Hi all,
I’m about to publish the biodiversity exploration app I developed since August on Android, and could really need some feedback :D
- Web app - if you want to try it out, check the short tutorial behind the help button.
It’s quite fleshed out and moderately stable. Before I invest more time in it, I would need to actually find an audience for it. For me personally, it’s a dream come true, but most others seem to have a hard time embracing the concept.
- currently has around 1,000 taxa and 4,000 pairs
- drag a name to the correct image
- keep playing the same pair, swipe left for next pair
- check the pair’s relationship in the ancestry dialog
- filter collections by taxon, region, difficulty, tags
- “my location” filter exists, but not yet stable
- no XP etc. at this point: I feel that rewarding with being correct and new images is better, so people don’t just “play for points”. but gamification is on the roadmap.
- choose your level: easy for replacing doomscrolling before bed, hard if you’re in the mood
Using this app makes me happy :)
For me, it works better to get a feeling for biodiversity than anything before in my life: by exploring differences and similarities, I learn by doing. My hope is that some iteration of this will help people connect to the vastness of our biosphere. you can’t protect what you don’t know, as they say.
Next steps would be:
- ideally, get it funded non-commercially. that would open up the vast majority of good iNat pictures, which are under a cc-by-nc license. the “free” app would actually be better than a commercial one :) currently, it will probably cost USD100/month for the server, no idea how that scales. I’d be happy to devote myself fully to this project for the foreseeable future if I can sustain myself from it.
- devise a “simple” algorithm to feed users what they enjoy at any given moment
- stabilize the code :P I got stuck in some unnecessary complexities here and there, because I didn’t plan the architecture out in advance
- modify the app according to feedback, so it actually finds an audience that benefits from it
- I’m thinking of creating short videos (TikTok/Youtube), to open people up to the concept.
DuoNat is essentially a front-end to iNat, using its images and taxon data, but making its best images (without the nc images for now) interactively accessible. I was always frustrated that I could not convert anyone to use iNat. While I love the website, it does have a learning curve that relatively few people are willing to tackle, especially when they don’t use a laptop personally. With DuoNat, people can swipe away while in the bus etc., learning about and enjoying lemurs while stuck in traffic ;)
It works as a web app, but I’m currently trying to publish an Android wrapper for a smoother experience. For that, Google requires some testers for at least two weeks; if you have Android and want to give it a try, send me your android-registered email so I can whitelist you :)
Sorry, can’t do iOS without a MacBook.
Stefan aka portioid