I built an app that no one wanted to use, unfortunately. It helps people reduce phone usage by displaying things like cats in your screen, the screen time police, annoying cookie banners, and more.
Users complained the app was too annoying, so I've revamped it after asking for feedback properly [1]. Learning more about user research, UX, marketing (even making TikToks!) and so on has been pretty neat. Learnings are:
1. People want to avoid losing track of time on social media
2. Instagram is great to connect with friends, but Reels are dangerous!
3. Complete focus is only necessary in cases like work or study.
This has been one of the most creative projects I've done. It's the closest thing I've done to art as a programmer :)
Also, Kotlin Multiplatform has been a joy! Only faced minor issues because it's too new, but it's been easy to create animations and reuse components. XML on Android was a huuuge pain. I'm happy with myself for prototyping without wasting too much time overall.
Users complained the app was too annoying, so I've revamped it after asking for feedback properly [1]. Learning more about user research, UX, marketing (even making TikToks!) and so on has been pretty neat. Learnings are:
1. People want to avoid losing track of time on social media
2. Instagram is great to connect with friends, but Reels are dangerous!
3. Complete focus is only necessary in cases like work or study.
This has been one of the most creative projects I've done. It's the closest thing I've done to art as a programmer :)
Also, Kotlin Multiplatform has been a joy! Only faced minor issues because it's too new, but it's been easy to create animations and reuse components. XML on Android was a huuuge pain. I'm happy with myself for prototyping without wasting too much time overall.
[1] https://speedbumpapp.com/blog/v1/