What “Next” is all about?
2 comments so farNext (codename App1) is a new approach to the old-and-tried to-do list web app, an effort to create very simple, intuitive and limited web app for handling short-term to-do list.
The aim is not to create a full-fledged to-do list system like RememberTheMilk, but rather to address the short-term task management, a day-to-day kinda thing; where time isn’t really a defining factor but rather a comprehensible list of tasks, their order and priorities.
Next is being built with limitations in mind:
- Removing time from the equation
- One task to do at any time (on the homepage)
- Limiting the number of tasks (20 tasks for the whole list)
- Limiting the length of the task (140 characters per task)
The application will include a web interface, Adobe AIR app and iPhone application to make it accessible on the web, desktop and on the mobile.
The guys are hard at work on the application, as we will launch it before the end of tomorrow, wish us luck.
Picking an Idea
2 comments so farWhen we first sat down to decide on an idea for the App1, we were looking for an idea with certain characteristics to fit the concept, even though we didn’t verbalize that.
Those principles are:.
- Universal need: we were looking for something that all of us and almost everyone could use
- Innovative approach: we were looking for new “previously un-tested” ways to approach the idea.
- Minimalsitic approach: strip the idea down to its basics and solve the underlying cause first.
- Doable in 2 days: the idea has to be lightweight, that could be developed and delivered within 2 days.
- Passion: something all of us are passionate about.
- Fun: an idea that would be fun to work on.
- Working on new things: we were looking to add some new dimensions to the idea to include something that we have never worked on before.
Those principles make all the difference between success and failure with our experiment, and our App1 “Next” satisfies all of the above elegantly, how is that? coming up in the next post…
Zero to Beta Kicks Off
3 comments so farZero2Beta is an experiment on intense design and development of a useful web application from concept to launch in a couple of days, and release it to the public.
The experiment is inspired by the similar experiment “Matt” done by “Carosnified” in building and launching a web app in 32 hours.
With the agile development platforms like Rails and back-to-basics approach to applications, the time to design, develop and launch an application has become impressively short. Zero2Beta is a collaboration effort between Spinbits and CloudAppers, with the purpose of pushing ourselves to create from scratch in a couple of days.
It enforces the practice of coming up with a unique idea, design an application around it, deploy it and get out in the public as soon as possible. We hope that the self-imposed limitations in terms of time and resources will push us to focus on what really matters and rise above trivial decisions into working on the absolutely necessary parts needed to have something working quickly.
The first application in this experiment “App1″ will kick off tomorrow, we will announce it here on the blog and start writing the story posts of our adventure in creating it from choosing the idea till launching the project.
You can follow the twitter account @zero2beta as we will post hourly updates throughout the next couple of days, links to posts in addition to some photos and videos as well.
App1 name is “Next”, that’s all we can say now, details will start coming tomorrow… stay tuned.