Show HN: Namerick - an app for people who forget names

by scottyallen • 15 years ago

16 12 15 years ago

scottyallen5• 15 years ago

We built Namerick because we had a hard time remembering everyone we met at meetups and hackathons. It's an iphone app to help you remember the names of people you've just met. We used repetition and mnemonics modeled from memory 'athletes' and studies of the human memory.

Namerick was built by a team of six during a BeMyApp weekend app competition. While we had everything pretty much working at the end of the weekend, we'd remiss if we didn't add that we've added a few months of beta testing, additional UX polish, and marketing efforts:)

We'd LOVE your feedback (and be eternally grateful if you'd be willing to leave an app store review). The app is free for the next few days, and then we'll likely switch it to $0.99 after that.

You can learn more about it, and see our awesome retro demo video (complete with zero gravity cats) at http://namerick.com.

jlees• 15 years ago

I definitely have this problem, but perhaps not quite in the way the app is solving. From the site - love the retro theme! - it seems that I can remember names and associate them with mnemonic facts (such as a job title).

That's fine, but my big problem is associating the name with the face. I can usually remember who the person is and what they do once I remember their name (or they kindly tell me), but the moment of blankness when I meet them and have no idea who they are is embarrassing and unprofessional.

I can't think of an obvious solution to this given that many people (myself included) have unrepresentative profile photos on the 'net, though I've seen 'face memory' games work well when the photos are good.

RoyceFullerton• 15 years ago

Free for next 3 days...why wouldn't I download it?

jpadvo• 15 years ago

This looks amazing -- I've been needing something like this for a while. The one piece of advice I'd give is to create some kind of backup and or export feature. It's a little scary to think about putting so much valuable information about my relationships into something that I can't get it back out of.

Do you have any plans for this?

pflats• 15 years ago

It seems to back up to iCloud, for me at least.

scottyallen5• 15 years ago

Yes, iCloud should work right now, which solves the "what if I lose my phone or get a new phone" concerns. Our backup/export features will be more focused on the "I want to use my Namerick data in some other context" use case.

scottyallen5• 15 years ago

Yep, we're on it:) We want this to, and have gotten similar feedback from some of our beta testers. Our focus for this first version was on making the core experience of recording, retaining and retrieving names really solid. Backup/exporting is something we're definitely planning on tackling in an upcoming version.

jmjerlecki• 15 years ago

Are the namericks normally that offensive? Is that a specific memory cue? I would be interested to know if that is or not. For example I made one for my friend Brooke and clicked generate namerick. The first two items that came up were brooke bangs boys and brooke the Blower.

scottyallen5• 15 years ago

No, you have particularly bad luck:) I haven't seen any come up anywhere near that explicit yet. The namericks are randomly generated from a list of words, which sometimes leads to hilarity. That being said, mnemonics that are slightly suggestive are more memorable than more boring mnemonics, since they generate more vivid imagery in our heads, which is easier for our brains to remember (we're very visual animals).

rufugee• 15 years ago

I love it. Is there an Android version in the works?

My biggest problem with names would likely not be solved with this, although it might help me become more disciplined. My problem is that I'm always so wrapped up with sizing someone up and watching that person's expression and body language that the name is lost to me in the initial exchange. Very frustrating habit and very hard to break.

scottyallen5• 15 years ago

No Android version in the works just yet, but we've gotten lots of requests.

For what it's worth, I've personally found that having the intention to write someone's name down in Namerick makes me more likely to remember in that initial exchange. Not as technologically elegant, as say, universal audio recording and transcription, but in practice it seems to still be a useful life hack around this problem:)

askedrelic• 15 years ago

Great idea, I've had something like this in my head for awhile too.

My initial thoughts would be: -custom groups or more groups; what group is this person attached to. -change the "where" I met this person, for back entering people. Everyone I'm entering the first time, right now, is off. -some ability to record meeting that person again? You probably don't want to turn this into a CRM, but having a history of when and where you met someone would be helpful.

Show HN: Namerick - an app for people who forget names

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