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Discover new interesting people around you. Browse, chat, interact - simply have fun!
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Discover new interesting people around you. Browse, chat, interact - simply have fun!
Ask me anything | Submit | Archive | RSS
The past two days we have been looking into our home screen layout and thinking how we can bring something more to our users than the typical home screen of existing people discovery apps of today. We have learned that most of the current apps are using grid layout such as these ones below.
As you can see, the home screen of these apps looks pretty much similar to each other. The pictures are all arranged in a grid layout. Though it might look well arranged, I think it is quite dull, boring and somewhat ugly. Our MVP (Minimum Viable Product) actually applies the same layout at the moment, but we are going to do it differently to make it more dynamic. We are not able to reveal anything just yet but it is going to be much sexier and it is going to change how a people discovery app should look like :)
We haven’t been really actively blogging lately, so I’ll just wrap up some of the rather worth mentioning news around ifetcha. First a news about us in the news, then why we have been so quiet and our planned launch and lastly, a quick announcement about us hiring :). Off we go…
So, last week we were getting some buzz in the media. It started out of a post from the official blog of The Founder Institute that revealed the news about us receiving an angel funding. The news quickly spread through the local tech media sites such as this one. Not long after, we started receiving congrats messages and emails from other company founders, VCs, as well as media such as an Asian tech news media, that covered us in their posts here and here.
We have been pretty much in radio silence for the past few weeks as we have been in complete focus, developing our app for the BlackBerry platform. Our initial plan to launch beginning of April has been postponed to mid this month due to mainly technical reasons.
We’re looking for a lead/senior programmer position. We particularly need someone who is proficient in Java, PHP, and have experience in mobile programming frameworks (be it BlackBerry or Android). So if you think you are a good fit for us and our service, or if you know someone who might be a fit, please send us an email at career@ifetcha.com
*images source: Google Images
As we are still developing ifetcha, I have been studying a lot of location-based people discovery apps that are available. Throughout the course of Founder Institute we have been getting some concerns in the privacy department. The screenshot shows a photo album of ‘my profile’ in a similar app I like. The private photo section is actually a good answer to the concerns. We are formulating a concept to incorporate this into our gaming element. It will not be available in our first private beta release in the end of this month, but it will come in later versions :)
Here’s a post I wrote a while back when designing ifetcha’s old logo. One slight change is the heart symbol, we decided to change it into two symbols combined: a pin and a chat icon.
The logo I created for my new startup concept: ifetcha. ifetcha is a website and a mobile application that help people find and communicate with new interesting people nearby. Also allowing them to engage in set of actions toward each other before they can ultimately set up a meetup at a selection of venues that we have cooperation with.
Fecha = dating in Spanish. ifetcha is also colloquial for “I fetch you”. Because we fetch you a list of people around you that might be of your interest.
Selection of colors: dark/navy blue and bright pink. Symbolizing male and female. The heart icon on top of the first letter, “i” is partly bright pink and dark/navy blue, which express the engagement and the meet/serendipity between users. Finally, the selection of font: Helvetica neue, which I think is very classic/conventional and simplistic, yet still a beauty to its viewers. The simplistic design implicates ifetcha’s nature of software which would be engineered towards a very simple, clean and user friendly interface, giving the users the experience of an application/website “that just works”.
For the past couple of months, we have been crafting why people should believe in ifetcha and here’s a list of our favorite reasons:
1. ifetcha is social, local and mobile (SoLoMo), which is going to be the next cutting edge for digital businesses in 2012. Smartphones are on the rise and 49% users time spent on mobile phone is to socialize. Location is becoming prominent and it is much more than check-ins, we are using location to allow users discover the nearest people with the same interests or find venues where they can host a meetup with other ifetcha users with a special rate. And regarding mobile, well what more can I say… It’s a mobile application…
2. You can finally break the ice with that hot girl on the corner that you just can’t keep your eyes off from. Or discover people who play basketball in your neighbourhood, better yet, find that talented programmer you have been looking for, next door!
3. Connect with people outside of your current network. Don’t accept being single and lonely while all the ‘boyfriend/girlfriend potential’ friends you have on your favorite social network are either taken or married. Broaden your network! Get connected!
4. Don’t worry about being stalked or feeling uncomfortable exposing your profile in public. We are implementing a feature where you can easily configure your discoverability and accessibility. When you feel annoyed by someone, simply flag the person or just block them so you wouldn’t have to see them again, ever. Set who can see you, and who you can see. Similar to Blendr’s settings.
5. It’s like The Sims, but in real life. Many gave us feedback that in a more conservative culture, people wouldn’t be comfortable coming up to a stranger with a full profile. This is why we are going to make it more fun, by putting on some gaming elements. Here’s some of the features:
- Your profile would have ratings based on how popular you are (e.g. How many times you have been favorited by others, how many virtual items you’ve received, etc.)
- For every connections you make with others, you will have an engagement level with that person. Maintain your relationships with other users by performing some actions to them. The more actions you do to that person (and the other way around) the higher your level of engagement with that person will be. And the more engagement levels you have with multiple people, the higher profile score you’ll get.
- You’ll receive badges as you reveal more information about yourself, which also validates the legitimacy of a user. So for instance, when you login with facebook, and we see that you have more than x number of friends, you’ll have the first level of badge. When x number of ifetcha users met up with you and give you good rating, you’ll get a higher level of badge. While you earn these badges, we’ll also reward you with points which would be accumulated to your overall profile score.
- You’ll get rewarded with ifetcha credits (which you can use to purchase virtual items with) for your frequency of using ifetcha.
These are the 5 most awesome reasons that we can highlight (among thousands other ;)). The point of this application is that we wanna help you make your life more social, by connecting with new and interesting people around you. And more fun, by being active in the game.
Be excited, ‘cause we’re excited in bringing this awesome service available for you! :)
The ifetcha Team
Hello world,
As of today we will start blogging the developments of our ifetcha project.
ifetcha is a website and mobile applications that help people discover and interact with new and interesting others in a nearby area using location-detection technology, combining fun, social and gamification element.
ifetcha is on development for the BlackBerry platform and is scheduled to launch for its private beta audience in March 2012.
Our initial launch will be for the Indonesian market, which will be followed by other neighbouring South East Asian countries. For each launch we will provide localization of the language in the app.
Stay tuned and keep up with our progress as we work super hard to bring this awesome service available for you and the rest of the world :)
The ifetcha Team
This is our latest version of logo. We’ve posted a more elaborate explanation of the origin of the name and logo. This design is pretty much the same as the old one. The only difference is the symbol above the letter “i” that consists of a pin and a chat icon. This symbolizes our nature of being a location based service and the chat icon represents the interaction features (social) - and not only for the ability to chat.
