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Hey HN! I've just launched my latest side-project, Intention. Intention's an app to help you achieve your goals. The idea is that you create a graph of goals/ta

by DaveWM 7y ago

Hey HN! I've just launched my latest side-project, Intention. Intention's an app to help you achieve your goals. The idea is that you create a graph of goals/tasks (intentions), with your high-level goals at the top and actionable tasks at the bottom. That allows you to create a collection of actionable tasks you can work on, and to visualise how they relate to your high-level goals. Any feedback would be much appreciated!

jmiskovic 7y ago
Congratulations on launch. I was initially interested in idea. I installed the app to try it out, but gave up on registration. I would use it offline and don't like the need for account. You might reconsider it as unnecessary barrier. I also avoid apps with ads. Also, why call it DAG when it is a tree? It has a root and cannot have more than one path between nodes.
- DaveWM 7y ago
  Hey, sorry the sign-up put you off. I am planning to make the app open source at some point, so you'll be able to run it yourself without any user authentication. While the mobile app does have ads, the web app (https://i.ntention.app https://i.ntention.app) is ad-free and has all the same functionality. Each node can actually have multiple parents, so as I understand it they do form a DAG rather than a tree.
- thanatropism 7y ago
  A tree is defined constructively, and here some definitions have further constraints (N children, often 2, per parent). A DAG is a restriction on general graphs.
Mattwmaster58 7y ago
Not gonna lie, having an Android screenshot inside of an iPhone on the landing a page really threw me off.
- DaveWM 7y ago
  Haha sorry about that, I didn't think anyone would notice tbh ;). I'll update it to an android phone.
- teekert 7y ago
  I always like such "easter eggs", it's like: "Is this guy messing with me? Is it intentional?"
ToJans 7y ago
I would suggest having a sensible DAG example in your flows on your homepage. Right now, you are not showing off your USP.
- DaveWM 7y ago
  That's a good idea, I'll try to think of a nice example. I went with a tree, rather than a DAG, because I wanted to make the examples as simple as possible so as to not scare people off.
  - ta999999171 7y ago
    What's a DAG? Also, do a "simple" example, and a "intricate" example, to show the range of possibilities. Let the user put their imagination in the middle. Also-also, publish on F-Droid!
    - capableweb 7y ago
      > What's a DAG? Directed acyclic graph - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Directed_acyclic_graph https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Directed_acyclic_graph
h3ctic 7y ago
Looks really cool, congrats! What's your stack for the App + Webapp?
- DaveWM 7y ago
  The web app uses Elm for the frontend, and Clojure + Datomic for the backend. The mobile app is basically just a webview that points at the web app.
toyg 7y ago
Interesting. Some feedback (i only tried the webapp, from ios): - i’d find more intuitive to have “the big prize” at the bottom, so i can work my way down by priority. Maybe an option? - i should be able to delete the root node, which would scrap the entire hierarchy. Give us a big warning but have the feature. - i should be able to edit nodes from the graph - even just by clicking an icon that sends me to the list-item view - this approach is good for one-off tasks but doesn’t seem to fit recurring tasks. For example, if i want to lose weight, i have to meal-plan once every week. Either i keep adding the task manually (bleh) or i cannot deal with it here. - maybe have a bit of song & dance when you tick off the root node.
- DaveWM 7y ago
  Thanks very much for the feedback. To respond: - Is this in the list view or the graph view? I did originally have the list order reversed (i.e. root node at the bottom), but I found it very confusing. I could potentially add a setting to control the order. - I've tried to avoid deleting nodes where possible. If you delete a parent node, its children will be automatically re-arranged rather than deleted. Could you re-name the root node instead of deleting it? - Agreed, the graph view is very basic at the moment. I'm looking to make it much more powerful in future. - I've intentionally ignored recurring tasks for now, because I want to get them right when I do implement them. I'm aware it'd be a nice feature, so I am looking to add it asap. - Good idea
  - toyg 7y ago
    1 - graph view. Maybe have something to flip the graph only. 2 - yeah, I grasped that you can just rename it, but it's a bit annoying because I might also have to manually delete a bunch of nodes below.

by DaveWM 7y ago

jmiskovic 7y ago

Congratulations on launch. I was initially interested in idea. I installed the app to try it out, but gave up on registration. I would use it offline and don't like the need for account. You might reconsider it as unnecessary barrier. I also avoid apps with ads. Also, why call it DAG when it is a tree? It has a root and cannot have more than one path between nodes.

DaveWM 7y ago
Hey, sorry the sign-up put you off. I am planning to make the app open source at some point, so you'll be able to run it yourself without any user authentication. While the mobile app does have ads, the web app (https://i.ntention.app https://i.ntention.app) is ad-free and has all the same functionality. Each node can actually have multiple parents, so as I understand it they do form a DAG rather than a tree.
thanatropism 7y ago
A tree is defined constructively, and here some definitions have further constraints (N children, often 2, per parent). A DAG is a restriction on general graphs.

Mattwmaster58 7y ago

Not gonna lie, having an Android screenshot inside of an iPhone on the landing a page really threw me off.

DaveWM 7y ago
Haha sorry about that, I didn't think anyone would notice tbh ;). I'll update it to an android phone.
teekert 7y ago
I always like such "easter eggs", it's like: "Is this guy messing with me? Is it intentional?"

ToJans 7y ago

I would suggest having a sensible DAG example in your flows on your homepage. Right now, you are not showing off your USP.

DaveWM 7y ago
That's a good idea, I'll try to think of a nice example. I went with a tree, rather than a DAG, because I wanted to make the examples as simple as possible so as to not scare people off.
- ta999999171 7y ago
  What's a DAG? Also, do a "simple" example, and a "intricate" example, to show the range of possibilities. Let the user put their imagination in the middle. Also-also, publish on F-Droid!
  - capableweb 7y ago
    > What's a DAG? Directed acyclic graph - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Directed_acyclic_graph https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Directed_acyclic_graph

h3ctic 7y ago

Looks really cool, congrats! What's your stack for the App + Webapp?

DaveWM 7y ago
The web app uses Elm for the frontend, and Clojure + Datomic for the backend. The mobile app is basically just a webview that points at the web app.

toyg 7y ago

Interesting. Some feedback (i only tried the webapp, from ios): - i’d find more intuitive to have “the big prize” at the bottom, so i can work my way down by priority. Maybe an option? - i should be able to delete the root node, which would scrap the entire hierarchy. Give us a big warning but have the feature. - i should be able to edit nodes from the graph - even just by clicking an icon that sends me to the list-item view - this approach is good for one-off tasks but doesn’t seem to fit recurring tasks. For example, if i want to lose weight, i have to meal-plan once every week. Either i keep adding the task manually (bleh) or i cannot deal with it here. - maybe have a bit of song & dance when you tick off the root node.

DaveWM 7y ago
Thanks very much for the feedback. To respond: - Is this in the list view or the graph view? I did originally have the list order reversed (i.e. root node at the bottom), but I found it very confusing. I could potentially add a setting to control the order. - I've tried to avoid deleting nodes where possible. If you delete a parent node, its children will be automatically re-arranged rather than deleted. Could you re-name the root node instead of deleting it? - Agreed, the graph view is very basic at the moment. I'm looking to make it much more powerful in future. - I've intentionally ignored recurring tasks for now, because I want to get them right when I do implement them. I'm aware it'd be a nice feature, so I am looking to add it asap. - Good idea
- toyg 7y ago
  1 - graph view. Maybe have something to flip the graph only. 2 - yeah, I grasped that you can just rename it, but it's a bit annoying because I might also have to manually delete a bunch of nodes below.