35 – The bad guy

 

I have a great story. But I can’t write about it. I’m gonna write out a movie script that shares a similar plot line… to avoid any legal complications…

INTRO / DAY ONE

Two Guys strike upon an idea that will change the world forever. Limitless in its potential. But they can’t do it alone. They need the help of a technical genius to build the thing for them. The greatest Engineer. And luckily they know just the guy.

The three of them set upon an adventure and, together, begin building this amazing thing. Everything is going to plan when…

DAY TWO

The Engineer receives a threat. A threat that will result in him being taken. The Bad Guy wants to steal the Engineer to work on his own evil plans. But the engineer doesn’t want to. The two guys rush to save the Engineer but the Bad Guy intercepts and chains them up. There’s nothing they can do, only watch on.

“I want to go back in the past and kill his grandfather or something like that.” Says the Engineer. This is impossible because time travel is impossible.

But the Engineer doesn’t give up and he and the Bad Guy go to battle. The other two guys can only watch, sad and worried and helpless. As night falls, the battle rages. The Engineer is weary but his passion fights on. They both disappear into the darkness and things look bleak and hope is but a flicker. Is this the end for the incredible world changing idea? It sure looks like it.

FADE TO BLACK

DAY THREE

The darkness of the night bleeds red. Eventually, as the sun hauls itself upwards, slowly, heavily, the red brightens to yellow and, after some time, to a clear blue. The stillness erupts with the sound of birds singing. A deer prances past, stops, looks at us, looks down and eats some grass, then hops off.

A figure appears on the horizon. The two guys, still shackled, raise their heads. Is it? Could it be? It’s the Engineer! He is running. He is smiling. Carrying the head of the bad guy.

“I fucking killed him!” He exclaims.
“I’m back! I’m back at work completely! And it looks amazing!”
“It’s so amazing I want to cry!”

The Engineer and the two guys rejoice.

THE END

34 – Leaving things out

 

“I like it but it is massively out of scope and we might not be able to work it in. I do like it but it seems like a throw in thing that adds no value at this point.”

I’d thought of a little thing we could work into the first version of Story. I kinda liked it, what I’d thought of. It wasn’t anything special. It was just a fancy touch. And Paul called it out for that, it really doesn’t add any value to our product right now.

I like that we’re leaving out everything that isn’t 100% required. It will be so simple. If Story gets popular I’m sure we’ll be adding features to stay ahead of the inevitable competition. We’ll add little touches that make people smile. But no matter where it leads the core idea and concept of Story will be nailed in the first version. I wonder if it’ll always be my favourite version for that exact reason.

Right now, Story should be working but Paul said he deleted something from a database meaning, right now, it crashes on launch every time. But this week, to quote Paul again, “this week will be a good week for Story.” He said that.

UPDATE:

Paul: ok. When do you think the next release is likely to be?
Filippo: … in 2/3 days
Paul: k
Filippo: I hope 2
Paul: will be a big release :)
Filippo: 😀 the main app functionalities will be there

33 – Should be fine!

 

“I’m going to a meeting, should be back around lunchtime, is that cool?”

“Should be fine!” I reply.

My boss gets up from his desk which is right next to mine and puts his jacket on.

As soon as he turns I click on my dropbox folder and open up one of the Story files. I was up at  6am preparing designs for Filippo but didn’t get them finished before having to leave for work. This happens a lot.

Part of me wants to quit, sign on to the dole and design for Story every day all day.

I get a rush of excitement as I make the Illustrator window small enough so people walking past won’t notice. I frantically design. These are my best hours. 10am to 1pm, I really get into it. I fantasise about sitting in my own office having this exact same feeling but without the guilt and hunched shoulders. The fantasy is my heaven, my faith. It’s-

“Bloody meeting got cancelled.”

Fuck. I look up as my sits back down at his desk. I freeze.

I don’t want to make any sudden movements on my screen. Sudden movements like quickly minimising the window or doing that thing where all the windows zoom off the screen. That’s what gets you caught. It draws their eye. At the same time, if he glances at my screen, I won’t really be able to explain this guy staring back:

I’d got carried away messing around with the Story logo.

Due to the panic I hadn’t realised my boss was asking me a question. Then he stopped talking because he’d asked it. So the question hung there and I didn’t know what it was and this guy is staring like this:

If this was a TV show it would cut to another scene. Like, cut to Paul going, “I’ve broken Story.” And Filippo going, “What do you mean you’ve broken it?”

(this was happening at the same time on emails)

“I dunno. I deleted the database like you said and now nothing’s working.”

“You deleted the database?”

“You said-”

Okay cut back to me; I’m sitting on my desk covering half the screen with my upper body and my left arm draped over the other half. My right hand is holding my chin and my eyes are looking in whichever direction that means I’m lying as I’m thinking of an answer to a question I don’t know.

“Yeah, should be fine!” I say.

32 – Are we there yet?

 

Filippo codes the app. Paul codes the web backend that the app talks to. And I make it look nice.Cars are always a good metaphor. So like, Paul builds the engine. Filippo builds all the bits that join up to the engine; steering wheel, dashboard, gearbox etc. And I cover it all up with a metal frame and leather seats.

The other day Paul emailed me a load of dialogue between him and Filippo and was excited. It seems that Paul’s engine is finally turning on when Filippo flips the key.

By the end of this week we should be able to drive to the shops and back (publish stories for the first time)

Next week Filippo will be oiling the gears, pumping air into the tires and redoing the paintwork (fixing bugs and making whatever changes we’d like)

The week after that… Free Aston Martins for everyone! (You’ll be able to get the app from your local dealer (the App Store))

Road trip!

31 – Flashback to the start

 

From: Paul
To: Simon
8 February 2012 21:05
Re: Balsamiq
… Anyway my cooking app is underway. You remember Filippo? He runs his own mobile agency with another bloke. Having a chat with him next week. Just for some pointers.

From: Simon
To: Paul
8 February 2012 21:29
Re: Balsamiq
I know you like the cooking thng but you could use the shell a bunch of ways.
Like, it could be a scrapbook of pictures, videos and notes from when you go on holiday. The home screen could be a bunch of holiday albums. I think you should think of the core concept. Like, a collection of albums that you share with people that could contain anything. Maybe you could rate people’s albums and see public albums.
I like the idea of collections of things.

From: Paul 
To: Simon
8 February 2012 21:39
Re: Balsamiq
Well yeah you’re right but I was into the simplicity of it. Also lots of cute things about cooking. Like you can give people cute messages and icons and options that are cooking based.
A picture album app is good too. I told you I thought that’s what path was to start with. Like a little ‘path’ of photos displaying your weekend or your marathon or your holiday etc. I like that. It’s a bigger app though and would take me a stupid amount of time to throw together.
Might try it. Like I’m going to make a near to realistic prototype, make the little website ie like its really real then get someone to pay for it to be built.

From: Simon
To: Paul
8 February 2012 22:01
Re: Balsamiq
But why would it be extra work? It’s all just uploading pictures with text. I just don’t think you should bracket people in to use it a particular way when there’s loads of ways to use it. Just people’s scrapbooks. Call it scrapbook.

From: Paul 
To: Simon
8 February 2012 22:16
Re: Balsamiq
Yeah I understand. I will give it some thought. I understand you abstracting it. You can abstract too much and you’re left with something too vague. Aaaaanyway yeah I guess it just means a massive rethink. I do like it though. You could tag it and that which I was gonna do anyway. I guess using it for cooking would be a great example of HOW to use it.
When it was just a food thing, like a news feed that shows what your friends are cooking, then you see the end result ie they mark it as ‘done’. Thought it’d be nice to comment on each stage of your journey. Then you build up your journeys. People like your journeys. People have similar journeys. I sorta have it in my head.

From: Simon 
To: Paul
9 February 2012 09:23
Re: Sweating
Maybe this is a whole new app but this is what I see…
When you open it there’s a home screen of featured ‘books’ by different people. One might be a bunch of nice photos. One might be a short story. One is a guy’s recipe for cooking. One is someone’s holiday pics; however a collection of pictures and words packaged up.
Then there’s the ‘create book’ button where you can give it a title and subline, and upload pictures, video and text. When you’re done, you can publish it. You can publish privately just for your mates or you can publish publicly. If you publish publicly it will appear in everyone’s search terms and category stream.

From: Paul 
To: Simon
9 February 2012 09:53
Re: Sweating
Your idea is different to what i’m thinking but also kinda the same. I liked the cooking thing and then that being extended out of the cooking thing. Like what i thought Path was. A photographic journey bundled up into little album type things. Extending it beyond photos to things like text… I like the simplicity of photo journeys. You can add annotation to them too. Will think. It could be fun and beautiful.

From: Simon 
To: Paul
20 February 2012 12:11
thng
Has anyone done anything like this? It could be massive.

From: Paul 
To: Simon
20 February 2012 12:16
Re: thng
Mate i know!!!!
Like it really could take off man. People would LOVE creating stories. Like yeah. My notebook looks exactly the same:

From: Simon 
To: Paul
20 February 2012 12:24
thng
This feels too easy.

From: Paul 
To: Simon
20 February 2012 12:28
Re: thng
I even looked at the photo album type apps on the app store and they are disgusting. This is more of a social thing though and based on the ‘journey’. That is key. Like example albums are:
My birthday
Mama’s fish stew
When i climbed everest
Road trip
Vegas
VEGAS!

From: Paul 
To: Simon
Re: San Pelllllllllllllllllllllllll
22 February 2012 12:24
What the fuck is it going to be called? Remember it is about the journey. Path would be perfect but like yeah…..

From: Simon 
To: Paul
Re: San Pelllllllllllllllllllllllll
22 February 2012 13:28
jouboo.com is available – Like, Journey and Book put together.

From: Paul 
To: Simon
Re: San Pelllllllllllllllllllllllll
22 February 2012 13:33
jouboo works. i was toying with like journi :S

From: Simon 
To: Paul
23 February 2012 01:03
mock up

I only got as far as home screen and the ‘Start Book’ screens. Yeah I still don’t like the books, just fuckin around.

But I love the pop up info when you tap a book. And I love the ‘Start Book’ screen. Makes me wanna make one real bad.

From: Paul 
To: Simon
Re: Tappy
24 February 2012 09:47
need a name today.
just a fucking name.

From: Simon 
To: Paul
Re: Tappy
24 February 2012 11:25
I fucking love the word Story.
Knew these guys that opened a skate shop called Story Store. Always loved that. Story.

From: Paul 
To: Simon
Re: Tappy
24 February 2012 11:28
Yeah story is nice. We work in Agile here and instead of raising little projects they are called stories. I kinda like it. Like i’m working on a big story right now that has sub-tasks etc. Yeah, Story is nice.

30 – Itterrate, iterrate, iterate

 

I woke up and had this crazy rush of, I dunno, something. I really hate the design of the pop up windows in Story. They look fake. Look:

And it looked worse every time I stared at it. And then it reached breaking point and I had this rush of like, what the fuck am I doing? We have this perfect idea and an amazing opportunity to finally work for ourselves and on something important. It’s so special, it’ll kill me if it looks sloppy.

So I’m staring at this trying to figure out how to do it better:

It’s fiddly. Makes you read too. This is the most important bit of the tool when you’re creating a story but the bits where you touch are real long and thin:

That’s not cool. So I did this:

Made the buttons big and square. Made the icons the thing your eye is drawn to and made the text small.

But then I’m thinking why is the button black? I’m kinda going for this whole pure white thing for the app and here’s this big black thing. So here’s a mock up of the (currently) final design for the pop up windows:

 

Another:

I’m trying to design this thing as if Jonathan Ive was doing the UI. Unobtrusive colours (other than the orange, the only colour will be your pictures and story covers), rounded corners but with sharp dividers that draw your eye.

Filippo is annoyed I changed the design, “I’ll implement it today, the new pop-up very different from the old one, it will take a while to integrate. Please … Please … Please … do not do it again… it takes ages to optimise. thanks :) ” But you know, it wasn’t me, it was the crazy rush.

29 – Selling for free

 

One day we’ll need to make money off this thing. It’ll be a nice problem to solve when Story has ten million users.

Here are the options we’ll have:

1. Paid version without any ads.
2. Free version with banner ads.
3. Sponsored content.
4. Sell in-app extras.
5. Sell access to premium stories.
6. Subscription fee.

I think that’s it. Let’s start from the top:

1. A paid version with no ads: This would be great, yeah let’s do that. Oh wait, we can’t because it’s a social app. If we were making a game, or any other type of app, we could sell it for 99p. But making a social app? It has to be free. Which is kinda annoying because it means we have to consider stuff like:

2. Free version with banner ads: No way. Cheap and horrible.

3. Sponsored content: This is better than having banner ads, and it’s the most realistic income for us. It would be great if we could get companies to pay for sponsored content and take advantage of it in a cool way. Like, say, Coke made a story about the history of their company. That would be cool. I’d read that. But how often do advertising people do stuff interesting? (My old house mate, during an ad break, he’d scream at the TV “STOP LYING TO ME”) Anyway, sponsored content is the most realistic option for an app like ours and hopefully we can make it interesting. I like the idea of making companies think a bit about it, like, “Look guys, this is a mini version of your entire brand. Like a mini website for you. Be honest with it. Do something good.” We’ll see.

4. Selling in-app extras: We could sell extras like being able to choose fonts for your stories or changing colours. I don’t really like this. I like the idea of a product being a complete product. No hidden extras or costs. A lot of apps do it successfully but it just doesn’t feel clean.

5. Sell premium stories: I could rant about the failing magazine industry again but basically, people do not want to pay to read something.

6. Subscription fee: This is like selling the app for a price but more complicated, “Yeah no, it costs 99p but 99p every month… if you want to cancel your subscription simply-” This wouldn’t saturate.

Paul has his own opinions. Like I said, when we have ten million users and have to solve this problem, it’ll be nice.

28 – Design change

 

The story icons have been bugging me. When I first designed them they looked like books, like this:

I didn’t like the books. They felt too old and dusty. Felt too confined. I worried if people saw a screen shot of the app they’d think it was an app for reading books.
So I designed something more abstract. Something that looked like a book but also more than a book. I did this:

But these haven’t been sitting well with me either. The sharp angles contradict the softness of the rest of the app.

Here’s the new design I’ve been working on for the story icons:

Still abstract in nature, still have the ‘light’ shining from inside but I’ve given them the roundness of the original books. I love these.

27 – First glimpse

 

Paul turns and chucks me Filippo’s phone, it has the app on it. A plain white app icon with ‘Story’ labelled underneath it.

Wow.

I launch it… stories appear. Wow. I can scroll them up and down. I do that for a bit. I get a rush of excitement. This is our baby. It’s great. It feels like more than an app. It feels like a real physical thing. I hit the ‘following’ tab and see new stories sweep onto the screen. Wow wow wow. That’s all it does for now, but it’s great and I beam.
We make a joke about having a launch party and doing so many drugs we die and go down as the biggest rock stars in the tech industry. It was funnier at the time.

Filippo deploys the app to mine and Paul’s iPhones where he’ll be updating it every couple of days or so with a newer version.

We go to the pub and send this video to Jamie the investor:

26 – My past

 

All the T-Shirts and sweaters I used to print are hidden in a cupboard now. The sight of them makes me cringe.

I have great memories though. There was one drop I did, where I had a count down on my site, and I sold over a grand’s worth of product in a day. I think I clocked up about £1200. It felt amazing as it was me making something and selling it directly. I suddenly saw I could make a living off my own back, I didn’t need anyone else. An escape from 9 to 6 slavery where success could be as huge as my imagination.

But I didn’t keep it up. I’d work really hard on each drop. So I’d be working in these cycles. Towards the end of each cycle I’d stop going out and talking to people and just work on it obsessively for about three weeks. Then I’d release the latest designs and it was this huge emotional release where I felt I could relax and have fun again. So I’d go out and feel good. But then a month would go by and I wouldn’t have done anything for the next drop and I’d start feeling anxious.

It got harder and harder, those gaps, to pull it all back in and get back to work.

I was also fighting this feeling of it not really mattering. Like, the T-Shirts didn’t mean anything. My brand didn’t stand for anything. All good clothing brands come from a scene… a skate scene, a music scene etc. Mine weren’t from anywhere except my head. I felt it lacked something important that I couldn’t put my finger on and so eventually the passion for it died leaving this aching chasm, a need to create something, a product that people love and want to own and use.

That feeling’s been with me ever since. It was always there, but actually seeing a glimpse of what that could feel like… it was incredible.

I’ll get Paul to write one of these too. For now, I remember, back in art college, I didn’t know him too well then, and we were all presenting these big six-week art projects. I can’t remember what anyone else did but we all had these big things we’d done with sketchbooks full of ‘research’ and all that. When it got to Paul, he just threw down this little pyramid, about three inches squared, made from paper. The outside was covered in abstract drawings and words,  you could fold open one triangle of the pyramid, which I think was clear acetate, and there was stuff written and drawn on the inside. The tutor was like, “Is that it? That’s all you got?” Paul was like “Yeah.” I remember laughing so hard. It was so underwhelming, this little thing, but the more I looked at it the more I realised it probably had more meaning, more reason, than any other drop-out art kid in that room.