Show HN: Get Creative, a website within a chrome extension

37 points by dmauro 13 years ago | 17 comments

I just launched a new project aimed at helping people to do something fun and creative every day by giving them daily challenges. The goal is to promote habitual creativity by reducing the barrier to content creation and reminding users to keep at it. Everyone can see everyone else's creations and give them some encouragement with a like.

When designing Get Creative, I wanted something with a mobile sensibility: badged notifications reminding users to return, a very simple interface, even a predefined viewing size. But I didn't want to dive full in to iOS or Android where testing would be much harder. A Chrome Extension seemed like it could be an interesting solution so I built an extension designed to operate as a website entirely within the extension's popup window.

You currently can only see the site by installing the extension, but would really appreciate feedback from anyone that is willing to install. Thanks for the Feedback, HN!

LINK: http://get-creative.us

mnicole 13 years ago |

This is really neat! I never got into idea/creativity-a-day resources because there wasn't really any motivation or inspiration outside of my own self, and that was the hurdle I was trying to get over by using them to begin with. The ability to see how other people are thinking/solving really helps solve that.

I'd really enjoy seeing something like this that's oriented towards design and programming. Dribbble's "Playoffs" feature is somewhat like that, but it's generally a battle of over-designing something more than it is coming up with wholly different solutions for real world problems.

dmauro 13 years ago | |

Yeah I can definitely see this approach being aimed towards other creative endeavors, but the idea behind this is that it really is for anyone who is interested in just making things in their life. Most people contribute and create things in various facets in their lives, but then website x they become a "lurker" or a "curator". The goal here is to provide a fun outlet for that kind of creative energy regardless of your background.

mnicole 13 years ago | | |

Oh totally, I was just thinking about taking your same concept and applying it to more specific topics, like mental warm-ups before taking on your task list at work and what effects that would have on your work ethic, well-being and abstract thinking. :)

bluetidepro 13 years ago |

This is a very clever idea. Nice work! I wonder if anyone translates the idea to something like an intranet or something like that for a company. It could be a pretty neat idea if everyone in your company uses Chrome!

dmauro 13 years ago |

Hey, for anyone following this still, I did a quick write up on my blog: http://dmaurolizer.com/post/37853129177/get-creative-a-mobil...

dongle 13 years ago |

Put a counter on it so I have a reminder to complete challenges each day. I like this low-friction making as encouraging an attitudinal shift.

dmauro 13 years ago | |

Each day when a new challenge shows up, everyone gets a badge and notification. You'll have the badge on there until you actually open the extension, and when you complete a challenge you get a star on it so you can track any you missed.

acrich 13 years ago |

I got a "Sorry, something went wrong" within the popup.html response on an Ubuntu machine with Chromium.

dmauro 13 years ago | |

Would love to hear what error message you got in the body of that. Also, did you try immediately re-opening it? Do you mind sending an email to support@get-creative.us. Thank you!

dmauro 13 years ago | | |

I got it too :( It looks like Nodejitsu is working through some hiccups. If you get that error just click the extension icon again and it should work.

wahnfrieden 13 years ago |

Clickable link: http://get-creative.us

xcubic 13 years ago |

The idea is very interesting. But would it be possible to open this is a new tab instead?

dmauro 13 years ago | |

A fellow Mauro :)

Yes, the original fallback idea was to just have the extension icon and when you click on it opens a new tab, but I wanted to give it a shot in the popup html because it's a more streamlined experience for the user, and it helps keep the entire thing focused and simple. After trying it out I just really liked the whole experience so went with that.

xcubic 13 years ago | | |

I wish you good luck! Will be using it ;)

toksogun 13 years ago | |

I like it in the pop up. Keeps it out of the way.

xcubic 13 years ago | | |

It's also true

xcubic 13 years ago | |

btw, my name is mauro too :P