Weeknotes vol. 12: Teaser site, settings screens and new ideas

By Garrett, : Weeknotes

A hand holding a fountain pen drawing squiggles on a sheet of paper, on a light green background

I got sucked in by the last week of school activities, so not a lot to report other than end-of-year parties and swimming and grilling and swimming.

We launched a teaser website for Braindrop on Tuesday so that people can sign-up to become beta testers once we’re ready. It’s Phil designed and coded and features a classic Christoph illustration.

Phil handed over the Braindrop settings screen design on Thursday and I was able to spend some time at the computer to get through the front-end and some of the basic functionality.

Braindrop settings teaser

And last but not least, I’ve been mulling over a team productivity slash digital community idea in my head that will hopefully become Better than good project number two in the near future.

That’s all folks.

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