How I did “Your Diary” - or the situation in the market of electronic diaries
Hello everyone, I am writing my first post. According to the rules, it can not be made advertising, so I will try to tell you something interesting, without references and other things.
I have been interested in education for a long time in our country. Including the moments of its digitalization, reduction to some interactive, convenient, accessible denominator.
One of the services of our education, which gives universal access to school resources, is an electronic diary.
I looked around for a long time and tortured myself with the thought that Russian schoolchildren did not get access to a high-quality and beautiful service for viewing grades.
It seems that in our country it is all the same for public services in education. And indeed on public services.
Positive trends are taking place only in Moscow: there is an excellent portal “mos.ru” working there, which, at a minimum, can be considered inconspicuous. In Moscow, for the sake of justice, there is also a zadizayenny site.
True, of course, I heard a huge number of stories from children who in two accounts changed their grades, hacked and changed the letter of the class. Hole after hole, error after error, but it works, and this cannot be called a terrible hack.
Of course, all these services were done by young programmers who did not know how it would be convenient and right for the guys. Know did not know and do not know - work out the budget.
In cities that are distant from the center, there are different types of electronic diaries. The most popular of them - "Dnevnik.ru" - for almost 10 years on the market, and the feeling that since that time, the design they have never changed. Look at their website.
Feels special taste.
As for their mobile apps, you need to pay. Without payment, you will not be able to see any homework or assessment. Easier to go through the site, is not it?
I tried to buy a PRO version from them. And I don’t recommend using it for money. That is not worth it.
The name had to come up with one that would reflect the concept - a diary for a person. For the student. For you. "Your Diary". Convenient, safe and high quality.
Fine. Since I have long wanted to try my hand at iOS development, I decided to start with Swift / PHP. And the first thought that came to mind is “damn ... it's parsing ...”
Oh, yes. The concept is as follows: the client makes a typical request to the server, indicating the type of the diary of the format “/ scripts / type {DIARY_TYPE_NUMBER} _ {DIARY_TYPE_NAME}? Action = {ACTION_TYPE = (" getMarks "," getSchedule ", etc.)}", and the server sends JSON with a typical response that the client parses.
This approach will provide server-based adding of new diaries, fixing vulnerabilities and adjusting the new API dynamically.
I decided to work on the design thoroughly. I tried to make it comfortable, beautiful, adaptive. In my opinion, it turned out shamefully. Convenient and not ashamed. Now three types of electronic journals are available in the diary - Moscow “MESH Diary”, “Dnevnik.ru” and Moscow Region “School portal”.
Yes. You will write in the comments two main questions:
And I will answer: yes, this is a parser, but convenient and versatile.
However, the issue of monetization is quite important.
"Your Diary" every 20 minutes will send a notification of estimates. Since this is an intermediary service, you understand that, in fact, if we have 200 users, the server will have to do 200 authorizations / requests for a token, load the children's schedule 200 times, 200 times compare whether there is an id of the assessment in the database and 200-old_marks send notification to devices once.
If the flow of users who should receive notifications every 20 minutes exceeds 100-200 thousand, then you know, servers will be needed for this. Powerful and lifting. Money. Alone money.
Of course, I decided to withdraw from the mandatory subscription. Otherwise, my application would be no different from what it is.
From advertising directly in the form of banners, I also walked away.
The user must receive the content in such a way that he does not have to pay for it, and the advertising he had to look at in an optional manner.
And then, of course, a solution was found. What if we provide additional functionality that will not be very necessary, but will boost the user's interest in its extension?
What could be so interesting and necessary for a student in a simple diary with grades?
Notifications and Tips! . Tips, by the way, are small lines that tell the student how many grades he has left to achieve a particular result (average score). And we will give them on the principle of RewardedVideo. Watch the video - get the service. This solves several questions:
For those who do not want to watch ads, of course, an extension of 3-12 months is available. Flexible and convenient. For viewing one commercial, by the way, you can get 1 week notifications and tips.
Never been friends with Android. While decided to advertise what I have. On iOS.
There are no big advertising budgets. For a week in the AppStore application downloaded 40 users. Maybe you would recommend something in the comments? How to advertise a convenient and high-quality product without space costs?
By the way, maybe he wants to help with the development? Write VK, if that.
Of course, one cannot say that I am completely sure that this is exactly what users need.
I have met recently a lot of guys who told me about their application, and they answered me with an iron “And what?”. There is a percentage, and I still do not know exactly what, users who do not remember and do not want to remember their passwords from electronic diaries. For them, this is a routine that they do not see and do not want to see.
How often, when you were in school, did you sleep in class?
Let's be honest: even the bastard regulars had one or two teachers, during whose lessons they wanted to sleep, yawned, did not study. And there were teachers whose lessons were deathly silence.
Lucky for those who have a school - a place where they want, but should not go. Public schools rarely make sure that the atmosphere that students want to see reigned here forever. Why? Because, in their opinion, this does not affect the quality of education, does not affect the budget or, for example, income from other educational activities.
But it is not. The special atmosphere at the school, includingsupported by the state in the form of electronic convenient services or activities aimed at familiarizing schoolchildren with the education system, with cool things, is very important. The guys are beginning to understand and realize that the knowledge they receive will be useful in the future (and the system should give them and rebuild the school curriculum).
Now educational work at school is usually Fgos events built every year on the same program, and the lessons are brewing and monotonous repetitions of the material, which is obsolete on the one hand, and one-sided and not practical in the other.
That is why there are guys who are not ready to accept such applications, not ready to accept an electronic diary and school as part of their lives. School, happy, most important life.
If you were interested, please, unsubscribe, I will be glad to talk in the comments.
If there are any news or other, other stories about the development, be sure to accomplish more.
Have a nice day, more smiles and joy!
I have been interested in education for a long time in our country. Including the moments of its digitalization, reduction to some interactive, convenient, accessible denominator.
One of the services of our education, which gives universal access to school resources, is an electronic diary.
I looked around for a long time and tortured myself with the thought that Russian schoolchildren did not get access to a high-quality and beautiful service for viewing grades.
Interesting market analysis
It seems that in our country it is all the same for public services in education. And indeed on public services.
Positive trends are taking place only in Moscow: there is an excellent portal “mos.ru” working there, which, at a minimum, can be considered inconspicuous. In Moscow, for the sake of justice, there is also a zadizayenny site.
True, of course, I heard a huge number of stories from children who in two accounts changed their grades, hacked and changed the letter of the class. Hole after hole, error after error, but it works, and this cannot be called a terrible hack.
Of course, all these services were done by young programmers who did not know how it would be convenient and right for the guys. Know did not know and do not know - work out the budget.
In cities that are distant from the center, there are different types of electronic diaries. The most popular of them - "Dnevnik.ru" - for almost 10 years on the market, and the feeling that since that time, the design they have never changed. Look at their website.
Feels special taste.
As for their mobile apps, you need to pay. Without payment, you will not be able to see any homework or assessment. Easier to go through the site, is not it?
I tried to buy a PRO version from them. And I don’t recommend using it for money. That is not worth it.
Well ... Then, maybe make your application?
The name had to come up with one that would reflect the concept - a diary for a person. For the student. For you. "Your Diary". Convenient, safe and high quality.
Fine. Since I have long wanted to try my hand at iOS development, I decided to start with Swift / PHP. And the first thought that came to mind is “damn ... it's parsing ...”
Oh, yes. The concept is as follows: the client makes a typical request to the server, indicating the type of the diary of the format “/ scripts / type {DIARY_TYPE_NUMBER} _ {DIARY_TYPE_NAME}? Action = {ACTION_TYPE = (" getMarks "," getSchedule ", etc.)}", and the server sends JSON with a typical response that the client parses.
This approach will provide server-based adding of new diaries, fixing vulnerabilities and adjusting the new API dynamically.
I decided to work on the design thoroughly. I tried to make it comfortable, beautiful, adaptive. In my opinion, it turned out shamefully. Convenient and not ashamed. Now three types of electronic journals are available in the diary - Moscow “MESH Diary”, “Dnevnik.ru” and Moscow Region “School portal”.
Application Screenshot
Yes. You will write in the comments two main questions:
- How to monetize it?
- Well, it's a simple parser! ..
And I will answer: yes, this is a parser, but convenient and versatile.
However, the issue of monetization is quite important.
How to monetize?
"Your Diary" every 20 minutes will send a notification of estimates. Since this is an intermediary service, you understand that, in fact, if we have 200 users, the server will have to do 200 authorizations / requests for a token, load the children's schedule 200 times, 200 times compare whether there is an id of the assessment in the database and 200-old_marks send notification to devices once.
If the flow of users who should receive notifications every 20 minutes exceeds 100-200 thousand, then you know, servers will be needed for this. Powerful and lifting. Money. Alone money.
Of course, I decided to withdraw from the mandatory subscription. Otherwise, my application would be no different from what it is.
From advertising directly in the form of banners, I also walked away.
The user must receive the content in such a way that he does not have to pay for it, and the advertising he had to look at in an optional manner.
And then, of course, a solution was found. What if we provide additional functionality that will not be very necessary, but will boost the user's interest in its extension?
What could be so interesting and necessary for a student in a simple diary with grades?
Notifications and Tips! . Tips, by the way, are small lines that tell the student how many grades he has left to achieve a particular result (average score). And we will give them on the principle of RewardedVideo. Watch the video - get the service. This solves several questions:
- A certain backbone of users will not watch ads and will not use the service. Well what can you do, such will be. But the constant load on the server will reduce
- We refuse to inject money into the application. You can watch ads and lose a few seconds of their time. And, as you know, it is constantly growing.
For those who do not want to watch ads, of course, an extension of 3-12 months is available. Flexible and convenient. For viewing one commercial, by the way, you can get 1 week notifications and tips.
The application is. What's next?
Never been friends with Android. While decided to advertise what I have. On iOS.
There are no big advertising budgets. For a week in the AppStore application downloaded 40 users. Maybe you would recommend something in the comments? How to advertise a convenient and high-quality product without space costs?
By the way, maybe he wants to help with the development? Write VK, if that.
Of course, one cannot say that I am completely sure that this is exactly what users need.
I have met recently a lot of guys who told me about their application, and they answered me with an iron “And what?”. There is a percentage, and I still do not know exactly what, users who do not remember and do not want to remember their passwords from electronic diaries. For them, this is a routine that they do not see and do not want to see.
Why are there such guys?
How often, when you were in school, did you sleep in class?
Let's be honest: even the bastard regulars had one or two teachers, during whose lessons they wanted to sleep, yawned, did not study. And there were teachers whose lessons were deathly silence.
Lucky for those who have a school - a place where they want, but should not go. Public schools rarely make sure that the atmosphere that students want to see reigned here forever. Why? Because, in their opinion, this does not affect the quality of education, does not affect the budget or, for example, income from other educational activities.
But it is not. The special atmosphere at the school, includingsupported by the state in the form of electronic convenient services or activities aimed at familiarizing schoolchildren with the education system, with cool things, is very important. The guys are beginning to understand and realize that the knowledge they receive will be useful in the future (and the system should give them and rebuild the school curriculum).
Now educational work at school is usually Fgos events built every year on the same program, and the lessons are brewing and monotonous repetitions of the material, which is obsolete on the one hand, and one-sided and not practical in the other.
That is why there are guys who are not ready to accept such applications, not ready to accept an electronic diary and school as part of their lives. School, happy, most important life.
Conclusion
If you were interested, please, unsubscribe, I will be glad to talk in the comments.
If there are any news or other, other stories about the development, be sure to accomplish more.
Have a nice day, more smiles and joy!