All began summer 2014. For us it was “off season” when there were not orders to development and company was not busy at all. A lot of companies in such situation give up and leave business but we chose other way.
The situation in Logomotiv studio did not become an occasion for sadness, but rather It served as a major impetus for the development of mobile applications.
Although “Hudelka” was our first own app in our portfolio it was not first app created by our developers. Before it we have developed and realized in App Store mobile apps of our clients “Pravovest” and “JobFine” because this area was familiar us.
Why diet tracker?
Having defined the desire to develop an independent products, it was necessary to determine the audience. In other words, to understand to whom we can offer a truly useful application.
To develop game without game-development experience was senseless so we decided to make service app. We examined tops of App Store and noted that often first positions are occupied by apps of “Health and Fitness” category. This fact was curious.
One of the employee of our studio on the eve finished his protein and vegetable diet and we were able to see how this method is effective in spite of endless complaints about difficulties and pitfalls.
In this moment the idea of development of convenient diet organizer appeared.
App Development
The first phase of the active work is to create the interface, and before it, the designer have got four tasks:
- The app should be not only a tracker it should perform the maximum of personal dietologist functions.
- App should motivate user don’t give up diet.
- App should be helpful and easy
- The diet should not produce a dull impression.
The idea was ambitious, but eventually we found a solution. The finished version of "Hudelka" includes thirty-screens and a few hundred items. But each of them faces the user only at appropriate stages and at the right time.
Functions
So let's talk about the result. Firstly the app turned out bright and positiv that is very important for people who keep diet. The diet is not refuse of food that you like. The diet it is fascinating process of body care! We sure that “Hudelka” successfully illustrates it. Second task (create reliable assistant of diet) we decided by dint of interface stracture.
When you run the product firstly, user informs "Hudelke” personal data (sex, height, age and weight), and then application independently calculates all the steps and make recommendations.
Continuing to use "Hudelka", user can see all the necessary information for it on the main screen of the app. In other words, when you click on the icon the most necessary information instantly is displayed on the device: stage of the diet, day of the diet, the progress of the user on weight chart, necessary time of walking, necessary norm of drunk liquid.
"Hudelka" keeps personal statistics of your diet, and it can be explored on a weight chart in the app.
For each phase of the diet in the "Hudelke" there is a special collection of recipes. In other words, the user will not break his head how he can dine today. Also, if the user has other ideas on the subject of permissible meals you can always add your recipe in the app.
If at supermarket user was caught unawares by doubt which products he can buy on a certain stage of the diet, "Hudelka" can quickly tell what food is possible and what is not.
If the user of "Hudelki" forgets something, the application sends a notification to the device. So, put the design problems have been solved, and we began to wonder how to monetize it.
Monetization
Of cause we made mistake to wonder about monetization after basic stage of development. But at that time we were still young and inexperienced. :)
At the time of the first release we have released in the App Store only the full version at the price of 59 rubles. Immediately after it the application has gathered a lot of good reviews and has shown good results of retention. The only problem was the traffic that we had to constantly attract by advertising.
To solve the problem with the audience, we launched free version of the app with blocked functions in App Store. In this version user cannot use recipes, water tracker, a list of products and schedule of weight, but he was able to unlock these features, both at once and in part by buying in App Store. In the end, five months later, we reached zero on the development and now application brings profit.
After "Hudelka" was published in the App Store, some of its sections became separate products that can also be called monetization tool. For example, our water tracker “WaterCheck” and book of recipes "Durecipes" represent "Hudelki" functionы, executed as a standalone application.
Now the total number of users of the application exceeds 100 000. "Hudelka" is remaining stable at tops 10 of the category "Health and Fitness» App Store and Google Play, and also has a high position in the top grossing applications.