Sparkello - Interview with the developer of a fantastic app

Did you have any prior development or coding experience?

Yes, our lead developer has been working in software development for 17 years, however we’d only recently began working on mobile apps.

What was the most challenging aspect of developing mobile app?

Sparkello supports people through their goal setting journey, from inspiration, through to motivation and learning. Developing a clean and consistent user experience that would make sense on both Android and iOS was the greatest challenge. We went through multiple iterations to develop a user interface that we were happy with.

_{James Xabregas}

James Xabregas, the interviewee, is a software developer and founder of Sparkello.

Name a few of your favorite apps and reason you love them.

Pinterest is really great for inspiration, and we use Medium a lot for learning about new things.

How long have you been working on this app?

We have been working on the concept in one form or another for about a year.

What need of the user did you have in mind when developing this app?

We’re big believers in goal setting, but we realized that just setting goals isn’t enough. You need to have those goals in the forefront of your mind, to be able to remind yourself constantly of what you’re trying to achieve. Sparkello enables this by giving you a vision board in your pocket. The other factor that is also critical for achieving your goals is social support and information and this is the other aspect that we hope to address with Sparkello by giving users a range of ideas for inspiration, and information to help them on their journey.

In what way do you think your app is better than similar apps on the market? Please describe in detail what innovation you think you bring and what you are proud of in your app.

There are a lot of vision board apps out there, but we found that they were all fairly limited in functionality or required in-app purchases to unlock, and we couldn’t find any that offered social support functionality. We realized there was a big gap in the market for something like this. There used to be a popular site called 43Things that was in this space but unfortunately, they shut down some years back because they didn’t transition properly to the mobile app age, and for us, that is the inspiration for Sparkello.

What are your future plans and expected features of the coming new versions of this app?

The next step is to improve the social networking functionality so that users can connect and share information and ask questions of other people who have similar goals.

Assuming new users of your app are reading this page. What do you want to ask them to do (contact you about X, Share the app, etc.)?

We’d love people to just try out the app and list their goals. We’re still in the early stages and we love to hear people’s feedback, good, bad, or anything in between.