Building in the open again... this time a quality-of-life improvement for Expressed.
I built a PWA QR scanner into the relays. "Huh? Why?" I hear you say? Simple idea - the less barriers there are to joining a share, the more likely you are to use the software frequently - having a scanner makes it a few steps easier.
Now, the workflow is:
1. start a session in Expressed
2. pick up phone/tablet, click 'Expressed QR Scanner' - hold up to the screen - done.
It's a whole lot better than pasting links or entering the digits manually - especially after I moved to 8 alpha numeric for security & hardening reasons (that's another post).
Hope you like it!

https://expressed.effective-flow...

It s time to clean up - one thing I ve wanted was that the drawing toolbar can collapse on a phone (hamburger only), and snap to an edge so rotate doesn t lose it, and nudge back on-screen if expanding would clip. Quality of life type stuff here.

Well, that's done - detailed post (https://expressed.effective-flow...) - now the toolbar... sucks FAR FAR less.

Writing Expressed took 7 months. With AI. A lot of AI. Why so long? This was an adventure to say the least, and with that in mind I posted a blog with an adventure map, you've got everything - a reluctant hero, monsters, side quests, failures and at the end of it all - triumph! no wait - no resolution whatsoever - this is an ongoing story.

https://expressed.effective-flow...

I want to share how I'm thinking about free vs paid.

Expressed will go live this week with almost no differences between free and pro - with pro you just remove a watermark, that's it. You might ask why no real pro differentiator? The answer is: I'm looking for validation - I want the app to reach as many different people & perspectives that it can.

I can already see some future free vs pro differentiation - e.g. pro could be :

Hey there Product Hunt!
During a video call - I've often found myself thinking: "if only I could just grab a pen and sketch this idea" - that's what Expressed makes really easy - sketch directly onto the desktop, without all the messy networking / joining ceremony.
I'm trying to make it easy (and fast!) to sketch a thought or idea during a video call - in order to arrive at something better, this can help clarify / teach / explain, the way you might grab a piece of paper and a pen in real life. While I've used it for code reviews and trading & support - I can imagine coaches (1:1 chats), math/music teachers, small business owners - would all benefit from the idea.
Expressed is a Windows binary (today, once validated I'll do the Mac version), and has:
- pen / highlighter and eraser tools (plus pinch and zoom)
- a web-based client, so that part works on anything
- records a movie of the strokes, and all your audio (optional), regardless of which video call software you are using
- deploys & updates through the Microsoft store
- an interesting approach to avoiding all the typical networking headaches - connect easily via a QR code.
I'm a developer by trade and really wanted to scratch this itch. I wrote the Windows version first, and now I need to validate further if the idea is useful. I'm looking for the following, in priority order:
1. is it useful / do you like using it - it's free with some minimal limitations - so there is zero barrier to entry here.
2. is the desktop app and web app intuitive?
3. I LOVE critique and constructive feedback - with a goal of validation and making it even more useful.

I must admit - as a founder, I've probably put too much effort into the app before doing extensive validation - if you have an opinion on that, do let me know :-)