As I wrote about a week and a half ago, I haven’t written a lot about antispam and security so far in 2013. But I haven’t been idle.
No, instead I have been working on another project – launching a project on Kickstarter!
And my app is going to be awesome! I’m combining great writing, visual aesthetics along with a solid user experience (intuitive, easy to use and never crashes). Trust me, you’ll all like it.
You see, I’ve been able to travel a fair amount in my time, especially over the past few years. I also like to write; I always have. When I was in junior high and high school, I was good at math and science but my highest grades were in Language Arts. When I go back and read some of my old journals, I am impressed by what I wrote way back then.
I decided to combine my two hobbies into an app for iOS and call it Go Somewhere. I wanted my app to have a tactile experience. Not just a website but an app where I can control how the user interacts with it.
It’s kind of like a travel book except I find that travel books have too much information. I just skim it. And they also aren’t personalized enough whereas I like to write in editorial style (the way I do on this blog).
I checked out a couple of apps in the Apple store last year and downloaded them. My favorite is National Geographic’s 50 Places of a Lifetime. I liked the way it went through and talked about all the places in the world and what was neat about them. However, I thought I could do it better:
- I could build a better way to navigate through the various places.
- The descriptions were good, but not “deep” enough. I wanted to go a bit deeper in each place. For example, for Peru, I wanted to write 6-8 things about Machu Picchu instead of National Geographic’s short blurb.
- I also wanted to write about interesting socio-cultural facts such as conditions that led to the downfall of the Incas. Education + Entertainment.
- I wanted my writing style to be funnier (you know, like the knee-slapper that is this blog).
I found a couple of other apps like Amazing Earth and Beautiful Planet. The pictures in them are good but the descriptions are too short.
The above icon represents the spirit of Go Somewhere: a silhouette looking out into the background. Where do I (that is, you) want to go next?
The below is the splash screen when you open the app:
You can navigate through the app with a bunch of countries and places using a map:
I’m not going to go through the full set of features because you can read about it at the Kickstarter link for Go Somewhere.
I’ve designed most of the app and written or edited all of the little blurbs (so far over 400, with two more places to go before launch, and two more to come by the end of the year). However, I outsourced the development and I didn’t get the quality I needed so I’ve decided to start over.
I’ve gotten some other quotes and they are expensive. I can’t keep putting more money into this without a good understanding of whether or not I’ll see a return (my wife wouldn’t stand for it). So to that end, I’m getting funding on Kickstarter!
Or trying to, anyhow.
I figure this represents a good proxy for whether or not there’d be any demand. If I can raise funds to develop a polished app, then I figure there’s a good chance that this will “sell” (that is, be downloaded. The app is free with some free content and you can purchase to unlock additional content for a low, low price). 
So check out Go Somewhere on Kickstarter! And if you feel like it, kick in a little bit of money.