Long-time lurker, first-time poster.
Since I started hiking and backpacking, I have always wanted to make gear for fellow backpackers. But learning to sew wasn’t promising with my aging eyes, so I decided to build apps for backpackers and hikers. The first one, Thermal Buddy, was released on App Store on May 4.
Would love to hear feedback from this community to improve the app.
I built Thermal Buddy to solve the ‘freeze-regret’ cycle by;
- Logging temperature, weather, wind, gears used (layering and sleeping kit), and how you felt (cold – just right – hot)
- Logging by activity and scene – active, static, sleep, transit (in and out of trailhead)
- Searching with expected conditions for a specific activity and scene. It shows all the logs for the similar condition, activity and scene, both the ones that went well and the ones that didn’t so that the user can decide what to pack.
Feedback I am seeking from this community:
- Honest and candid feedback on App from ultralight backpacker’s perspective
- Features you want to see in Ver 1.2 (below) and later versions
History and plan:
Ver 1.0 was released on May 4 – based on what I wanted as a user
Ver 1.1 is currently on its way – to improve the onboarding process
Ver 1.2 is being planned now
Features already planned for Ver 1.2:
- Multi-day trip support – choose multiple logs and pack them as a multi-day trip
Features I personally want to see and you might request but have decided against for now:
- Full gear list with weight information – I personally want this but haven’t been able to figure out how to achieve this without complicating user experience too far. (I might consider a separate app for ultralight backpacking community if and when Thermal Buddy becomes decently successful.)
Download:
If you are generous enough to test the app, you can download from App Store.
It is completely free up to 8 outing logs.
Screenshots of main screens
Home – Summary of data and recent logs
Record – scene, conditions, layering and sleep gear, and how you felt
Search and Results
Logbook – List of Activity Logs
Thank you so much for reading this and your feedback is truly appreciated.
-Eiji
