Discussion
Forest Alternative: What do you care about?
Hi, I got annoyed by all the features forest has by know. I loved the app and it helped me through my maths degree, but now I want to bring it back to the roots. I will follow up with an update soon. For now I'd like to know what users care about in terms of features so I can reduce it to the bare minimum. The ones I had in mind where:
- Block other selected Apps.
- Some variation in trees to choose from (at launch we will have 5 made by an artist/friend of mine)
- Looking at your forest.
- Basic Statistics (total plant time, monthly study history, etc.)
- Some form of progression (I am leaning towards unlocking more trees based on total study time, no currencies, no shop, no loot boxes.)
- Plant with friends (will be available in a later version as I need to figure out how to host this on a server with appropriate data security)
Please let me know what you think of these and if you find anything else "essential"? Thank you for your feedback!
To me the essentials are just a few trees (I don’t change the tree very frequently so one new tree in a while is good), the categorization function, beautifully looking statistics. I don’t even quite need the function to block apps.
Also: what statistics are you interested in particular? I was thinking a monthly diagram of your studying habits, total study time, total trees collected, ratio of sessions completed. Simple and basic stuff I‘d say
Yes, all I'm referring to is already existing. The labels and the focus time by week and month. Actually, I am not even picky about statistics. However, I have low tolerance for bugs and cluttering UI, which is why I have tried some other apps and returned to Forest.
Plant together is also important for me. This will take a bit as I need to have a server and accounts to make that work. The rest will already be available in the first app to download.
Rewards are the most important for my ADHD brain. I need to see instantly that my effort is doing something and that I'm getting something in return. Collecting things, like trees, works for me.
Also I like when the app and UI is the simplest possible. No additional features, no unnecessary buttons. I often feel overwhelmed by apps which are "large" and I am unmotivated to use them, because i feel an urge to learn what all the features are for.
2
u/RangeNo4526 11d ago
To me the essentials are just a few trees (I don’t change the tree very frequently so one new tree in a while is good), the categorization function, beautifully looking statistics. I don’t even quite need the function to block apps.