Launching an App

Planning to launch an app with less than 3 months of development time remaining is an ambitious task. Quite honestly, building out this entire app has been difficult, but insightful. Here’s the roadmap I’ve laid out for the 1.0 launch in October:

• Manage Classes
• Keep track of assignments
• Associate notes with assignments
• Time tracking
• Sync across devices
• Study user generated study sets

Features Coming Soon™

Unfortunately, Notecard++ will have to launch without the feature that I originally planned to be a headline feature, due to technical difficulties. The ability to generate study sets based on notes has been in development, but hasn’t been stable or accurate enough to be released in its current state. Currently, this feature is able to (for the most part) copy handwritten notes into a text field, and store that text as a note document with the way the app currently handles note storage (using Core Data & CloudKit). Let me know if you would prefer that this small part of the feature be included on its own, or if I should hold everything relating to it until after it is completed.

Launch Platforms

Notecard++ is an ambitious project. I could have chosen to build the app using web technologies, which have a tendency to change often based on the developing needs of web designers and larger companies. This would have given Notecard++ the ability to reach more platforms faster, with the caveat of having restrictive access to platform dependent features, such as Apple’s CloudKit. Syncing would be difficult to get off the ground without this feature, and also allows me to offer free syncing for Apple devices. The plan for platform support of Notecard++ looks something like this:

• Launch
  • iOS – The currently supported, and preferred platform.
  • macOS – Intended to make importing files easier for power users and teachers.
  • iPadOS – Mainly designed for a desktop experience on the go. Will share features with both iOS and macOS, and will be where most development will happen after launch.
• Future Development
  • Android – By coming to Android, Notecard++ will be available to a staggering 99.33% of the mobile market. (Source: gs.statcounter.com)
  • Windows – Windows is a major platform in the desktop space, and will bring our availability in the desktop market to 87.78%. (Source: gs.statcounter.com)

Virtual/Augmented Reality

The more I develop Notecard++, the more I start to realize that the app would benefit from the 3D space offered by these platforms. Apple Vision Pro and the Meta Quest 3 seem to be the most promising devices I’ve seen in the space, and I do plan to support these in the future. I would like to wait for these platforms to attain a larger user base before investing the time to develop a spatial version of Notecard++. I’d also like to do so with a team experienced in these applications, as to build out something easily usable by anyone.

Pricing

I’ve tried to avoid discussing this topic with anyone. Unfortunately, it’s becoming a pain point in developing the app, and I’m having to consider pricing the app above my original target of a freemium model. Rest assured, there will still be ways to use Notecard++ for no cost to the end user, but these methods will have to still keep the lights on where I’m developing the app. I’m experimenting with different price points, and would like to hear what you would pay for the features that have been advertised so far. ($0 is a perfectly acceptable answer, and so is $0 + something, but $0 + Ads is not. )

Why Are Ads Unacceptable?

Lots of mobile apps use ads to generate revenue at no cost to the user. However, I find that for an educational utility such as Notecard++, ads are too distracting to the experience. This distraction would defeat the whole purpose of the app, and would more likely hurt Notecard++ more than it would help.

Development Gallery

Conclusion

I hope to post more of these updates, but ultimately whether or not I post them will depend on how much development was completed that week. Hopefully you all are getting ready for the upcoming academic year, and I’ll see you next week.