4 weeks progress comparison
I want to share my 4 weeks progress working on ListWish (https://listwi.sh). It's not 4 weeks of continuous 40h/w work, rather after-hours and few hours on the weekends.
In case you don't know I'm working on a new wishlist website. What's the story behind it? My girlfriend's dad is kinda ignorant and all - let's not go there - but basically he sometimes doesn't really know colors, shapes and brands.
My gf jokingly said that I should make a wishlist app where friends and family can chat with your wishes to make sure they picked what you wanted. So her dad could just ask (using text and images) whether he picked the right thing without being a total disappointment of a father. And whether his purple is really purple or just red.
We laughed and forgot about it. But after some time I got excited about the idea and have decided to build an initial version, where you could just write your wishlist and chat with it. But using only text to limit the scope.
It worked great. I've posted about it on X and LinkedIn but since I don't have a following, it didn't really got any attention (but still it was fun)
It made sense for me to spend a bit more time on this project. Even though there were questions that made me anxious like:
I thought that maybe if I do a (seemingly) simple website where you can share a wishlist without an account, the project would gain an advantage that competitors couldn't easily add. Not in the refined / thoughtful form at least. Not to mention AI assistant (chatting with your wishlist) part.
Alright so I think I got this? - said by me, who definitely haven't got this
As said in previous paragraphs, I decided to stick with improving the user experience bit. Without really focusing on adding features like, reservations, shipping addresses and friends integration.
Why?
It just makes sense to me, to create a strong foundation that later I can build upon. Also I can just ship small features faster which plays nicely with my full-time job schedule.
I won't go into specific release dates of features I've added over the past 4 weeks but here we go.
Since this is primarily a B2C product I spent some time designing a logo in Figma so the design and website looks professional. I got inspired by phosphor and lucide icons and decided to make a logo in a similar fashion.
I didn't know (I still don't know) what color scheme to use so I went for basic, Apple-tone-like blue.
Easy-to-use, clean editor is one of the main selling points behind this project. In other products you have to click through ugly forms and stick to the input structure which could be overwhelming if you only get started. If you go to ListWish, first thing you see is a wishlist editor that you can use right-away. Even without creating an account.
Since I use TipTap library for the editor, I copied some components and extensions over from https://novel.sh. I still needed to implement some myself but overall it was a pretty straightforward feature. But still lots of work left there.
Because the editor is so simple and has no formal restrictions I got a feeling that users might just get stuck on how to add a wish. Like, do you add an image? Do you add a link? Price?
And so wishlist inspirations / examples came to life. To showcase the possibilities of the editor as well as... add memes too. Existing wishlist websites are sad and ugly and totally not fun.
https://listwi.sh/wishlist-inspirations/random-stuff-ill-laugh-at-once-then-forget-about
Not saying that this is peak comedy and best shitposting but... I like it. In addition, anyone can submit an inspiration. I'll choose one each week and post it on 𝕏 and feature it on the website. Probably no one will so I will probably be creating those in the coming weeks
This is an obvious one. I needed a way for users to provide feedback. Yeah, you can use just email and yeah respond with shipped too late comment blah blah blah. But I wanted to provide a nice experience in-app.
I'm working on user accounts.
It won't be intrusive like in other wishlist products. You still will be able to create and share wishlist without an account. But I'm adding accounts to clear way for planned features, like browser extension, reservations and price watcher. Enabling paid features as well.
Still not sure how this project will make money. But I like the process.
And I like the product so far, even with limited features.
That's what counts, I guess.
I want to share my 4 weeks progress working on ListWish (https://listwi.sh). It's not 4 weeks of continuous 40h/w work, rather after-hours and few hours on the weekends.
Backstory
In case you don't know I'm working on a new wishlist website. What's the story behind it? My girlfriend's dad is kinda ignorant and all - let's not go there - but basically he sometimes doesn't really know colors, shapes and brands.
My gf jokingly said that I should make a wishlist app where friends and family can chat with your wishes to make sure they picked what you wanted. So her dad could just ask (using text and images) whether he picked the right thing without being a total disappointment of a father. And whether his purple is really purple or just red.
We laughed and forgot about it. But after some time I got excited about the idea and have decided to build an initial version, where you could just write your wishlist and chat with it. But using only text to limit the scope.
It worked great. I've posted about it on X and LinkedIn but since I don't have a following, it didn't really got any attention (but still it was fun)
It made sense for me to spend a bit more time on this project. Even though there were questions that made me anxious like:
- what are the competitor wishlist products?
- how big is the wishlist market?
- how do I monetize the project?
- does it even make sense?
- what am i doing...
I thought that maybe if I do a (seemingly) simple website where you can share a wishlist without an account, the project would gain an advantage that competitors couldn't easily add. Not in the refined / thoughtful form at least. Not to mention AI assistant (chatting with your wishlist) part.
Alright so I think I got this? - said by me, who definitely haven't got this
Actual progress
As said in previous paragraphs, I decided to stick with improving the user experience bit. Without really focusing on adding features like, reservations, shipping addresses and friends integration.
Why?
It just makes sense to me, to create a strong foundation that later I can build upon. Also I can just ship small features faster which plays nicely with my full-time job schedule.
I won't go into specific release dates of features I've added over the past 4 weeks but here we go.
Clean logo and basic branding
Since this is primarily a B2C product I spent some time designing a logo in Figma so the design and website looks professional. I got inspired by phosphor and lucide icons and decided to make a logo in a similar fashion.
I didn't know (I still don't know) what color scheme to use so I went for basic, Apple-tone-like blue.
Nice wishlist Notion-style editor
Easy-to-use, clean editor is one of the main selling points behind this project. In other products you have to click through ugly forms and stick to the input structure which could be overwhelming if you only get started. If you go to ListWish, first thing you see is a wishlist editor that you can use right-away. Even without creating an account.
Since I use TipTap library for the editor, I copied some components and extensions over from https://novel.sh. I still needed to implement some myself but overall it was a pretty straightforward feature. But still lots of work left there.
Wishlist inspirations
Because the editor is so simple and has no formal restrictions I got a feeling that users might just get stuck on how to add a wish. Like, do you add an image? Do you add a link? Price?
And so wishlist inspirations / examples came to life. To showcase the possibilities of the editor as well as... add memes too. Existing wishlist websites are sad and ugly and totally not fun.
https://listwi.sh/wishlist-inspirations/random-stuff-ill-laugh-at-once-then-forget-about
Not saying that this is peak comedy and best shitposting but... I like it. In addition, anyone can submit an inspiration. I'll choose one each week and post it on 𝕏 and feature it on the website. Probably no one will so I will probably be creating those in the coming weeks
Feedback
This is an obvious one. I needed a way for users to provide feedback. Yeah, you can use just email and yeah respond with shipped too late comment blah blah blah. But I wanted to provide a nice experience in-app.
What's next?
I'm working on user accounts.
It won't be intrusive like in other wishlist products. You still will be able to create and share wishlist without an account. But I'm adding accounts to clear way for planned features, like browser extension, reservations and price watcher. Enabling paid features as well.
Still not sure how this project will make money. But I like the process.
And I like the product so far, even with limited features.
That's what counts, I guess.