What am I doing
I'm noticing that I've been feeling a bit confused the last few days about what to work on next for Aficionado.
I built and shipped most of my initial vision for the "single player" tool (meaning - the features that help me build my Scrapbook, Radar and Lists all by myself) and some basic social features (Discover page + "Kept by others" widget). Now what?
There's this uncertainty about whether it's "ready" or "good enough" to shift my focus to trying to get it in front of more users (a challenge in itself) versus building more features I think would be useful.
Two feature I've been prototyping but kind of put on the shelf for now are a List Maker and Conversations within Aficionado.
The former is basically the core functionality of Lists as a little standalone feature - open to visitors and casuals to create and share Lists or screenshot them. Here's what the standalone prototype looks like:
The latter is basically enabling people to discuss and connect around a specific title or a List. So it's like a Direct Message but he UI and context steers you talk about the media. I'm having a hard time nailing the UI so far.
I think there's merit in both, but at the same time I am questioning what is the essence of Aficionado.
I don't want it to be a grab-bag of loosely connected features, but a more cohesive thing that serves the purpose of helping me (and others) feel more "connected" to the games, books, movies, tv shows and music that resonated with me.
To that end - what enhances my enjoyment of them?
I think: remembering them, revisiting them, sharing them with others (talking about them, recommending them, getting recommended of other things I might like, sharing specific experiences with others). That's the fun part. That's what I want Aficionado to help facilitate.
I guess I'll simmer on these thoughts a bit.