Show HN: Fed up of ugly and weird diving apps, I built my own

by tratteo • 2 years ago

12 2 2 years ago

Hello everybody, I am new to HN but I must say I really enjoy the vibe. I have been coding for almost 15 years now and after having fired myself 2 times in a year (both from corporate and startup worlds), I decided to dedicate full time to what I love: building cool stuff for my own, with the dream of becoming a solopreneur.

Among my many passions (some dangerous), I love scuba diving. All the logbook apps I tried had these problems: - Distant from the user experience and needs. - Complicated yet useless features that no one uses. Literally no one, not even those who created them. - Ugly. - I mean very ugly.

So I spent the last months building my own from scratch.

Cool fact: the most famous platforms for divers on the web actually have pretty naive algorithms for computing consumption. Therefore I worked with my brother (PhD in Aerospace Engineering and Fluid dynamics) to devise a very accurate - probably the most precise among existing apps - model for computing true mixture consumption, which actually is a fundamental parameter to keep under control when diving. I think we will write a blog about it.

I do not know if there is any dude here on HN that is both a tech nerd and scuba diver, but hey, if you do exist, I would love some feedback. Cheers!

Matteo

tannedNerd• 2 years ago

This looks cool and thoughtfully designed, but I high recommend you add a mobile app so that it’s possible to use it offline. 90% of my 200+ dives have been outside of cell phone coverage.

Also small piece of feedback. The affiliate model being so prominent and with only a lifetime price, I as a consumer don’t have a high level of confidence of this existing for a long time. Especially since it’s web based so you need to keep servers running.

tratteo• 2 years ago

Thanks for the constructive feedback, appreciate it a lot, really! I developed many mobile apps in my career and I am surely planning to bring it to mobile. However, I want to make sure there is enough "interest" before taking the big leap. Also, it is always possible to add dives to the app later on, maybe with internet connection (provided a computer or something to store them).

As for the lifetime price, you are mostly correct. Yet I want to experiment with this payment model since I had experiences that proved me that a generic customer is actually more keen on purchasing 10 dollars or more one time rather than 1 dollar recurring.

As an update, I am already collaborating with some communities with the affiliate program, I am very happy for that. Maybe the market is really demanding for something more and it might be a good opportunity, we'll see!

Show HN: Fed up of ugly and weird diving apps, I built my own

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