
Show HN: Pocket - my first app ever - guynamedloren
http://letspocket.com
======
codeslush
The site looks great! Unless you stole the layout ideas from someone else, you
should be quite proud of yourself and what you've got started here.

A few pieces of input:

1\. Like others, the logo doesn't stand out. In fact, I didn't see it until I
read some of the other comments and adjusted my monitor position a bit.

2\. Emphasize the txt'ing capabilities a little more. Assuming you're using
something like Twilio, why use that validation code in front of the texts?
That makes it highly unusable. You should be able to see what number the text
is coming from and attach it to the proper account.

3\. Put in an sms reply feature. For example, I text #todo or #grocerylist and
it returns my notes that haven't yet been completed with that tag. Which leads
to... You've already got the ability to post notes, now retrieve them.

4\. The simplicity is totally nice, but how about putting these things into
different buckets? Mark as complete, next week, etc... ? That way, you can
manage the "boards" on which they go in a level beyond the hash-tag boards.
Make sense?

You REALLY should be VERY PLEASED with what you've got here. I'm so impressed
with the visual appeal of the app.

My guess is you're using authlogic for authentication. Is that right? If so,
there are some good articles out there that will walk you through implementing
password resets - in fact, I think it might be in the main authlogic page
(been a little while since I've done it). It's really easy to implement.

Looks like I was your 84th user! Congrats and keep it up. I love hearing
stories like this.

~~~
guynamedloren
2\. You're definitely right about this. Before I ever started developing the
app, the number one feature in my mind was always SMS capabilities. I'm not
really sure why I haven't made this more prominent. Regarding the validation
code - that's just there because I'm still on the free developer plan with
Twilio. I guess I want to build up the SMS features a bit more before I step
out of developer mode.

3\. Already in the pipeline. Will be an awesome feature, I believe.

4\. Pondering this, but it's a toughie. Trying to keep things simple,
uncluttered, and easy to use while adding more features is one of the most
difficult challenges I have faced.

The design and interface are completely original. What you're seeing is about
the 4th major rendition over the past 2 months. As I am writing code I keep
striving to make Pocket better and better (visually) and I'm pretty happy with
where it's at now. We'll see how long it takes me to get bored =]

As for the authentication, I rolled my own (with the help of some tutorials)
but I believe its pretty similar to authlogic. I'm sure I can add a password
reset feature, but I just haven't had a chance to look into it yet.

Thanks for all of the kind words. The support here on HN is incredibly
motivating and encouraging!

~~~
johns
We can upgrade you to a full account, just email jsheehan@twilio.com. You'll
keep your dev credit.

------
camtarn
I love your site design - very cute :)

I'd definitely be interested once you got an Android app up and running - I
use Evernote on Android and web heavily at the moment, and tried Springpad for
a while (until it screwed up a sync and deleted all my notes, grr!)

Back when I was in Uni I used the analogue version of this: a big whiteboard
next to my desk with stuff pinned to it or written in little lists, as well as
using a sticky note app on my laptop. Pocket's visuals really remind me of
that, in a good way, and from the teaser it looks like it would be really good
for at-a-glance reminders and suchlike.

~~~
guynamedloren
Thanks, I appreciate the feedback and support!

That's exactly what I was shooting for with pocket. I have a giant whiteboard
too, and it's incredibly useful. Since I made Pocket, however, I find myself
using it less and less. Guess that means I'm doing things right?

Mobile apps are in the pipeline!

------
ismaelsow
Nice work! Do you plan to make money from this? As you said, it is a very
crowded market and I would suggest you to be ready for a long PR campaign.
Peldi from balsamiq has great advice:
[http://blogs.balsamiq.com/product/2008/08/05/startup-
marketi...](http://blogs.balsamiq.com/product/2008/08/05/startup-marketing-
advice-from-balsamiq-studios/)

If you choose the freemium route, you could give away to bloggers and alike,
free premium accounts for them and for their readers. It is a great promotion
tactic.

~~~
guynamedloren
If the opportunity exists, I would absolutely love to make money from this and
other future web apps. Peldi (and Balsamiq) has been a huge inspiration
recently and the freemium route is exactly what I had in mind.

While building the app, I told myself that I would be satisfied if I was the
only person in the world that used it (it was just a testing ground, after
all). With this overwhelmingly positive response, I guess I can have a little
more confidence to pursue things further.

Thanks for checking out Pocket!

------
espadagroup
I've been looking for something like this for a long while. Kind of a
Evernote-Lite. The closest thing I've found before is Shifd.com. Just a simple
cross platform notepad. Yours comes close and I love the hashtags. The only
thing stopping me from using it heavily is no desktop application for
Mac/Windows.

I use a Mac at work and Windows at home. I'd love to just have a simple
notepad that can go there and receive texts. Yours is pretty close, awesome
work so far.

~~~
guynamedloren
I appreciate the support!

Just looked at Shifd - I'm surprised I didn't come across that one in my
search for the perfect tool. It's got a pretty nice interface and features.

------
Wilduck
The itch you're trying to scratch is an itchy one for me as well. I'd really
like an online service that could merge my note taking habits on my computer
seamlessly with my note taking habits on my phone.

However, for an app that's purported to work well on a phone, I had a terrible
time trying to read the website on mine. I'd suggest looking at the site from
a couple mobile browsers. Aside from that, congrats on learning to code. It's
definitely empowering.

~~~
guynamedloren
> I'd really like an online service that could merge my note taking habits on
> my computer seamlessly with my note taking habits on my phone.

That's what I'm shooting for - iPhone and Android apps are in the works.

> However, for an app that's purported to work well on a phone, I had a
> terrible time trying to read the website on mine. I'd suggest looking at the
> site from a couple mobile browsers.

I hadn't even thought about this. Sorry for the confusion, but I didn't intend
for the app to be viewed in mobile browsers. Currently, it is optimized for
desktop browsers with mobile app syncing planned for the future.

Thanks for the feedback!

------
magicseth
How about replacing that image of the sign up form on your first page with...
The actual sign up form? It should be simple enough and also reduce friction.

~~~
shortlived
And keep the sign up form above the fold. Currently it's almost all the way
off my screen and therefor easy to miss.

------
guynamedloren
HN - I’d love to hear your feedback and thoughts on this app. Would you use
it? What do you think of the user interface? What could be improved? How does
it compare to similar apps? I’m ready for your (hopefully constructive)
criticisms! For the record – all of the design, programming, and imagining was
done by me =]

== Experience & Motivation

Pocket was developed to scratch a personal itch - a very itchy itch. I am the
most forgetful person I know, and that sucks. I am aware that the note app
space is extremely crowded, but I have been thoroughly unimpressed with
everything I’ve seen. Here’s a rundown of how Pocket came to be:

* 9 months ago: Searched for a multi-platform note taking solution to record daily thoughts and ideas. They all seemed overly complicated for such a simple task of quickly jotting down ideas. Even with a smartphone, I stuck with my pocket notebook to jot down ideas, songs to download, grocery lists, etc. At the time, I had no programming experience whatsoever so I didn’t even consider developing a solution on my own.

* 6 months ago: Still hadn’t found a decent note app. Began to think about how I would go about building one, and discovered Ruby on Rails. At this point, the only coding I had ever done was basic HTML and CSS, which hardly counts for anything. Briefly tried Ruby on Rails, but gave up after numerous attempts to wrap my head around the mysterious and elusive world of programming.

* 3 months ago: The list of apps I would like to eventually develop became quite lengthy and the vision for my note app was as clear as day. If only I knew how to code. Tried Ruby on Rails once again. Struggled through some tutorials and half of an ebook. Still didn’t really understand it, but I stuck with it.

* 2 months ago: Sudden realization that programming would never “click” unless I jumped in and started developing. I began to hack together any code I could muster, and my vision slowly became a reality. With a spark of passion, a fire was lit that I couldn’t extinguish. Although time was limited as it was my last semester in college with a heavy workload on my shoulders, I coded relentlessly every chance I could (which amounted to a mere 1-2 nights a week). Started using a rough version of Pocket to keep track of everything, including updates and ideas for the very app I was developing.

* 1 month ago: Programming was real for me. I felt like I actually knew what I was doing, and I didn’t want to stop. With every tiny milestone in learning and development, I would literally jump out of my chair with excitement. The code itself was nothing extraordinary, but knowing that I could have an idea and bring it to life was quite empowering. The fire burned hotter.

* today: Pocket has reached the point where I can share it with the world. While it may not be the most technologically advanced application (especially compared to the amazing stuff I see here on HN), it does exactly what I want it to do – and that’s a great feeling. I am ready to harness my newly discovered passion to develop the apps on my ever-growing list of ideas. I think there are at least a few winners on that list, so we’ll see what happens!

== Known Issues

* Lack of password reset

* Lack of mobile number confirmation

* IE (9 beta): dragging doesn’t work, CSS padding is occasionally funky

== Tech Specs

* Built with Ruby on Rails + JQuery

* Hosted by Heroku (Amazon EC2?)

~~~
lrm242
Congratulations on shipping! Some notes:

* The logo is very hard to see. If I'm not mistaken, it's suppsoed to be pressed text on a brown background with a glow around it. It doesn't stand out nearly as much as it should.

* "Keep your ideas on a personal dashboard" has a "Learn more" with an arrow. I tried to click the arrow unsuccessfully. It looks like you have to click the post-it-note. Make the arrow clickable too.

* The idea of texting a note to myself is very appealing but when I click the post-it-note it takes me to something that doesn't really talk about it. I expected to be taken to a blurb about how that works. What number do I text? How are they delivered to me? Etc.

* Essentially the same comment as above for the other post-it-note, Access from anywhere. Is there an app I need to download? Does it work on Android? Etc, etc.

* Don't make me click through to sign up. Instead of an image of your sign up form, put your sign up form on the front page.

Hope that helps. Keep plugging, it's looking good!

~~~
evlapix
At the wrong angle on my MBP screen, the logo is completely invisible.

------
pacifika
Passwordless signup or guest mode would be good - I want to try your app
however I do not want to commit yet by creating a nother password. Perhaps
link it to ip + username and once logged in have the option to enable any
other ip using a password?

~~~
Eugene3v
another way you can go about it is just store things locally on a client
machine.. although you may need to explain that unless they sign up their
notes will not be saved globally.

~~~
guynamedloren
That's a great idea and would segway nicely into porting this as a google
chrome app. Any tips for storing notes locally? Haven't looked into it just
yet.

------
zeteo
As a marketing heads-up, the site name, letspocket.com , may raise negative
connotations. See for instance definitions 21-23 here:

<http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/pocket>

~~~
dpcan
What are you referring to? I don't see how the word pocket has any "negative"
connotations. It's a little confusing in how it relates to note-taking, but
that isn't really negative to me.

~~~
joelhaasnoot
I think he mean's the phrase "lets pocket" could mean "let's steal/take/grab".
That use of the word is a little British...

~~~
camtarn
Heh - this Brit didn't notice the possible alternative use at all. I thought
the domain was slightly Japanese-English style - cute and quirky.

~~~
shashashasha
eg "Let's pickle!"?

~~~
camtarn
Exactly :)

------
krobertson
Looks great and I liked it, but the late notice on the 140 character limit is
annoying.

I had to type out a list of projects for my week of vacation, so start typing
away, click Create, then doh! 140 limit? Select all, cut, open Stickies, new
sticky, paste, quit.

Would be great if larger stickies could be created. Or if you are going to
have a 140 limit, have a character counter there somewhere.

~~~
guynamedloren
You're totally right about the 140 char limit. I should explain that
beforehand somehow. Added to my Pocket #todo list.

Thanks for checking out the app!

------
flawawa2
random first second thoughts:

as i scrolled down the page, I lost the text to image connection. where does
the text belong to, the image above or below.

does not show the mobile interface. or is it just a website that you call
"app"?

~~~
mymex1
Agreed, I found myself staring at pictures and text more than once because I
wasn't sure which went which. I think the top of the page is also being
underused. It's the first thing a new user landing on your page will see, so
it should be what grabs them.

------
mise
I used Evernote on Android to take notes. In the end, I just Gmail myself. It
has two advantages: 1) Sends next time I have WiFi connection. 2) The email
acts as a reminder to follow up.

~~~
guynamedloren
I have gmail on my phone and I used to do the same quite often. The problem
was that I'm kind of an "inbox-zero" junkie, so I would always archive my ToDo
and reminder emails. Not a great way to get stuff done, so that didn't last
long! :) I said to myself "if only there was a way that I could text notes to
myself..." It's faster, easier, and the notes would stay there forever (or
until I got them done)".

------
vanni
Privacy policy? About info? People must trust you to sign up. Link to them in
the footer.

Not signed up yet, but it looks professional! :)

(On Ubuntu with Chrome 10.0.634.0 the homepage rendering is OK)

~~~
guynamedloren
I've been so involved with the technology and design side of things that I
totally skimped on that stuff. To be honest, I really didn't expect the app to
be received as well as it has been, so I guess I should probably start filling
in the gaps.

------
prestia
I just started working on a similar project for the exact same reasons!

I think your site looks good, but I would definitely try to make the Pocket
logo stand out a bit more. Pocket is your brand, be bold with it. Second, I
would replace the "Sign up now!" button with the two actual forms needed to
sign up. Not having to click through could dramatically increase
registrations.

I'll leave more comments once I've had time to use the application.

------
Cyranix
Looks nice, I'm willing to give it a spin. Reminds me of <http://corkboard.me>
which was posted on HN not too long ago, but I've never found a use for
ownerless apps like that.

------
soapdog
Loved your app. I've created something similar to myself only, not a webapp, a
desktop one. Congratulations!

Oh and on your madebyloren.com website, did you intentionally left the title
untitled or was that some lapse?

Cheers & thanks for the notes andre

~~~
guynamedloren
Thank you for the kind words =]

The title on madebyloren.com has not been set yet because I'm still working on
development. Madebyloren is my second attempt at a Ruby on Rails app. I
figured building a blog engine from scratch would be a good exercise and not
very difficult (plus highly customizable to my needs), so I went ahead and did
that instead of wordpress or another premade engine. Considering I only worked
on it for a few hours one day (designing and coding) I think it turned out
okay.

------
hardik988
Love the simple interface. One UX issue that comes to mind is, when I delete a
tag that's present on only one note, just redirect me to Dashboard instead of
saying there are no notes left and providing a link to Dashboard.

~~~
guynamedloren
Just added a note on my own dashboard to look into that issue =]

Thanks for checking out Pocket!

------
gsivil
Good work!

On the side: the HN community never ceases to positively surprise me: for
every one or two grumpy comments and for every one or two unfair downvotes,

you find tens or even more of extremely detailed and constructive well-meant
suggestions.

------
frogly
This is inspiring to me as a designer who can't code, although I want to learn
and have many ideas for projects. Well done for learning to program and
actually building and shipping your idea!

------
sammville
Nice design.. like the others i think you should work on your logo. Ar u sure
u just started designing/programming, it was really good.

------
pak
How would you differentiate yourself from notespark.com? This is what some of
my friends use.

------
jackolas
Make an API and or import/export options?

~~~
guynamedloren
I wouldn't even know where to begin with an API. I'm brand new to developing,
so that could be a ways away.. unless it's pretty straightforward?

~~~
jackolas
Depends how you wrote the application and such I've never written an API but
I've consumed enough of them to know that you should try and comply with OAuth
as its implemented in libraries.

------
sidyadav
Good work! Well executed and simple.

------
seanmalarkey
Nice work - I like it!

------
zrgiu
if you want help developing the Android version, reply here and I'll get back
to you. I really like the idea (free)

