Ask HN: Help me validate my idea I am avid reader and I enjoy reading quotes. I miss an app (iOS/Android) where I can read quotes from particular tv-series/movies. I haven't read too many novels so I am not much interested in quotes from there. Could you give some feedback on this? Should I pursue this idea or not? If yes, what features would you like such an app to have? Any ideas on the app name? Thanks. |
Ignore those. Start by researching books (good, old, paper-based pbooks) that offer exactly this: There are plenty of them out there, usually one or two quotes per page, usually taken from public sources. Some of them are work related, some have a spiritual bent, etc.
Do this research just to satisfy yourself that yes, there are people who buy this sort of thing.
Next, validate the idea: Not with the HN crowd, I can almost guarantee they are not your audience. We tend to be self-starters, independent thinkers, etc. Some of us even mock the whole "motivational quote/poster/speaker" model.
Hell, how many of us would have told the guy who created "bingo card creator" to stick to his day job? Most of us. We are not good judges of the broader market because we all of us live on the fringes.
(Sure, there are one or two or a few people in here who can see into that broader but they are few. If you are lucky, some of the better ones will comment on this.)
Bring up those inspirational quote books with your friends, your family members, and acquaintances from non-tech fields. Do this in small groups and at times when people are more reflective, more willing to consider. Ask what they think of these books. Do they read them? Openly? As guilty pleasures? If they do, say something along the lines of "too bad there is no app for this". Judge their reactions.
As to how to do this, crowdsource the quotes. Create a system where people can submit (and correct) quotes with attributions, where they can upvote them. Whether or not a login is required is up to you, but if you go with a login, make it facebook and/or twitter, maybe pinterest, not google+ or roll your own, etc: My guess is that the people who would use this app will be very comfortable logging in with facebook and/or twitter, sharing their favourite quotes on those platforms, etc.
Make it possible for people to tag quotes, e.g., #spirituality, #productivity, #friendship, #peace, etc.
Have quotes of the day, featured quotes, etc.
There are opportunities for translation into many, many languages. See if you can crowdsource that, too.
Do NOT expect to make money doing this. Not because you won't (hell, I have no idea), but because that will allow you to gauge how much time to spend on it. Unless and until you have a successful kickstarter campaign or VC funding or hit a magical pricing structure that "just works", you will be doing this because you enjoy it, but it will not put food in your mouth or a roof over your bed.
Budget your time accordingly.
IMDB has a quotes page for many movies[0] and there is a quotes.list file in their text file dumps[1].
I love movie quotes and I've had the idea of a Twitter account that tweets quotes 2x a day and the first person to reply with the correct movie title would win a prize (monetization strategy undetermined).
[0] http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0109686/quotes [1] ftp://ftp.fu-berlin.de/pub/misc/movies/database/
How do I find a quote that I cannot google? (don't remember exact wording) How do I find quote related to X?
Personally, I'd love such app. I love quotes from Mad Men, GoT and White Collar.
"I am avid reader" and "I haven't read too many novels so I am not much interested in quotes from there." conflict in my mind. Like, you love reading... just not novels? I equate being an avid reader to reading books/novels. Otherwise, you're just literate.
Not trying to be a douche, just giving you a take on those first two lines.
I think an app like that would be pretty cool though. A lot of times when I'm out with friends someone will say a quote and there will be a debate on what it's from. Or, someone will quote a book and they'll get called out on it for misquoting it. Regardless, arguments ensue, and I could definitely see someone pulling up your app to settle the debate.
One more thought: if there was demonstrated growth and interest, you could use the twitter account to promote the app once it was released.
As someone who is not into reading and quotes I’d like to ask what you find fascinating about it. Can you maybe give an example what kind of quotes you find interesting? Dialogs, aphorisms? Is more about entertainment or worldly wisdom? Or is it more an intellectual fascination, for example thinking through how the author came up with it and considering different interaction possibilities of the actors?
I like that I get insight into a (sometimes) brilliant mind and I can do so in a few seconds by reading a few lines.
Some are inspiring, some make me smarter, some are worthless.
Unlike OP, I think that tv series' quotes are likely to be much less worthwhile, for me, than those I'm used to.
http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Main_Page has an API as all the wikimedia projects.
You should pursue this idea if and only if you have a solid understanding of how you'll accomplish this, and why it will work. Just making this and dumping this on the app store will not work.
Did you envision a community that frequents the site/app or would it be a collection of quotes that rank well on Google searches?
It's not a complex app so shouldn't take you more than a few weekends.