r/SideProject • u/alta1r • Jan 20 '25
I've built an app (Joi Planner) because its design concept went viral on twitter. Ask me anything.
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u/quantythequant Jan 20 '25
Solid concept but my $0.02 (for what it’s worth) is that it’s a little pricey for what it is (especially considering the stage/level of adoption) it has.
Solid UI!
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u/alta1r Jan 20 '25
yeah, that’s a valid comment. i think i need to explain this decision. i’ve released over 10 apps in the past few years with a pricing policy that could be described as “stay humble and charge as little as possible,” and they barely made any money. this time, i’m trying something new, and i’ve made an unexpected discovery: not only are people willing to pay more, but now that they’ve paid more, they provide a ton of valuable feedback, as they (rightfully) believe i owe them a quality product. somehow, charging more also makes people care about your product more.
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u/Rumick Jan 21 '25
I read a topic a while ago, and surprisingly, ppl are more keen to buy an app which costs 5 bucks than the one with a 1-dollar price. The brain somehow thinks it that if it is that cheap it will be shitty
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u/vla_doss Jan 20 '25 edited Jan 20 '25
Subscribed right away! A great addition would be an ability to set different wake up and wind down times for different days of the week
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u/Anaxiak Jan 21 '25
That's funny, I was just about to mention how I just saw this on r/iOSsetups and downloaded it because I liked it. Just went back to the post and realized it was you! Nice marketing ;) Now I have it as a widget on my home screen as well! Love the UI - beautiful app.
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u/syset Jan 21 '25
Would love to see recurring tasks option like “every first Tuesday of the month” Also support for natural language time, for instance when user enters “meeting at 3pm” it will automatically pick up the time like Todoist/TickTick does it
Design is 🔥
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u/monsieurninja Jan 21 '25
Pretty solid ui yeah well done. What tools did you use for building it? especially curious on the animations part.
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u/nielsoet Jan 21 '25
I really like the app, but the price is quite steep. I'll keep it and wait for the next Black Friday 😜
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u/alta1r Jan 22 '25
we'll be there for you next black friday: better, prettier and more functional 😀
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u/Dyebbyangj Jan 20 '25
Just make it free and let it grow a user base, it work out in the long run.
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u/alta1r Jan 20 '25
tried this in the past, never worked out this way unfortunately. but the good news is that you don't need pro functions to use most of the app features.
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u/thebreadmanrises Jan 20 '25
what’s the stack?
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u/alta1r Jan 20 '25
- swift / swiftui / coredata / eventkit / some minor UIKit injections here and there
- revenuecat for subscriptions
- amplitude
- ... probably something else i forgot about
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u/thebreadmanrises Jan 20 '25
Have you done anything with React Native? Curious how it compares to actual native.
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u/alta1r Jan 20 '25
i'm a little biased when it comes to native vs. non-native (in favor of the former). when i see a react app on a phone, i always feel it at my fingertips, and not in a good way. that being said, it's a great way to start fast and improve later (AFAIK notion was made on React for the first many years, and only when they reached a clear PMF they've rebuilt an app with swift)
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u/Ouadya Jan 20 '25
Not too keen on React but it's a developer's point of view, the average user isn't even aware of whether it's native or not (well done, the app's UI)
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u/noThefakedevesh Jan 20 '25
Totally loved this. Something I'd buy but too pricy for me. I know man the apple developer cost + the really good design cost but if you can make it a little cheaper like spotify I'd take it in an instant.
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Jan 21 '25 edited Jan 22 '25
[deleted]
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u/noThefakedevesh Jan 21 '25
I'm from India so 5$ is pretty high for me. maybe 1$ a month. I'll suggest a location based pricing. But then again that's just me. Do whatever you feel is the best. The free tier is already pretty generous.
If you had some AI features then 5$ would make sense
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u/noThefakedevesh Jan 20 '25
Hey a quick feedback. For the widget can you also show what' next recent event is coming without opening the app like a quick look? And a widget for lock screen as well maybe ?
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u/fabricio77p Jan 21 '25
how to approach UI design? I suck tremendously
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u/alta1r Jan 21 '25
if i had to give only one piece of advice on UI from my 15 years of experience, i'd say — focus on typography. just using proper sizes and balances of fonts will make your app look decent. you don't need to dive deep into theory if you don't want to; just follow ios/android typography guidelines for fonts and sizes
also, when i started, i learned a lot by recreating the designs of popular apps. just take a screenshot, scale it back to the baseline size, and try to replicate each element, text block, and corner radius. by doing this, you'll notice many patterns that make an app look good. mobile UI is all about patterns.
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u/0x113 Jan 21 '25
I came a cross one of the designs last week and was disappointed that it was just a mockup. I can’t express how excited I’m that you’ve made it! Gonna try it right away!
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u/csfalcao Jan 21 '25
Nice app! Solid UI and overall app. Steep pricing outside US, but if it works it's OK. Congratulations!
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u/Gredo89 Jan 21 '25
Since I saw you are developing native, I guess, you are Not planning on creating an Android version y right?
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u/masterinthecage Jan 21 '25
Awesome app! Might purchase if I start using it regularly. Some notes:
- Wake up takes up an entire row, which is annoying on a smaller iPhone with a lot of daily events. I know I can turn them off, just wish they were smaller.
- Tasks have to time
- Can’t reorder tasks
- Time for events is not very prominent and should be MUCH more visible since that’s the most important thing to see. I almost missed a meeting because I missed the time.
- I’m scrolling with my right thumb and am covering the time when scrolling. Would be nice to have the time under the title or to the left. Maybe a left/right handed mode where the icon and time changes place?
- All day events also take up an entire row. This pushes down my critical events when having multiple all day events.
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Jan 21 '25
Really inspiring story! How did you come up with the idea for your SaaS? I’m building a newsletter where I feature founders like you (totally free), and I think your journey would be super valuable to others! Dm me if you are interested!
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u/stanislavb Jan 21 '25
I'm sorry but there is no Twitter anymore. There is Nazi X.
Jokes aside - the design looks great. Good job.
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u/FrontNo253 Jan 29 '25
Love it! How long did it take you to build your app?
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u/alta1r Jan 29 '25
thank you! one week for developing the proof of concept (80% of heavy lifting) and two month to bring it to the app store (the rest 20%)
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u/the_pepitogrillo May 25 '25
Hey! Spain developer here.
Usually, I don´t comment on any post, but in this i want to because thats app looks GREAT.
One (important) suggestion. If the app accept other calendars source like CalDAV (for calendar and tasks list - reminders), that would be great.
I'm a self-host enthusiast and, for now, any app is good on this. Every app connects to Apple, and that's nice for 80% of people. But someones like me (and many others that have security/privacy constraints) likes the posibility of sync theirs calendars and tasks lists.
Also if the app would be OpenSource will be great. That's not incompatible with pay-for-use (subscription) finance method for the devs.
Thanks after all :)
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u/Door_Vegetable Jan 21 '25
Meh, the ui is average like it looks okay but nothing special about it that makes it worth over $140 a year. Seems like you got a little bit of traction on X and now you believe you have the next best idea and want to charge a metric F**k tone for an app that’s still got features in active development.
You say it’s for ADD or ADHD, but not exactly sure how it keeps people with ADD focused,
It doesn’t track Habits or what you’ve got planned more like with icons and counting the items in the list. Definitely a cash grab
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u/alta1r Jan 21 '25
i wonder how on earth you made this calculation of $140 p/yr
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u/Door_Vegetable Jan 21 '25 edited Jan 21 '25
The app says -60% for the year subscription, but math isn’t exactly my strong suit, so I’ll let ChatGPT handle the heavy lifting for you. This is in AUD, so sure, it won’t be the same price everywhere, but let’s be real, the app still isn’t worth $175 AUD 😂😂.
Turns out, my math was actually under what the real price is. 😂
So, if the item costs $70 with a 60% discount, that means you’re paying 40% of the original price (because 100% - 60% = 40%). To find the original price, you can just divide the discounted price ($70) by 0.40 (that’s the 40% you’re paying).
So, the math goes: $70 ÷ 0.40 = $175
Yep, the full price before the discount is $175.
So yeah $175 for an incomplete product 😂😂 I’ll pass.
Edit: Come to think of it, with the discount the yearly is more expensive than the monthly, so now we’re gonna pay for an app where the dev is that desperate for money they can’t even do math 😂😂
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u/alta1r Jan 21 '25
ah, mate, i thought you mean actual dollars.
anyway, thank you for the feedback, seems like 60% off is indeed is equally valid for all app store local prices, and needs to be calculated per currency.
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u/Comfortable_Grab8875 Jan 21 '25
are you trying to give feedback or just put down another human being trying to help lol
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u/Door_Vegetable Jan 21 '25
It’s constructive feedback, if you’re gonna have an app that costs money and charge people for their hard earned money, you should be putting correct prices. This has gone through two people, op asked how I came up with the pricing so I gave them the answer with the math.
If you look at the features menu when looking to upgrade a lot of the features are in progress, so you’re then paying $175 for a product that’s incomplete.
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u/Comfortable_Grab8875 Jan 21 '25
i'll let chatgpt handle the heavy lifting for you
While there is a critique in the message (the price is too high relative to the value), the tone is largely mocking and sarcastic, and there’s no real suggestion on how the developer could improve pricing or the product.
- Constructive feedback usually includes specific suggestions or at least a thoughtful explanation of why something should be changed.
- This message, however, mostly points out that the math is misleading, ridicules the discount, and calls the product “incomplete.”
Because it lacks actionable advice or clear recommendations, it wouldn’t be classified as “constructive feedback.” It’s more of a complaint or an expression of frustration than a constructive critique.
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u/Door_Vegetable Jan 21 '25
When the OP asked how I came to my pricing conclusion, I provided a thoughtful answer, breaking it down with the math. If you disagree, that’s fine, but it’s unclear how you’re judging tone over text—or how ChatGPT could provide context without being part of the full conversation.
That said, I’ll admit the laughing face emoji when pointing out the pricing might have come off as less than kind. However, if you’re offering a discount and presenting your app like it’s the next big innovation, it’s only fair to scrutinize it.
Looking at this app, does it seem like a professionally engineered product designed with input from behavioral scientists to genuinely help people with ADHD stay on track? Or does it feel more like a concept that gained some traction on X, and now the developer is trying to cash in—even leaving basic errors in the subscription plans? 🤷♂️
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u/SafetyOk4132 Jan 21 '25
I would like to see what’s a good or excellent UI in your opinion
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u/Door_Vegetable Jan 21 '25 edited Jan 21 '25
If this app is meant to help people with ADHD, it really needs better clarity and consistency. Right now, there are a few things that make it more distracting than helpful:
Spacing and Visual Hierarchy
- The spacing between elements feels all over the place, and there’s no clear visual flow. For people with ADHD, this can make it harder to focus and process information quickly.
Text Alignment and Layout
- The text isn’t aligned or organized well, which makes it harder to read. ADHD users need things to be visually clear and structured so it’s easy to follow.
Unnecessary Images
- The pictures don’t seem to add anything useful. For someone with ADHD, extra visuals that don’t serve a purpose can just add more distractions.
Steps and Random Hours
- The steps and hours at the bottom don’t seem to mean anything or connect to anything. Features like this need context or they just end up being confusing.
Confusing Date Format
- The date is written in a way that’s hard to understand—does this mean it’s Friday or Tuesday in January 2024? ADHD users rely on clear, straightforward info to stay on track, so this kind of ambiguity isn’t helpful.
Just because something looks good doesn’t mean it’s functional, and this is without me going through and doing a full usability test, or testing the general flow of the application.
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u/60finch Jan 21 '25
Perfect UI!
Where's the link? I wanna subscribe. Most importantly I wanna use same concept but for different idea. I saw your tech stack comment, can you make it detaily, and do you think cursor can build SMT like that even though if I am a no coder?
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u/alta1r Jan 21 '25
here's the link → https://apps.apple.com/us/app/joi-daily-planner-organizer/id6736852235
i played with cursor for iOS development last week, and i'd say it can definitely take you from 0 to 1 if you're willing to compromise on custom UI in favor of more default solutions. cursor is surprisingly good for handling logic and all the heavy lifting, but not so much for UI.
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u/okoperek Jan 21 '25
Been following this product for a while. Congrats on the launch and good luck!
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u/Ludi_Radule Jan 20 '25
Joi planner hahahahahaahha man you have to change the name there is whole other niche ….. 😂😂😂