Gamifying the Note Pad/To Do List

Recently we launched a new to do list app called Goalie, and we’ve got to be honest: we think Goalie is pretty special.

Why do we think that Goalie is one of the best to do list apps out there?

While Goalie sits among stiff competition with the likes of Any.Do, Evernote and Apple Reminders (in addition to the classic notepad), we think Goalie fits a user niche not yet tackled.

What makes Goalie special isn’t the sheer number of hours it took to build Goalie. Goalie has a minimal UX that ended up taking us only a few week from start to finish.

It isn’t the integrations, multi-level hierarchy, ability to collaborate on tasks or the use of 3D touch (yet) either.

We think what makes our new to do list app special is how it combines simplicity with gamification.

Before diving into our final approach, we should touch on our first (fast failed) idea. Goalie began as a “build a polished app in a week” challenge for our development team that not only was a good test of our capabilities, but also helped our development team learn more about the UX process by actually owning for a change. Our idea was to create a goal planner tool, helping users plan out due dates for life goals and accomplish them by breaking them down…