal entry and over retention. If photo and audio updates can increase these metrics then it will be well worth it. This feature set is also somewhat justified by the fact that they also exist similar apps. Also, I think the features are really cool :)

3. I have begun #buildinginpublic. I've been writing updates on most major releases on IH, but started tweeting daily. So far it's been a great experience, gets me in the habit of being open and honest with my work, and motivating to get feedback and see what others are working on.

Technical Accomplishments
-Got more familiar with AWS s3 buckets
-Generated pre-signed urls to keep images and audio files secure (very proud of this)
-Messed around with UIDatePicker
-Fixed a ton of date conversion issues (gives me a headache just thinking about it)
-Got AVAudioRecorder, AVAudioPlayer, AVPlayer, etc to work
-Created a cool button animation
-Cleaned up some code and patched up some use cases instead of leaving them undone prior to release

Looking Ahead:

1. Admittedly, I am still a bit lost in terms of how to market my app.

2. Good news - I have a good idea of what I believe to be the next few sets of features.

3. Constantly trying to balance building free features and how to integrate them with a monetization strategy.

All things considered, happy with what I accomplished, and optimistic about what is to come.

This release followed up the ability to add confetti animations to journal entries with a few options to change the background images of a journal. While the previous integration of RevenueCat and experience with the IAP workflow set up for development, I quickly realized that there would be a significant amount of UI/UX work to allow users to both purchase and select/apply new background images. I will expect to have to go through a similar experience when we expand into the ability to customize journal entry cards.

That being said, I'm pretty satisfied with the result. While there have been no organic In App Purchases yet, we are hopeful that additional UX enhancements and expanding the types and catalogue of customization offerings will pay off in the long run.

In terms of metrics, albeit slowly, the user base continues to grow month over month. I am experimenting with App Store Optimization and still very concerned about retention rates.

I have a strong desire to add journal entry card customization to give the IAP part of the app a little more legitimacy, but I am also hoping that I can make time to implement a couple of other minor core journaling features. Two that I am excited about are 1) fast scroll with an indicator to help users browse through old journal entries and 2) photo uploads.

Happy holidays! This release further expands on customization options for my journaling app. Sadly, still no organic purchases, but I am still hopeful that reaching the right market, expanding the catalogue of customization options, and given some time that it will happen.

The plan is to expand the items users can select from for the current item types (background images, patterns, frames, confetti) and reach out to people in online journaling communities to get feedback.

I have some annoying bugs & optimizations I am trying to work on and currently stuck! It never fails to discourage me, but I haven't given up quite yet.

In terms of monetization I am also planning on adding the ability to make photo and audio posts, and preventing the number of journals a user can have unless the user pays for a premium subscription. Unlimited access to customization options will also be available via subscription.

On a personal note, I've had a lot of doubts and I'm not sure how much longer I can or want to work on this app full-time, but I've re-committed myself to hitting at least another couple of milestones before I make a decision.