Brainstorming

While my blogs are usually more technically focused, this one is going to be less about the actual code/language and more about planning for the overall product. For me, this is the most fun part of a project. It’s creative and exciting to sit down and imagine all of the possibilities. When I start a project, it all comes down to one question: what would I use?

The best way to determine if the tool you have in mind is one that people would use is to ask if you yourself would. If you would, chances are you are not alone in that. Every project I’ve made for class or as my own side project has stemmed from something I wished already existed. For example, for the freelance work I always wished there was an app or a website built for organizing my to-do list of scripts — my needs were just slightly too specific for a regular to-do app. Or recently, I started working on a project to create my wish list of attractions and food items for my upcoming trip to Disney. In both cases, I saw a void for a specific kind of tool and decided to fill it myself.

It’s tougher to decide what features would be useful, but the same logic can be applied. I try to think of what others might use or want, but usually, it's best to start with what I know I would want and then let it grow from there. Right now with my Disney project, I knew that with every park I added would come hours and hours more time coding out the same functionality for each park. To save myself some time and to get the MVP project down, I decided to start with only the parks I’ll be going to on my upcoming trip (Magic Kingdom, Epcot, and Hollywood Studios). In future versions, I plan to add Animal Kingdom and possibly even other Disney properties outside of Orlando’s Walt Disney World Resort.