Following the ShapeUp, this is the pitch for the Refuel Control app, the problem, the appetite, the solution, the rabbit holes, and no gos.
The problem
I can’t get rid of this habit of logging the refueling on my cars and motorcycles.
I have a notebook in my car, my wife has another notebook in her car, and I use a spreadsheet on my phone to log my motorcycle refueling.
It looks like this:
We keep the log up to date; it works, but having reports, seeing the metrics, and grouping it all is hard.
I’m looking for a way to:
- Group all logs in one place
- Make it easy to see the metrics
Appetite
I’m willing to spend six weeks on this project; let’s keep in mind that it is a side project, and I will work on it during my free time.
Six weeks, no more, no less.
Solution
As a web developer, I’m inclined to build a web app, but we do the refuel logs when outside, on gas stations, mostly.
The app should work on mobile devices, iPhones and Androids.
The primary users are me (android) and my wife (iPhone).
The app should be able to:
- Allow users to create an account
- Allow users to register a car
- Allow users to share a car with other users
- Allow users to register refuels
- Allow users to see at least a simple metric like average fuel consumption
Rabbit holes
The plan is to build a hybrid app, native on each OS but a wrapper around a web app.
With no expertise in mobile development before, I have to take care not to spend much time on it; if the native portion takes too much time, let’s drop it and make only the web app instead.
No gos
With an app in hand, I can quickly think about different metrics to build, but let’s focus on only one at this point; the average for the last ten refuels is enough.
The Solo Project 1: