Show HN: I wrote this to make note taking on YouTube effective
tuberslab.com
tuberslab.com
But the UX needs improvement. I tested just the offline version using Firefox. This is what could be improved:
- When I reload the video, all my notes were lost. The notes should be persistent with autosave feature (web storage or indexed db).
- The youtube UI is already cluttered. Why bother to hide the editor buttons? The buttons should be always visible.
- The copy to clipboard doesn't work for me (Firefox issue, maybe?).
- The Save button down't give me any feedback. What it means? After I clicked it I realoaded the page, but just part of my notes was retrieved. Mostly was lost.
- What is summary write mode? I tried to write something, save, switch to note taking mode and returned to summary. Just a blank summary.
- The topic is about the full note, I presume. If yes, maybe it's better to change the label to note title or description?
- When the user start taking notes, the video should stay paused until manual play (When text lost focus? shortcut? A second ENTER?). Enable autoplay inside options.
- Add a shortcut to allow the user start typing insted of clicking on the text editor.
And the hard features to implement:
- Allow to export notes into a file, with the images for printing.
- Allow to save the notes into a json, with images, to allow reloading offline notes.
Thanks for this amazing application.
1) Yes I don’t save the notes locally. Never thought of this offline scenario. Will implement soon.
2) That makes sense. I thought hiding the buttons could reduce the distraction while watching videos. But, as you mentioned, youtube ui is already a busy place. no point. Will do.
3) I’ll test and fix it tomorrow if it is replicable.
4) Partly retrieved? Thats worrying. May be there could be a bug with refreshing. I’ll test it. I’ll add a feedback on save button as well.
5) Summary pad is something I use to compose a complete picture of the video from notes taken. Summary going away is worrying, I’ll double check.
6) Topic is like a folder. I normally watch multiple videos on a topic. So, I tag them with same topic and then I can filter them by topic on my phone.
7) Ok. I’ll introduce enable/disable autoplay option in settings.
8) Short cut to focus is a fantastic idea.
9) That would be fantastic. I’ll see how I can do it.
10) I am not sure If I can get that much space from extensions. Offline support is going to be tough. But will try.
I can’t thank you enough for the feedback and encouraging words. I’ll update once everything is fixed. Have a fantastic day.
I still could not do offline support. However, I have introduced pdf download for local print. ( It still hits the server to generate pdf though)
Introduced shortcuts for focusing ( alt+shift+f) and hiding ( alt+shift+h) notepad.
Auto play can be disabled via settings. And buttons can be made always visible via setting too.
Thanks for your feedback and support. Have a great weekend.
Also, you may also want to check https://lanes.io/ -- It gives similar capability.