Show HN: We created an iPhone app that lets you share your plans for tonight | Hacker News Reader

Show HN: We created an iPhone app that lets you share your plans for tonight

doingtonight.com

12 pointsalanpca23 comments

Clean UI. Like the logo. Don't know why you ask for an additional password beyond FB log in.

Anyway, some UI fixes I'd suggest:

1. On open, prompt the user for what they are doing tonight with some auto suggestions (and the option to write their own).

2. Allow users to upload pictures for what they're doing (people love pictures)... aka social networks don't succeed without pics. At least let me take a picture of the event I'm at or food I'm making.

3. "Tag" users does not prompt any users for me (you should pull up my friends list or address book if I haven't added anyone).

4. Similarly, if I don't have Facebook friends on here, ask me to invite some.

5. Too much unobvious iconography in the app. Tags don't usually imply to people to me but rather keywords. Your edit button is a circle which is confusing. Also, be consistent and use "Go" when I'm inputing stuff.

6. Black, White and Blue are really boring colors. Add some flavor to this and make a custom footer UI bar.

Most importantly, I agree with dmix in that I need a reason to "cheerlead a new social network". You should provide some kind of incentive to solve the chicken/egg problem.

Thanks Martin - great feedback. We can't wait to explore ways to integrate with UpOut in the near future.

I'd post what I'm doing on twitter more often if my close friends used Twitter. But they rarely venture outside of Facebook, so I don't bother.

Same with Path, I'd like to use it but I couldn't be bothered to cheerlead a new social network to them.

The same applies here, sadly.

This needs to be more than just updates from friends. Facebook does that well enough. Simply organizing a certain type of update into a stream isn't a sufficient reason for people to use the app unless everyone else already is.

Here's what might work though: aggregate and map local, context-aware events: local as in things that are happening nearby, and context-aware as in things that suit my interests. Why not consume data from Songkick for example - like displaying concerts and music events. Or figure out a way to generate data from bars and nightclubs. Maybe mashup something from Yelp? Make it easy, fun, and intuitive to browse this type of information - with data from your friends mixed and layered in.

That way, there's a reason to use this thing without the luxury of having friends who are users (which, frankly, will be everyone).

I've been thinking a lot about this stuff myself - I'd be happy to toss back ideas outside of HN. My address is in my profile.

Thanks for the suggestion. We're already working on curating some top events for a bunch of populous cities. I'll shoot you an e-mail and perhaps we can talk further.

Edit: you may want to also take a look at our "nearby" events. While the list may admittedly be a little dry if you're outside of a high-populous area, it's a cool feature.

Since you asked for feedback I am going to give you feedback. It will be honest and not meant to be disparaging. While I'm not sure I would use it that much since I can achieve the same thing using Twitter/Facebook, one thing is certain... I will never use it if it is iOS only. Not all iOS and Android people hate each other. We hang out together and do stuff... tonight even. :) If the app is iOS only and there is no actual website (for non iOS people) to perform the same tasks as the app, then I feel even the iOS crowd may have a hard time buying in to it since it forces them to neglect part of their social circle. In real life, social networks are platform agnostic. Just my 2 cents.

Completely agree. We're iterating as quickly as we can on iOS to get to product-market fit before we expand to other platforms.

While the app itself is fantastic, it's limited in scope and this functionality is already offered by Twitter, Facebook, or any other social network with status updates...still a good piece of software, but I can't see it catching on when you can do the same thing with just a simple Facebook or Twitter update where all your friends who are already in those social networks will see it...good follow-through, but the concept definitely needs work.

Thanks for the feedback. We're working on building out really interesting functionality while maintaining the simplicity of the app. We believe there is real value in providing a single forum where you can find what people in your network, and in your area are doing tonight.

Rather than hunting for plans posted on Twitter and/or Facebook, you can always rely on doingtonight to find out what people are doing tonight, without having to sort through all kinds of unrelated conversations.

We also think people have a different identity at night, and don't want to mix that up with their identity on the rest of the social graph.

But you're absolutely right that we have to do a lot of work before we realize this potential!

I've been working on a similar idea and think this is pretty fertile space. We have calendaring for scheduling our days, but not so much for our social lives and free time. What's needed there is kind of an anti-calendar. The trick with any technical solution isn't the tech.. It's making it into enough of a game or engagement that people will use it consistently enough to make the network valuable to everyone. Good luck with that!

Couldn't agree more. Would love to chat about the space some time!

Why would people use this app over Facebook or Twitter? Is it just because of the "I'm Down" button?

We believe that facebook and twitter are inadequate social calendars, and that we can do a lot better. We of course support cross-posting to twitter and facebook already (eg. http://doingtonig.ht/p/jiv), but hope to do a lot more in the future. Sign up and stick around with us.

Congrats to Doingtonight! Big fan of your app

A similar app I know is Found http://getfoundapp.com/

A similar app I know is Twitter http://twitter.com

No seriously though, wasn't that half the point before it turned into the "omg we're a social network build your popularity and acquire all the followers to broadcast your brand" game?