Just Ryan
Team Members
- ryanb
What
Name something you want to accomplish daily. The more days you accomplish the task in a row the more points you earn. Compare your score with others for some fun competition!
Where
- Entry URL:
- http://dailystamp.com
- Info / Screencast URL:
- http://media.railscasts.com/videos/dailystamp.mov
How
Rails 2.3.3, jQuery, Sqlite 3, Authlogic, Paperclip, Nifty-Generators, RMagick, Ruby-OpenID, RSpec, FactoryGirl
In the Making: Photoshop CS, Cinema 4D (for the stamp), TextMate, Google Images.
Comments
I feel like this would be a good idea…for a little under a week. And then you would forget about it and it would be another thing to add to the list of “stuff you have to do and don’t have time for”
Great :-)
I like the screencast to explain the app but it needs some better examples. Teachers/parents could use it for positive reinforcment, keeping track of chorese, etc.
add a weekly stamp also, some things can only be done weekly
Simple, straightforward, and a very well thought-out interface. Kudos!
first of all you Ryan do a great GREAT GREAT!!! job with your railscasts they rocks. This app its very well design and also love the feature of making my own stamp… I know there are some features (as in every app of this contest) but hope you fix them soon.
Great Concept..Great Site..
well let me see if I can finally leave the cigarette LOL… col idea and I think you do it alone in 48H what it make it more awesome :)
Good idea for an app. I think you could easily implement twitter to make the app more “viral.” These kinds of ideas need lots of input from users to be useful for lots of people. Reminds me of #tdf. Good job!
@Subimage, thanks for the feedback! Allowing someone to stamp multiple times at once is a cool idea. My only concern is that it won’t be obvious how to put the stamp down. I will do some experimentation with this after the rumble to see which feels more natural.
Okay, I found out the issue with the FireFox problems. It seems if the page is partially scrolled down while stamping, everything gets offset causing the wrong day to be marked or not allowing you to stamp at all. I will get this fixed once the contest is over, but in the meantime please scroll to the top of the page while stamping. Sorry for the problem!
I like the idea. Poor execution.
As a new user if I already have a goal I’d like to fill out the current calendar month. Clicking the stamp each time, then clicking the calendar is a pain.
I’d make the stamp more of a “mode” where you can “pick up the stamp” and stamp days until you’re done. Think about the experience you’re recreating in real life terms.
For those of you who are unable to place stamps, make sure you are logged in and you own the stamp. And that you have JavaScript enabled.
I have not been able to duplicate the problem in FireFox 3. The only browser I know which does not work is FireFox 2 and below, but this should present a friendly error message saying you’ll need to upgrade.
I’ve been thinking about building this myself! Brillian! Except I can’t place any stamps in FF3.5 on OSX. Nothing works.
@smeade, thank you for the review! Email reminders are a great idea. However, I think a daily reminder would be a bit much. Maybe a reminder if one misses a day or two. Of course this would be customizable so one can turn it off if they want.
@cmelbye, thank you for notifying me of this issue. I’ve tested it in both Firefox 3.0 and Firefox 3.5, both worked without problems. Do you have FireBug installed by chance? If so, are you getting a javascript error and what does it say?
I wasn’t able to add stamps in Firefox 3.0.13.
Appearance/UI: 5/5
Well done. I like how the stamp shows up exactly where I put it, acting like a real stamp, not just a way to mark off a box on the calendar. You can even stamp the intersection of four days and DailyStamp figures out which day to put it in. There are lots of little appearance/UI touches like that that must have taken work to accommodate, but make the overall app seem really simple and easy to use. I didn’t get any 500 errors.
Completeness: 5/5
++ completeness points for the point score system, the customization of stamps, including ability to upload custom images, and other added items that takes dailystamp to another level of completeness. Good job adding those extra little touches. Only thing I could think to add would be email reminders out to users, but I’m judging on does the app present a completed project and solution as set forth by the developer. Daily Stamp does and then also has surprises beyond the base app.
Innovation: 5/5
I’ve seen some of the other daily habit, “calendar about nothing” and “don’t break the chain” type apps, but they do not have the combination of features packaged up here. So, I’m giving innovation props for all the extra little features (like point score system, friendly real-world feel, customization, easy private/public option), for being completely different than any of the other 160 Rumble Apps and finally for being what I think is one of the better Rumble apps I’ve reviewed so far at showing the power of Rails (after all it is the Rails Rumble) vs. being a UI layer serving up external services’ data though a thin Rails app.
Usefulness: 4/5
I’m already using it. http://dailystamp.r09.railsrumble.com/stamps/723 The ability to hide or share a calendar is very useful. There’s something motivating about knowing others in your family or team or in public in general can see your progress. There’s also things you would want to keep private. So, usefulness + on that. It would be more useful though if there were daily email reminders. I’m not convinced I’ll continue every day with it without a little prompting. The emails could be little pep-talks to encourage users to keep up with their Daily Stamp habit.
Hey Ryan,
Really nice application!
Nice to see(and shocked) that you are doing lots of things in very short time.
I am really impressed!!!
You are my one of the favorite heroes of RoR. :)
@Kevin, thanks for the detailed review.
I agree the OpenID could use a bit of work. What I should have done is disabled validation on username and email for OpenID since its primary purpose is authentication. I’ll look into the Google problems too. Some OpenID providers will fill in the username/email automatically which is what I had counted on (but obviously not all).
As for innovation and usefulness, I think these are largely subjective depending on whether you like this kind of thing. The score keeping is actually one of the key features and can be a huge motivator in building a habit because the score slowly increases the more days you do it in a row. The trick is to not miss a day since you get penalized more the further along you get. You can also set personal goals for yourself (I can buy a new game once I reach 100 points, etc.) which would provide further motivation.
I realize this can be done on a real calendar (which is what originally motivated building this app) but having it digital does present some useful advantages. One is accountability which can be done by sharing the stamp URL with others (I should have advertised this somewhere). The other is the scoring system which is difficult to keep track of otherwise.
Thanks for the review!
Appearance: 4/5
Nice simple design, though there’s not consistent navigation. Fantastic handling of uploaded images, and nice overall display. However, you didn’t modify your error pages, which would have been nice. Finally, the green alert messages don’t seem to fit with the rest of the scheme. It’s as though you’re using two accent colors.
Completeness: 3/5
Very nice implementation. My only complaints are regarding user creation. I do appreciate the automatic guest account, but signing up is frustrating for Open ID users – particularly those who use a provider which doesn’t support standard information (like Google). First off, the Open ID field doesn’t have a helper, so it requires me to look up my Open ID url (which is easy to remember for MyOpenID, but not for Google). Then, I get bounced back because a username and email are required. If these are required fields, prompt the user for them in the first place. I understand that the Open ID provider may already have that information on file – but you’re going to annoy more people by adding intermediary step after intermediary step. Personal opinion, but Open ID is not mature enough to be a reliable standard, and if you do use it, assume the lowest common denominator – user authentication only, with no information. Signing up for your site should not be a five-step process (go to signup page, go find Open ID url, attempt to signup, confirm on Google, have errors display on your site).
Innovation: 3/5
This is innovative in the sense that I don’t recall other sites like this, but I don’t think it really holds much new against manual calendars, other than additional display options, and a score-keeping ability – which aren’t really the key components toward validating a habit change. This doesn’t really compete well with the tactile response of stamping a real calendar.
Usefulness: 2/5
I couldn’t really see myself using this site. It’s a neat idea, and it’s executed well, but ultimately it doesn’t do much to encourage an individual to maintain a habit. It would be nice if the stamper didn’t return to the tray on each stamp, also.
Overall, this is a nice and well-executed app. My ratings aren’t as positive because of my opinions regarding Open ID usage, and just that I don’t see much practical application for this project. That said, well done, well explained in the screencast, and best of luck!
-Kevin W. Gisi
Nice and simple, but does its job well!
Ah, found it. If you click a stamp again it goes away. Nice app!
If I accidently click on the calendar, how do I undo a stamp? Is it there permanently until I delete the entire stamp?
Crashed after three stamps. Clever, though.
Awesome :)
@jDeppen, this is a feature not a bug. ;) Seriously though, Daily Stamp is not about restricting what you can do, but giving you the tools to track your own progress. If someone wants to stamp future days that is their choice. Also it does not know what is considered a future day for the user because that is dependent upon their time zone.
Lets me stamp future dates
This is AWESOME. I used Rick’s Calendar About Nothing for my Github stuff, but having this for other stuff will be awesome. I absolutely love the way you guide people through the first time; maybe making that a smidge more apparent though (bigger, bolder, or maybe even just a diff color, etc.) would help.
The 500 errors seem to be intermittent. If you do get one please try again. I’m not sure what is causing it yet.
A few ticks: Got a 500 trying to change the stamp, but I see what it’s suppose to do per the video. The js trips up in FF when you try illegal moves, like stamping a skip. Some of the counts are off when you stamp around the calendar and switch back and forth between skips and stamps.
I think the tactile feel of stamping is an awesome idea. Love the clean design. The idea is awesome, and I think people will actually use this app if you leave it up and maintain it.
Awesome app!