Dropshop 2.0
Over at App Store, Dropshop 2.0 is now live with updated looks and iOS 10 ready! Dropshop is now also totally free - which means Dropshop Free is no longer needed and thus unavailable.
Introducing: Dropshop
A few weeks ago our latest iOS app went live in the app store: Dropshop.
Dropshop helps you with your day-to-day grocery shopping - simple, smart and in sync.
Simple
At home it’s really simple to select which items you need to buy, just tap items to select. Group items by creating lists of items - perhaps your regular daily shopping or your favourite recipes - all available at your fingertips in Dropshop. To help you even more, Dropshop comes pre-loaded with a comprehensive set of groceries*. If one of your favourite groceries is missing, it’s easy to add a new one - a single tap will add it to your list.
Smart
All items to buy are collected in the common shopping list, regardless which list they belong. When your’re in the store just tap items as you pick them up. Dropshop even learns the order of the groceries in your store, and automatically sorts the pickup order.
Sync
Sync and share your shopping lists to all your iOS devices - it’s super easy to setup, no username or password required. Just bring two devices together onto the same Wifi network, start the setup process, and you’re done. When sync is setup, your lists, items and stores are available on all synched devices, no matter where they are!
Kill your darlings!
When I started the Shopping List project, a long long time ago, I had a vision of my product and summarized that vision in the post Features in a great Shopping List app.
One of the key features I listed was the ability to sort items into different categories, which gives nice visuals and ability for the user to sort the categories for each store. In theory this was a nice approach, and I stuck to for a long time.
However, when using the app, it became clear that this model was flawed. First, one store does not have the same categories as the next. Each store group groceries differently - in one store diapers was grouped with other household items such as toiletpaper, in another store diapers was grouped with kids stuff, such as crayons. There’s no solution to this other than creating a zillion categories in the app - which is by no means a good solution.
Second, when adding a new item, the user was forced to select a category for the item. This adds a level of complexity to the workflow of setting up your lists. The solution here for a lot of users may be to add a “Unknown” category. When more and more diverse items gets added to this “Unknown” category, the autosorting feature effectively stops working.
The one and only answer to the problem was to remove categories completely. This removes clutter from the user interface, and keeps the app focused on items. Autosorting had to be re-written to work on items, but that’s even better actually. Yes, the autosorting will take a few more uses to get really useful, as it has more entities to sort, but for your regular 20-ish items it works perfectly well.
Categories was one of the early features of the Shopping list app, and I spent a lot of hours implementing the user interface, the data model and the synchronization algorithm. Dropping it wasn’t a easy move personally, but was the right thing to do for the product.
So, always remember this in your product developement:
- adding features is not the same thing as adding user value
- always question your current features and do not be afraid of removing them, even if you’ve spent hours implementing it.
Kill your darlings!
Features in a great Shopping List app
I’m currently working on a Shopping List app for iOS. Yes, there are a trillion shopping list apps already in the App Store why would anyone need yet another?
Well, first of all, none of them worked they way I wanted. Either it was too simple, or they had so many features my eyes bled just looking at the UI. What I needed was a really simple way to store my groceries in lists, where I simply can select those needed to buy. Then, when in the store, I will see the list of items to buy organized by category (aisle), making it easy to find a deselect items I pick up in the store.
Second, I would like my shopping list to synch to my girlfriends phone. So, whenever she selects something to buy, I can see that in my phone. Some apps have solved this with manual sharing of lists over email. Thanks, but no thanks. I want my synchronization to be automatic, and I never want to worry about it. The setup process must be simple simple simple, no passwords, no questions, it should just work.
So, we’ve got lists, categories and synchronization. All packaged in a simple, effective and fast interface that helps you take care of your shopping.
What features would you need in a shopping list app?
Bakgrund: Bränsleväljaren
Bränsleväljaren började som en diskussion med min bror som spånade på idéer kring nya appar. Han kom på idéen om en app som räknar ut vad han skulle tanka i sin etanolbil, bensin eller etanol, så han skulle slippa räkna i huvudet varje gång han tankade. Det är väldigt enkel räkning, förbrukning för bensin repsektive etanol, samt priset för respektive drivmedel, men tillräckligt jobbigt för att det ska finnas ett behov av ett hjälpmedel. Jag hackade ihop appen, och skickade till min bror.
Länge tänkte jag att jag inte skulle publicera den alls. Men en förmiddag fick jag lust att fixa till de där små skavankerna jag såg, och dessutom var jag sugen på att prova på iAds. Resultatet finns i App Store: Bränsleväljaren som enkelt och lätt hjälper dig välja vilket drivmedel du ska tanka. iAds är aktiverat i appen, men eftersom det endast är aktiverat i USA, så visas ingen reklam än så länge.
Support
Got a problem? Need support? No problem, just leave a public comment in this post! If you want to contact us privately, you can either ask us anything at this page or drop us a line at apps@banjo.nu.