Website: https://helno.fdlabs.xyz
My crown achievement of 2020, a web app that shows where travellers will be at certain times in the future.
The app accepts user input from visitors and it only asks two things:
-where you plan to go (using a geolocation API, which autocompletes)
-when you plan to go (just a dropdown of predetermined date ranges)
The app is fairly intuitive and well-designed (both aesthetically and functionally). It was built using MERN (MongoDB, Express, React, Node) stack.
I’d talk about the technical features of this but it’s more fun and engaging if you just try the app yourself 🙂
https://dancedric.com/helno/#/
But apart from the technical achievements of this, my highlight in this project is I thought about this extensively.
Here are some notable factors in this project:
- The initial design required an email address in order to Add a Pin. I’ve let go of the idea since asking for even an email address causes a lot of concern:
- people will be reluctant to input data due to privacy reasons (which is completely reasonable)
- less input means less pins on the map, which is less use for the site, which causes less traffic/interest. I’d be killing the site before it even begins
- collecting personally identifiable information means I’d have to put more hours for security and data management (which I can’t and don’t want to do for an MVP)
- Also, I’ll have to worry about policies (e.g.: GDPR)
- Marketing skill: The “Add a Pin” button was previously labelled as “Contribute Data” (which was just “Contribute”) even before that. With my extensive knowledge and experience with customer and marketing insights, “Contribute” may have an impression to other people that I’m asking for money. Adding the word “Data” specifies it, but it then raises people to be reluctant still because they’re under the impression that I’m out to get sensitive information to sell. “Add a Pin” solves it by really pushing the CTA but at the same time prevents raising any flags from the visitor. I thought of it after a lot of user testing and observation. I noticed that most participants were very eager to try and pin locations and play with it. This wording and CTA makes that obvious and motivates them to do just that.
- MVP, interests, “demand”: This is the latest and best project ever that has really taken off (interest-wise) for me. My messaging is prompt and clear, the application is well-made thus making the purpose and features obvious, and a lot of people really interact and play with it to great frequencies. Users see the value of it and they express that this is actually useful (especially later when the travel interest is back to normal).
- Branding and design is kept at a minimum but you can see it was thought of and attended to. This is my personal look anyways. I like clean, Scandinavian, minimalistic designs. It was intentionally kept clean because later on future developments there will be more features and more things on screen.
- Initially I conceptualized this idea because as an avid traveller, I prefer going to places where there are not a lot of tourist. Other people share the sentiment. Now with the pandemic, there’s even another greater reason to avoid people.
- Marketing and advertising is also planned and scheduled. There’s a lot of interest already with my limited testing so I really get a lot of validation for my MVP. As for the promotion, it’s currently placed on hold due to the sharp decrease in interest to travel due to Covid-19. Travelling is also not in everyone’s priority at the moment due to other more important social issues around the world (e.g.: Floyd/BlackLivesMatter), which I totally understand and support. But it was definitely planned and scheduled to do it during the down time so when the demand starts to rise again, we’re already positioned and ready (not just starting development when the demand is at its peak already).
- There is actually a business plan behind this. You can click this button and mention about this page to learn more.
Website: https://helno.fdlabs.xyz
Current MVP limitations:
-displays all future travels; Date range filter will come in v2.
-no interactions in the map
-v2 will also display intesity (e.g.: how many people plan to go to a certain pin)
