A reading log where family and friends connect through books
Open the app ↗I wanted my kids to get a little closer to books. And I wanted that kept somewhere, as a memory.
I want it to be more than a reading log: an app where people connect over books. Books are like that anyway, aren't they? They give you something to talk about with someone. And when someone is reading along with you, you get a bit more interested. So I tried tying the two together, books and the people around them.
No rankings, no leaderboards, no numbers to compare. I didn't want books to turn into a competition. Competition wears you out.
My own lock, guarding my own shelf. As a kid I loved romance comics, the kind made for girls. But, being a boy… ahem.
A review shouldn't turn into a book report. It's enough if it brings the memory back. A book can feel different the second time, so if you read it twice, you can leave a second review.
I didn't like rewards being tied to reading. But I couldn't pretend rewards don't work, either. So kids and parents can both propose one, and haggle back and forth up to three times. Haggling is fun too.
I asked Gemini to make an app icon, and out of nowhere, an owl popped out. I didn’t think much of it and just used it, but the kids said it was cute.
Then Claude Design came along, so I said, “Make it again!” Out popped an even cuter one.
The kids: “Eeek! So cute!”
Whoa… Right, this app was for the kids. Okay then, the owl is our mascot!
I think I spent almost two weeks after that wrestling with nothing but owls.
So nobody else has to make the same dumb moves.
I wanted to show the kids something quickly, so at first I just let it use mock data. And it did come out looking great.
But after that, the mock data started popping up everywhere. I removed it, and removed it, and removed it… and finally gave up. So I re-planned the whole structure from scratch.
From then on I paid a bit more attention to the structure. And since this app is really about the relationships between people, I nailed that part down from the start so it wouldn't wobble.
Started under a Korean name, "Our Book Club"
Archived everything so far and rebuilt the structure from the ground up
The name became Reading Log Buddy
Owls replaced loading spinners, empty screens and notification icons
Google Play closed testing began (1.0.1)
Moved to the new address and made it Reading Log Buddy everywhere (1.0.21)