Copy the expected, but build what you need.
For the last year I've been working on an app called Glimpse . It's a dictation app and a meeting app, built pretty much all by myself. I want to share something I've learned about building apps like this, where people come in with expectations, and how to build something that sets you apart. After spending a few months getting Glimpse to have every feature anyone would expect in a dictation app,…
A year ago, I began working on an app called Glimpse, which is both a dictation app and a meeting app. It was built almost entirely by myself. After dedicating several months to adding every feature one would expect in a dictation app, I shifted my focus to meetings. MacWhisper was my main inspiration for this. Once I had created a functional meeting mode, I encountered an email from them regarding a new feature, live transcripts.
Intrigued, I incorporated this feature into Glimpse. However, I paid close attention to my shortcomings with this feature. As I sat through lectures, writing notes alongside live, diarized information, I wondered if a model could utilize both types of data simultaneously. Wouldn't it be more efficient to update notes in real-time rather than waiting to paste a transcript into a model afterward?
Thus, I developed a solution that integrated this concept, allowing me to work alongside the model. I used the development version of Glimpse and observed that the model occasionally listened for extended or insufficient durations, failing to inform me about which model was attending to my live notes. Here are some insights I gained during this process:
1. Mimic the expectations of users. I included live transcripts in Glimpse because MacWhisper offered this feature, and users clearly desire it. There is no need to reinvent this aspect.
2. Be attentive to what you find unappealing, even within features you have copied. This is where you can create something unique that no one else has built.
3. Apply these improvements universally. For me, this involved using the app during lectures, not merely testing it for a brief period. However, the most crucial aspect of building any product is to be intensely passionate about it. Utilize it consistently, as this will help you identify issues with your creation, and the likelihood of others noticing and relating to these problems is high. Address these concerns before anyone else even attempts to use your product.
4. If you build something you do not use regularly, it is unlikely that others will find value in it as well.
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