Ask HN: Review Habbit - An App to Build Your Ideal Future Self with Habits

I'm a recent graduate from UC Berkeley actually and, since Habbit became such an important project to me, I decided to continue working on this as my full-time job instead. :)

Sorry about the confusion on the landing page, you're right that I definitely need to convey information better from the start. Glad that you tried it to the end though!

misc quick random thoughts

I loved the intro. I've seen the Epic Win framing, but a friend I found who was using it ended up not turning it on to see all the things they were not epically winning at. This made me think of The Diamond Age.

I thought I'd gotten it wrong and that instead of my name, I was supposed to have entered a habit, think I misunderstood the text.

How do I undo task completion? Things got slightly confusing after entering three habits. I didn't realise I'd started one, then refreshed and completed it accidentally. The rotating green circle showing Done is nice, but erk, I am not worthy yet! Maybe similar and other-colour to show something is in progress?

(edit; I guess that Done Today relates to the growing of the plant? Apologies, I'm slightly confused. I'll leave it open and come back later.)

(edit2; got it started but not green now)

Even though it says done, I can't start another task. I check the first task, almost forgetting that I need to mouseover the figure and click (having to wait to mouseover to get the advice doesn't help, someone might not try that) to enter the task options. I can pause it there, then change. Doing that from the clock page would be one less hidden away click. Also, a transition to get into the task zone could help? If that stalk is going to grow as time goes by, make it pulse glow or something to gain intrigue?

One can enter items for future years. I see now I then choose to 'Set as Active Future Self'. I like that idea of context switching, the "future as existence in progress", but the UX/IA is not entirely intuitive yet. A way to jump between myselves from the panelled screen would be quicker.

How far might you looking to use the metaphors? "Story Mode" for the younger at heart? Golden thread and such could be worth using. Or a pool of suggested habits? Or questions that can be answered to help gain insight (and track past selves later on)? Or Oblique Strategies? Or an anonymously networked Half Bakery like spiders web that can be visited and interacted with.. And/or a dream diary?

Could a length of time be involved for some types of habit that require it? "'Do something for 35 minutes related to your _project work_!', suggests the Habbit to your Second Future Self, as you both stroll along the banks of time.."

Somehow suggest to users to bookmark and maybe pin the tab?

Wow, thanks for your wealth of feedbacks! It's especially valuable to me since I'm so used to the interface that I wasn't quite sure which part of the interface might not be as intuitive as I liked.

Thanks also for your ideas, definitely considering some of them already!

Wow, this is really clever! At first I was thinking, "what is this? Why is there a story?" ...but if you stick with it it's very, very good. You're a very gifted illustrator and storyteller. I actually thought you borrowed the illustrations from a storybook. If things don't work out with the app you may have a future as a children's author. In fact, maybe you could publish a book version of this as a companion to the app?

I wonder if the entire experience would be better if the entire UI for the walkthrough at the beginning was the storybook without the shelf(?) and the black background, then after the story is at the end make the "last page" a fullscreen app?

The dark colors and the image mirroring was distracting and it isn't clear what its purpose is until the screen rotates, which is a very cool effect. I wonder if there's a way to achieve the same effect without rotating the screen though.

That said, an app for building habits is something I've thought about before, and I think your execution and creativity is way better than anything I would've imagined. Gamification feels like a needed component, but I wouldn't have thought of this. It almost feels like Legend of Zelda for self improvement!