day -12: amba.do wohoo
Daily stories from the ambadoo team, behind the scenes, dev-stats and other random stuff.
Two weeks to go. No more, no less. We’re getting to the point of finalizing a first releasable version, and now we’re working on all cylinders, while others gaze in the sun. It will be intense two weeks ahead with the very limited resources we have.
A Wohoo
It’s the small little everyday victories that cheer you up. Today Ester had one of those when she figured out a little problem she’d been struggling with. I know the feeling, and I’m one of those who jump around the room when I get something to work after hours of fight. It’s such an empowering feeling to succeed, no matter how little it is in the big picture. A little victory is still a victory.
Tags
We thought it’d be really cool to be able to tag others so that you then could create dynamic lists of friends from those tags. But quite recently we figured it’s even cooler to be able to tag yourself so that you can be added to a list, and everyone else who’s tagging themselves with that tag too will appear on that list. I can’t wait to see this feature in action. It might sound banal but it feels like quite powerful feature when we talk about it. Time will tell. It’s now being implemented so we can try it out.
iPad / Web
While we’re at it, we thought why stop making a mobile web version when it’s just a matter of a new style-sheet and some extra hours away from the sun to enable users to access their address book from their iPads or computers too. Maybe we’re grabbing for too much water, but it sure would be nice to close the circle.
amba.do
By now, many of you are probably familiar with short URLs like bit.ly, a way to compress long urls to fit into messages with limited characters like twitter. We’ll be using this short(er) url for your profiles. Unlike twitter is based on real names and not dependent on this short URL. So http://ambadoo.com/users/0/home also becomes http://amba.do/name. That’s the URL you can share to your friends, add as signature in e-mails, or as contact info on other sites.
day -19: profile
Daily stories from the ambadoo team, behind the scenes, dev-stats and other random stuff.
A new week, a new story, a new sprint. After fighting last week to get the login-process right we’re now on a sweet tasting fruit. Create, Edit & Update Profile, the core of ambadoo. This is what makes the differences. Instead of you having to take care of everybody else’ contact info, just care about your own, making sure it’s up-to-date and let everyone else do the same and we’re all fine.
Profile
The profile will evolve and grow over time but for this sprint, and the upcoming deadline we’ll keep it constraint. When you first register on ambadoo some info will be grabbed from your Facebook account as a starting point. Name & Photo. We’re looking into what what we can actually get from your profile, and if this makes sense to grab or it’s better to just start over.
Essentials
What’s crucial to get going? Well, Name is a given. Email, URL, Phone# & Address we believe will cover you for some time. There’s plenty more to add but for now this will make up a nice starting profile.
Privacy
This matters more than anything. For you and for us. It’s up to you what you share & with whom. We’ve created three presets for each and every item. Visible to you, your friends or everyone. You should never be forced to share anything with anyone, that’s for sure.
Tags
Instead of making static groups, that easily become out-of-date, we’re trying with a tag-based system that’s more dynamic. You can simply search for ‘New York’ among your contacts and all contacts in NY will show up, or search ‘developer’ and you get a list of coders. You’ll be able to tag others, but also yourself to make it easier to organize.
Can’t wait for Friday to see this rolling.
