Hey everyone! A lot has happened since the last update so I wanted to highlight a few things that have been shipping over the past few weeks. Just wanted to highlight that there’s always improvements being made.
Going Mobile
Alpen now works as a PWA which means you can install it on your home screen on iOS or Android. I will try and make a tutorial on this in the future. Being a PWA not let’s us treat the mobile companion a lot more like a native application. A mobile app is a no brainer for a todo application. Although I have been using the iOS shortcut for ages and still continue to use it there are a handful of actions that just need the mobile companion. Namely, categorizing your todos and basic planning capabilities.
If I need to categorize that a todo that was quickly added belongs to a specific domain/project I can now do so. Additionally, if I wanted to schedule a todo for a specific day I can now do that on the go. Alpen wants to make capturing todos as simple as possible. That combined with the different types of tasks you think of while on the go, you just need a mobile app.
You can add it by
- Press the share button while visiting alpenplanner.com on a mobile browser
- Press the share button
- Press add to Home Screen
We get something that’s not quite native but a lot better of an experience than a bookmark
Onboarding
Alpen is opinionated for a reason. Other applications just give you a blank canvas. Alpen tries to give you enough structure to make it easier to be productive. It has a specific way of thinking about your work, and if you don’t understand the building blocks, there is no way you can use it effectively. Alpen is a tool and there is a skill to using it. I’ve had a couple of apps that I used and didn’t like it the first time around but it was moreso me using the application in a way that was not intended. Therefore, I want to make the concepts as clear as possible. If things don’t make sense please feel free to reach out. If things still feel too complicated or not efficient, I am always open to hearing how to make a great system.
The entities (domains, projects, and todos) carry meaning that the rest of the app builds on. The new onboarding wizard walks you through building your own hierarchy from scratch, and now ends with a summary step so you can see the full structure you built before diving in. The goal is that by the time you hit the app for real, the concepts feel more grounded rather than abstract. In my eyes make the concepts intuitive to a new user will be one of the main challenges for me.
Quality of Life
There’s been hundreds of commits since the last post. I’m constantly trying to make the application as simple as possible with as a little friction as possible. So many of these changes have been better connecting existing features or making certain aspects more apparent.
Before
After
Feedback would mean a lot. Particularly if something feels confusing or if something has been adding friction in an unnecessary way. Alpen has a point of view about how planning should work, and I’d love to know where that lands well and where it doesn’t. Thank you to those who have given feedback! The dark mode improvements and the ‘Keep form open’ option are are two examples of improvements that came directly from feedback
