I was a flight instructor and am now a software engineer, plus I've made a daily checklist app. So I think I'm at least qualified to throw out some opinions on this.
It's not a software engineering challenge. The minimal features are textbook basic CRUD. The essential UI will be well-supported by any framework. Even the challenges when you branch out are solved problems. Device sync, sharing, backups, etc all have some off-the shelf solution or are solved in another space you can look at.
It's a product design / UX / whatever you want to call it problem. Within the set of choices that are easily available to you in the software engineering world, you have to make the right ones! Most people won't naturally make good checklists. How do you help them? One of the biggest (maybe single biggest) issues with checklist is using them at all. How do you get compliance up? How do you handle "skipping" items? Do you go with read/do or do/confirm? How do you keep checklists up-to-date (critical for emergency checklists). It would be very easy to get this stuff wrong.
It also hits a weird spot in the market. What would people pay for this? I don't think you hit enough users for "free" and then my guess is it's a really weird curve with some people paying $1 and then a minority paying like a lot ($100?). I don't know, that's a total guess. Just bringing this up to cover "why isn't a company already doing this?".
Not to be discouraging! Just don't take it as a software engineering challenge. If you're experienced and working on your home turf, it will be easy. The hard thing will be making the right easy thing. Best way to do that is to solve your own problem btw. Maybe start with a "I crashed the server" checklist or something.
If anyone wants to take a stab, the essay that the book "The Checklist Manifesto" is based on would be a good start. The book itself is a bit verbose, but would be worth it if you get serious. I'd also chat for 30 minutes or answer random questions for anyone who's going to make something. My email is my last name at gmail.
Couldn't have put it better myself. As usual, the hard part isn't building software, it's building software that people want and finding a way to get them to pay you for it.
It's not a software engineering challenge. The minimal features are textbook basic CRUD. The essential UI will be well-supported by any framework. Even the challenges when you branch out are solved problems. Device sync, sharing, backups, etc all have some off-the shelf solution or are solved in another space you can look at.
It's a product design / UX / whatever you want to call it problem. Within the set of choices that are easily available to you in the software engineering world, you have to make the right ones! Most people won't naturally make good checklists. How do you help them? One of the biggest (maybe single biggest) issues with checklist is using them at all. How do you get compliance up? How do you handle "skipping" items? Do you go with read/do or do/confirm? How do you keep checklists up-to-date (critical for emergency checklists). It would be very easy to get this stuff wrong.
It also hits a weird spot in the market. What would people pay for this? I don't think you hit enough users for "free" and then my guess is it's a really weird curve with some people paying $1 and then a minority paying like a lot ($100?). I don't know, that's a total guess. Just bringing this up to cover "why isn't a company already doing this?".
Not to be discouraging! Just don't take it as a software engineering challenge. If you're experienced and working on your home turf, it will be easy. The hard thing will be making the right easy thing. Best way to do that is to solve your own problem btw. Maybe start with a "I crashed the server" checklist or something.
If anyone wants to take a stab, the essay that the book "The Checklist Manifesto" is based on would be a good start. The book itself is a bit verbose, but would be worth it if you get serious. I'd also chat for 30 minutes or answer random questions for anyone who's going to make something. My email is my last name at gmail.