"because anything can be done in a web app."
Lifetick, the app that tracks your personal life goals like a ninja, recently upgraded their app to include free access from your iPhone as well as iCalendar/Google Calendar integration. Screenshots of Lifetick on the iPhone below:
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Login here: http://www.lifetick.com/iPhone
Several months back, I was called in for a job interview in New York City, but the night before the interview, I was asked to be able to show an online portfolio the very next day at 10am. The position wasn't design oriented, but I do have plenty of design experience, and my resume stated accordingly.
Needless to say, I was a little bit worried about pulling something together, considering my hosting contract with GoDaddy had just expired and I was unable to throw anything online in that short amount of time and have it still look professional, and devoid of any other brands other than the brand name that is "me".
I had remembered that a few months before that, I had recommended a certain app by the name of Carbonmade to my girlfriend, in case she ever needed to put a portfolio online; little did I know that I would be using it to save my own ass in the near future.
In short, for artists needing a portfolio, Carbonmade is an absolute life saver. After a fabulously short registration page, a self-designated Carbonmade URL, and a few quick clicks on the admin page, I had my portfolio customized to the look and feel I wanted. Fortunately, there's only a few customizable options. I say "fortunately" because when an app has a plethora of options for customization, it causes unnecessary stress on the user and lowers the ease of use.
Here's the walkthrough:
| Does the app fulfill its intended purpose? | 10 |
| How clean and simplistic is the UI? | 10 |
| Is the app forward thinking and innovative? | 9 |
| How re-usable is the app? | 9 |
| Overall | 9.5 |
This app saved the day for me, but because a lot of my design work was web-based, I had to take screen shots and upload them. What would have been better was if they offered an iframe to display your web page in. However, they have since began offering video, and Flash hosting services, and for anyone whose work is primarily in Flash, this is a god-send.
But to end my story, I banged out my portfolio, and the next day had a job offer...thanks Carbonmade! If you're in a jam, and need to get out of it fast and free, Carbonmade is made of win.
This app rocks. Mobaganda.com is about as bare-bones as you can get- no login, no sign-up- beautiful. Mobaganda is a way to promote, publicize, and manage an event. However, it does this all at a very simple level. All at your own custom domain, it tracks attendees via email addresses, notifies them of changes, generates an RSS feed of event attendees and details, creates a group email address- and all without login.
A great little star-sticker bonus to this site is the ability to pick a template for your event page. It offers two flavors "cool" and "cute". I love this idea. Naming your templates based on a description of the template and not an arbitrary name like "Midnight" or "Minima" has such a nice way of advancing a user through the experience of the application.
And onto the brief, yet awesome, video walkthrough:
| Does the app fulfill its intended purpose? | 9 |
| How clean and simplistic is the UI? | 10 |
| Is the app forward thinking and innovative? | 10 |
| How re-usable is the app? | 7 |
| Overall | 9 |
My only comment on this app is that social networks like Facebook are far more effective at running and managing events because of the ability to search and add your friends. However, everyone has an email address, and not everyone has a Facebook (or check it frequently).
Also, as far as re-usability goes, people only have events once in a while, so I don't see this app being a regular in someone's répétoire. Plus, with apps that are too niche-oriented, people tend to forget about their existence when the time comes for them to actually use them. So I guess bookmark this one, and promise me you'll come back to it.
All-in-all, this app gets a big ol' thumbs up from me. Check out my event page I created here.
There is so much emphasis in many web apps placed upon business productivity that often personal productivity and life goals get pushed aside. Lifetick.com is very refreshing. Lifetick is an incredibly well thought out and nicely designed application that allows its users to create, maintain and complete their personal life goals.
After a quick verification email (cough), users are instructed to designate their "core values" or whatever things they hold highest, such as "Happiness" or "Career" or "Finances". There is a pretty tight word limit on this, which was a bit annoying, but I can see why they want to keep this to one or two short words. A pie chart then segments out each value as you add it, which is a neat visualization.
Once core values are set, specific goals can then be created and tied into each core value. This is where Lifetick shines. You remember back in kindergarten, or at some random point in your youth when your teachers sat you down and you wrote down goals? That was simple and easy...but you then later learned in high school that goals didn't mean crap if they weren't specific, had dates, we're reasonably able to be accomplished, and all that business? We'll that's what Lifetick does, it puts your goals into perspective in such an efficient way that a goal as daunting as "Get out of $100,000,000 debt" would seem simple. Oh, and you can set email reminders so you don't miss a thing. You really do get a warm and fuzzy feeling that you get after you have put all of your ideas that you dream about under one clean interface.
There's two other features that I didn't get a chance to test because they were blocked off by a "You need to pay to use this" pop-up: Status and Journal. I find it interesting (and quite silly) that these two features require a subscription ($20/yr), as they aren't a crux of the app. The Status section gives reports on when things were completed, etc...and the Journal is a log of all your activity on Lifetick (ie: Log-in times/goal creation dates). You still get all of the functionality you need just by using the free version.
| Does the app fulfill its intended purpose? | 9 |
| How clean and simplistic is the UI? | 10 |
| Is the app forward thinking and innovative? | 8 |
| How re-usable is the app? | 10 |
| Overall | 9.25 |
Overall, Lifetick is great. It executes goal setting and lays out goal completion in a really simple way, regardless of the size of the goal. I won't pay to use their "premium" features, but I'll probably use it to plan out the next few years of my life- if I can only find the time to put in all of my goals.
UPDATE // 9.4.08 @ 8:24pm: Lifetick has new features, post here.