Since working on custom categories and Ingredients, I’ve been thinking through the most useful first way to “expose” all those new features in @sofahq. I’ve settled on “Smart Lists” and I’ve just started working on it this past week. If you’re interested to see my progress and how it’s going to work, check out this video.
I’m 100% open to feedback on this too.
📺 New Video 📺
I learned a good bit from running a Black Friday sale for Sofa and I talk about what went well, the issues I ran into, and what I would do next time.
Soon you’ll be able to add anything into Sofa via a link. There are two reasons this makes sense for the product:
Adding links into Sofa increases it’s flexibility, and allows people to organize their downtime beyond media.
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I’ve been thinking a lot about what to call “Custom Properties”. That name feels a little too technical to me.
Here’s my working idea that I’d love some feedback on:strong>
With these new properties, you can essentially create your own custom features in Sofa. They em>
Enhancements sounds much simpler and friendlier to me, and also kind of describes what this feature does.
I’m open to feedback on this 👋
I want to share a little preview of something pretty cool I’ve been working on for Sofa. There’s still a good bit of refinement that I need to do, but I want to start getting feedback.
The working title for this feature is called “Custom Properties” (I’m open to other ideas…naming is hard lol).
Basically, you’ll be able to add your own custom properties to items in Sofa. Here’s the different properties you’ll be able to add:
Here’s a little demo showing how you can edit the properties within a detail view
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This shows how you can edit existing properties and add new ones
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I’m working hard to get this out to the beta group for further testing and feedback. First, I need to finish a few things and do some testing.
I’m open to any and all feedback on this. There is a lot of power in this feature, but also a lot of potential for confusion. I’m happy to answer any and all questions.
Adding analytics to your app can seem like a simple and obvious thing to do, but once you get into it, it can be a little confusing.
In my video this week I share an easy framework I follow that makes analytics more useful. I also share some of the dangers of analytics and things you should be careful of.
Time is moving a little too quickly. Overall, the past month was a busy one for me, but I feel like I’m starting to find my grove with my new work schedule. I’m also starting to find a better balance between work and downtime.
That being said, I am excited for some fall weather 🍃.
I just released an update to Sofa (v3.4.14) that brings a new design for the pricing page, a URL scheme for searching, and some helpful bug fixes. You can read more via this blog post.
September came with a big unexpected surprise. The vendor I use for board game data in Sofa went out of business. This lead to some hustling on my end to get a few fixes out as quickly as possible.
I was able to get in touch with the data provider for board games and get an extension to Oct 1, 2023. This means after Oct 1, you won’t be able to pull any new board games data into Sofa. I pushed out an update on Sep 14, 2023 (v3.4.12) that migrates and stores all board game data locally so people don’t lose any information.
The board games news forced me to reprioritize some infrastructure work I had already been planning. Most of that work is now done, so I’ll be refocusing back on some big new features.
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I did a little experiment for a week to post a Reel, TikTok, and YouTube Short every day. I wanted to see if I could manage and keep up with a daily posting schedule. The results?
I hated it.
It tanked my focus and added a lot more stress to my week. For me, it’s not worth the trade-offs of my time, energy, and focus to post that often. I’ll be sticking with my weekly YouTube video and once-ish per week on other socials. That gives me the time I need to be heads-down working.
Also, this was the first time I really used Reels and TikTok. I understand why people love it, but personally it gave me a headache. Everything is so fast and chaotic. I prefer a much calmer experience when I’m trying to relax lol.
I have to think about how much I want/need to contribute to that chaos.
This triggers a bunch of questions in my head around having to be on em>
A few weeks ago I really needed to communicate with people who were using Sofa…but I couldn’t. There was a big issue related to board game data and it was important to let people know as quickly as possible. The best option I had was social media, a blog post, and App Store release notes. So yea, not many good options.
I finally got around to watching season 1 of a href="https://www.hbo.com/the-last-of-us?ref=shawnhickman.studio">
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I’ve discovered the incredible talent of drummer a href="https://www.youtube.com/@DominoSantantonio?ref=shawnhickman.studio">
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I’m still slowly enjoying Zelda Tears of the Kingdom. This game is just so deep and wonderful.
A few weeks ago I really needed to communicate with people who were using Sofa…but I couldn’t. The best option I had was social media, a blog post, and App Store release notes. So yea, not many good options.
I wanted to fix this, so I built a real-time announcement system into Sofa. In this video, I talk about how it works and how I plan to use it.
I think I went a little too extra on this simple setting 🙃
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I think this one is pretty fun. The current pricing page for Sofa has a few problems and I show my process and design iterations for fixing it.
So if you like seeing UI redesigns, this video is for you.
I did a little experiment over the past week to post a Reel, TikTok, and YouTube Short every day. I wanted to see if I could manage and keep up with a daily posting schedule.
The results?
I hated it.
It tanked my focus and added a lot more stress to my week. For me, it’s not worth the trade-offs of my time, energy, and focus to post that often.
I'll be sticking with my weekly YouTube video and once-ish per week on other socials. That gives me the time I need to be heads-down working.
Also, this was the first time I really used Reels and TikTok. I understand why people love it, but personally it gave me a headache. Everything is so fast and chaotic. I prefer a much calmer experience when I'm trying to relax lol.
I have to think about how much I want/need to contribute to that chaos.
I am working on some changes to the Super Sofa upgrade screen. Basically, I want to highlight the annual plan more than the other options. Lots of good reasons for this.
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Here’s another iteration I’m trying. Still keeping the pricing up top, but tidying up the spacing and overall visual hierarchy.
I’ve seen more my pricing screens with price on the top or bottom. So I’m not sure what will work for me here. But I have some benchmark numbers to track against.
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This might be a good compromise…using a floating card at the bottom. Still needs some TLC, but this might work
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This is pretty close to final and I think it’s coming together pretty nicely. This solves the two biggest problems my pricing page had:
I’m still open for feedback if you have any! (constructive is welcome)
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iOS 17 is coming out on Monday and I’m not ready for it
Some nice light hitting the home office today ☀️🪟
I put together my initial thoughts on the new iPhone 15 & 15 pro.
Who’s ready for a long video about the apps, tools, and processes I use for developing Sofa?
Perfect for your weekend morning coffee time ☕️
My video this week is a little messy, but I think it shows how this past week was for me…messy. Working through my board games data provider going away has been stressful, but in the end I think Sofa is going to be a more resilient app because of it.
I kinda forgot that the iPhone 14 Pro can shoot raw and I got to use it last night at the eagles game. I’m extremely impressed.
This is using the 3x lens (77mm) from 3 rows from the field. Yes, the seats were dope.
I just finished up my first week as a full-time indie app developer and documented a bit of my experience.
I go over my goals for the first week, what I worked on, and some general observations about what my experience was like.
There’s def good and weird things about it 🙃
July was a busy and stressful month for me. I was working a lot behind-the-scenes to prep for quitting my day job to focus on Sofa full-time. Focusing on Sofa full-time has been eight years in the making. As I’m typing this out, it still hasn’t fully hit me that I’m actually doing it 🙃.
Sofa has grown a lot over the past eight years, especially in the last two. To say I’m excited is an understatement. Being able to work on something I love is a true dream and I’ll be working hard to keep that dream going.
I’ve you’re interested in hearing more, I made a video about it.
I’m continuing to work through this feature and I’ve made a little preview video to show how it’s shaping up.
I’m continuing to invest my time in YouTube. I find it a great place to share my thoughts and updates on my work in a visual way. If you missed them, here’s some videos I made over the past month:
