Context
I’m a former user of 750words, a website that helps people to write their thoughts on a daily basis.
However, I was reluctant to continue the experiment since it’s a paid SaaS (which isn’t a problem in itself) for a product that is very simple : you just have to write 750 words a day, store them somewhere.
Features
The website has a very great user experience.
- font is nice (seems stupid but still)
- there’s graphics everywhere to see your progress throughout days
- UI is clean. No clutter. Just a “Let’s write” button in main page
- Big part of the added value is in the community on which anyone can participate when they pay the base subscription. That’s the part I wonder if it’s possible to recreate inside Grist, using a user table as instance.
- Gamification : badges acquired and sent by mail when you have a certain streak, like Duolingo does, or when you reach a total number of words written (1K, 2K, 5K, 10K, 100K, etc.)
Building a POC with Grist
It’s available here : https://docs.getgrist.com/7v1CvJCTuHPu/ManyWords?utm_id=share-doc (sorry in advance, everything is in 
)
… or here if you want to import it
ManyWords.grist (176 KB)
I named it ManyWords since one of the first things I wanted to “improve” was the total amount of words to write each day. 750 words is HIGH when you start from stratch.
Description
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The ManyWords default view shows the default card. When you create a line and click on it, it uses a Markdown widget to write nicely. The Décompte column serves as a counter to determine if you reached you target once.
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On the Data view purpose is to show your progress.
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On the Objectifs view you can add/remove/modify the targets you want.
TODO
A lot to implement inside Grist:
- improving charts
- implementing a badge system
- improving UI of the ManyWords view even more (don’t know how but open to all opinions)
- showing number of written words in real-time (don’t know if it’s possible inside Grist current abilities)
Coupled with an automation tool like n8n and using Grist webhooks :
- creating automatically a new card every day at midnight in order to avoid clicks for creating it
- send badges
- upgrade/downgrade automatically objectives depending on the history of the user (as instance, after 2 weeks of 100w/days, raising difficulty to 200w/day)
- send notifications per mail/messaging app about badges acquired, reminder if you didn’t complete your streak
I think I just scorched the surface of what can be done.
Have fun !