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Ask YC: Feedback on my Mac Leopard App

17 points by hbien ↗ HN
About 4 months ago, I quit my full time coding job and started freelancing while working on this task management app:

http://gearsquare.com/actiongear/

I wanted to make the app stay in the background, only showing itself when the user hits a hotkey combination like Quicksilver. This works really well when I'm "in the zone", because ActionGear just pops up over TextMate/XCode/Firefox when I need it and then goes away when I'm done.

It's in early beta right now (and free) because I believe in the "release early/release often route".

I'd really appreciate any feedback you guys have on the application, website, screencast, or even the business.

And if you guys have any questions for me, feel free to ask here =].

Thanks! - Hugh

43 comments

[ 0.21 ms ] story [ 128 ms ] thread
swombat
You have a lot of competition, but hey, that's not always a bad thing!

The website looks very neat and clear, but you need to do a better job of conveying why ActionGear is better than the other options out there, from Things to OmniFocus to other GTD implementations. At the moment it's not clear.

hbien
Thanks swombat, I do have a lot of competition =].

I think ActionGear stands out by being a background app, like Quicksilver, instead of being a full blown GTD implementation. I'll try to emphasize the difference more.

zenspider
I was going to say roughly the same thing as swombat... you need to distinguish more. In particular, you seem focused on the fact that your app stays in the background. OmniFocus does the same thing. I hit
j2d2
It seems odd to me that this isn't coupled with a network host of some kind. Organizing my tasks is rarely the hard part. It's remembering them from anywhere that proves tricky.

Perhaps instead of a network host, something better integrated with an iPhone would be good..?

hbien
I completely agree with you, I'm definitely going to make an iPhone version that syncs with the desktop app. It's very useful to have your tasks on you all the time, so you won't forget them.
parenthesis
Seeing as its a Mac app, you might not care, but the site doesn't look very good on Windows XP + IE7 (I'm using someone else's computer). The font(s) look kind of 9-pin dot matrix, and the screen shots are not very clear (it's hard to see what the text says in them).
hbien
Ah thanks, I'll probably fix the site in IE7 tomorrow. I googled about the blurry screenshots, turns out PNG looks bad in IE7. I'll try converting the images to JPEG..
there
it looks bad for me in firefox on unix as well. make properly scaled thumbnails of your images, don't rely on the browser to scale them down.
jobeirne
Looks pretty slick. I really like the minimal, "lurking in the shadows" sort of approach. Would integration with iCal be something feasible/desired?
hbien
Thanks jobeirne, I was hoping that people like the minimal approach.

I use iCal too, so I think integration with iCal would be a really useful. I'm putting it on the back burner as a 1.1 or 1.2 feature.

mattculbreth
I think its really nice, thanks. I'll continue to test it and compare it with Check Off, which I use now.

A few suggestions: 1. Really crank out the keyboard shortcuts. Things like Delete on a group would be good. 2. Small thing--when you create a Group, go ahead and make it editable so that I can just start typing its name. 3. Support colored Groups, tasks.

hbien
Thanks for the suggestions!

I wanted to let you know that I'm working on (1) more keyboard shortcuts and (2) making items/groups editable after adding them. Both features should be in the 1.0 release.

In fact, if you're a TextMate user, there's this "Go to File" shortcut that I enjoy so much I wanted to put in ActionGear. The idea is: user hits hotkey, window pops up, user types in group name partially, ActionGear takes you to that group.

I'm a big fan of keyboard shortcuts too =]. I even dedicated a page to them:

http://gearsquare.com/actiongear/hotkeys/

ropiku
At first sight it's nice, simple and needs a bit of polishing. It's a bit annoying to not being able to delete groups.

I know that you want the app to appear when you need it, but I personally would like it to stay as a normal app after I unhide it and cmd+tab on it.

hbien
Thanks, I'm hoping to give it more of a polish for the 1.0 release. It's still missing some features that I think are necessary.

To delete a group, select it, and click on the "gear" icon on the bottom left. There's a menu item to "Delete Group".

Did you expect the delete key to delete a group? Or did you right click on a group looking for a menu to delete? I should implement those features, I want the UI to be clear for everyone.

If more people request it, I might make an option in the preferences to have it act like a normal app so you can cmd+tab to it.

ropiku
I was expecting right click menu.

Thank you for taking into consideration my option, it's not a requirement for me. I'll play more with your app see how it feels.

powellb
Hugh, your app looks promising. I will try it out for a week and see how it fits into my workflow.

One side question: what is the terminal icon in your menubar? I must have that app (whatever it is).

jmtulloss
If you click "Show ActionGear" and then bring another window to the foreground, the menu says "Hide ActionGear", but clicking the item brings the window to the foreground.
hbien
Thanks! I'll get that fixed for the next version.
bdotdub
Looks really cool :) I'm not in front of my mac right now, but looks promising, will definitely try out.

One thing about the website though, please please resize your screenshots into thumbnails!

hbien
Thanks bdotdub, I resized the screenshots so they should look better on Windows IE/Firefox now.
a-priori
It looks good. I currently use Things (http://www.culturedcode.com/things/) for a similar purpose, but good global keyboard shortcuts might make me switch.
hbien
Thanks a-priori, I used to be a Things user myself - I think it's a great app =].
h34t
Somehow your #pp h#s t#ken over my keybo#rd.

Every time I try #nd type #n "#" (# being pronounced "eh"), your #pp comes to the foreground. It is very #nnoying.

hbien
Whoa, are you using a PPC or intel chip? And are you using 10.5?

I'm sorry about that, hopefully it stopped after you quit the app.

h34t
Yup, stopped after I quit the app. Intel chip, 10.5.4, Macbook Pro.
hbien
Once again, thanks for catching this major bug! I'll have the fix for the next release.
ashleyw
Yeh sme for me too...shme becuse t first glnce it looks gret!

Intel Mcbook Pro, Leoprd 10.5.4

Btw, no ide why I didn't close the pp before typing this messge, its very hrd to remember not to press letter...

hbien
Sorry! I hope it wasn't a huge inconvenience for you, but thanks for the bug report. I'll get on this one immediately...

It looks like for you the app wasn't substituting '#' in place of 'a', or were you deleting the '#' characters?

h34t
That was my bad. I typed in # characters in place of 'a''s.
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joshu
I like it. I'm continually trying out apps for this purpose but inevitably end up using an editor under Terminal.

(Pretend each hyphen starts a new bullet point)

Problems: - The cold start is a bit weak on first run. What should I do next? A little tutorial would be good. - I wish I could create an item without mousing to edit the description. Is this possible?

Ideas: - Growl integration: Randomly pop up items that need to be done, sortof as a teaser. Perhaps bias towards older or stale items? - Dependancies?

Wild idea: - add a server component, via a simple REST api, with a simple PHP version. Let me make a specific project folder be shared with other people. The website can show a simple list of todos/completions ala twitter. (anything you can X, I can social X. sorry.)

hbien
Joshu, thanks for your feedback!

I was concerned about the cold start as well, I'll think of a better way to do a first run.

You can add a new item using cmd-N and then hit 'tab' to edit it. When you're done, hit 'enter' or 'tab' again to edit tags. I'll be changing it so right after adding a new item, it'll go straight to editing it.

I haven't thought of Growl integration, but honestly it sounds like a great idea to show users what to do next in their list.

joshu
The Growl stuff is something I've wanted forever. Remind me of what I'm supposed to be doing!

Seriously, though, the more I think of it, a server component would be great.

blakeperdue
i would say add a publish a group feature would be nice. i currently do this with remember the milk so my boss can keep tabs on what i'm doing.
hbien
Hi blakeperdue,

This sounds like a pretty useful feature. I'll put it on the back burner for now, but what I'm thinking of is a simple HTML page generated and published to a server for other people to view.

izak30
I'm having a problem..

I assiagned a hot key. Then I didn't restart the computer yet.

Later, I was in the safari search bar, and whenever I hit 'a' it would toggle the program. I had to close the program to be able to hit 'a' again.

hbien
Hi izak,

This seems to be a bug that some other people are having also. I'm working on a fix for it and it'll be out for the next version.

aupajo
Website Feedback :)

1. Alter typography, add a decent line height (maybe 1.6em?) 2. Background image is yeck. You'd be better off with a lighter grey than the current image. 3. Headings would look better without small-caps

Other than that, seams good! Still testing the app atm.