I’ve been working on a little project that I would like to introduce you to: Write.fm
Write.fm is a dead simple application that allows you to share text between computers and in the cloud. I really focused on ease of use with this app – there are hardly any elements on the page and the only action required by the user is to start typing. There is no need to “save” as its all done automatically.
The project was initially started as a way for me to share text snippets with other members of the Task.fm dev team, but after seeing how well it turned out, I thought I should open it up to the world.
A Minimum Viable Product
For those interested in building their own apps, this is a good example of a minimum viable product. There are many features that could have been added to this app (and im sure a few eventually will be), but the best way to build any app is to release early and iterate often. What you see at Write.fm is the minimum amount of code required for the app to function. From the point on, I’ll look at pushing new code to the site every two weeks.
The way I see it, this is a solid base to work off.
How to Gain Early Traction
There’s really no pressure on me to use hard sell and try and push this app onto people. As its just a side project, I don’t expect rapid
growth. But its always nice to see people using your products, no matter how small. So to gain those first few users, I started the ball rolling with just a tweet out to my followers. A day later there had been a reasonable amount of exposure.
Of course, the big issue is whether or not any of these new users will actually “stick” and come back to the product. Thats when its all about quality and hoping the user had a good experience.
So What Have You Shipped?
In my last post on Feint.me, I challenged you to use the 15 minutes you would spend on Facebook every day, to create something of value.
Its one thing to sit back, and blog about how people should be doing this and that, and its another to actually chase down your ideas and make them happen.
Take a leap of faith, and put your ideas out there for the rest of the world to see and use.
Your Feedback
As always, your feedback is welcome and I’m looking forward to hearing your thoughts.
12 Comments
Looks very nice. I would probably add a note on the top saying that the content is automatically saved, etc. Good work!
yeah I’m hard at work on the sketchpad trying to find an elegant way to portray this. I’ve got a few good ideas that I’ll split test on the app over the next couple of weeks.
Anthony you LEGEND!!
really really like this idea.
makes me wonder if cloudbusting can be applied to the internet
one thing: i wrote a bunch of text pretty quickly and then close the page, reopened, and the last 10ish words weren’t saved – possibly a delay between my last words and the autosave or summen but that kinda shit immediately puts off that fickle technology crowd who’d use it so i’d def keep that save button that pops up next to the filename. I know you wanna keep it minimalistic – and that’s rocken (my grans says you wouldn’t put a bumper sticker on a bentley
) – but people have a psychological tick about pressing the save button and if it gets to the point where peeps are actually using your tool proper, they want the mental satisfaction of KNOWING it’s saved.
supremo respect on making it happen though mate.
keep well. and in touch.
alex – unleashreality
p.s. re-launching my site this week so chchcheck it outs
a faux save button – i like!
Sorry about cutting off those last few words. It should autosave when you close the browser window, but obviously somethings amiss (I noticed the same problem), and I’ll get it fixed.
As I mentioned to Oscar, I’m working on a way to display to the user that the page has been saved.
I’m excited to see the relaunch of your blog — its been too long!!
also, you have to pop up a stumble and tweet button beneath your post…
or, since your all badass developer, waddabout a checkbox where you press submit – or just another button next to submit – that automatically stumbles / tweets the post?
cha-ching.
if you get it working, i’ll be game to use it on my site
little things = big magic. pancakes are little. french girls are little. you get the point
hmm i’m going to have to steal your idea:
This is really interesting. So if you just close your browser and open it up to the page it saved it opens up all you had previously written?
Yes. You don’t even need to close your browser, as it autosaves every couple of seconds.
This is really interesting. So if you just close your browser and open it up to the page it saved it opens up all you had previously written?
Hi there.. Tried out write.fm and its cool…. Tried out a few times and it seems the autosave function seems to have some problem..
I’ll look into it. Due to the huge level of traffic the app had yesterday, theres a chance some saves were delayed.
Very cool. Read about write.fm in a Brazilian magazine.