How to succeed the App Store? Interview with the founder of Circa

It's hard to keep up to date when you're trying to read long texts from the phone. Circa - the application that tries to solve this problem by using a new method of displaying news. Circa received the title of one of the best mobile applications in 2013 by Apple and to Google. Lifehacker.com I met with Matt Galligani, CEO of Circa, and figured out how to appear application and how his editors, allowing you to stay up to date with all the events with the help of smartphone.

How did the idea to create an application Circa? By colliding with some kind of problem or inspiration came from somewhere else?

Every project that I started, was born out of some problem that I have encountered in a while. The idea to create Circa came when I realized that the experience information starvation, despite the many sources of information around. The essence of the problem in my long, depending on my mobile, and the fatigue of the long and wide of texts that I have seen. We understand that news for owners of mobile devices should be changed at key points - the content, presentation and delivery.

What happened after you have decided on the idea?

The idea without implementation - nothing. Once we decided on the challenge that we want to solve, we have to figure out how it should look. Then there was the development of solutions - we create a layout, which ultimately translated into a real application.

What was the original idea of ​​creating news, suitable for reading on mobile devices?

Initially our ideas were based on simplicity. In the first pilot we had a page with scrolls and history. Later we have refused this, because it is fundamentally no different from the rest longridov. This inspired us to think about new ways of news consumption. And it is these reflections lead us to "flash cards" concept.

We also wanted to implement a system of user comments. But then we found out that we have a lot of concepts that users are not familiar with, so we decided not to run from commenting.

On what basis did you choose a platform to launch the application?

Initially, we decided to work on iOS, specifically with the iPhone. It was an easy choice, since iOS use I, our chief engineer and designer.

What for you was the biggest obstacle, and how did you overcome them?

Due to the fact that Circa offers a completely new solution in the media sphere, an obstacle arose when we started to solve the problem, for which no one was taken to us. In most cases, you can draw inspiration from a variety of applications, projects, and so on. D. But when you offer a completely different, a new solution, you have to go their own unique way. The biggest challenge was how to display news in our new format. The inspiration came from a real object - cards with pictures or text. When I was in high school, they were the best way of learning.

What distinguishes Circa from other applications?

Our authors are gaining bits of information in digital text fields, and then strung them into a story. This makes it possible to clone the information and paste it where it is needed, for example, in the quote.

This function allows you to continuously update the news, adding new information to old texts, to keep readers up to date. This differs from the traditional way to create news where every time you have to create new content.

What for you was the release?

Running - always incredible breakthrough, but with it comes a lot of difficulties. We do not show Circa, so it was, of course, scared to find out what people think. But most applications are so pleased that we had a problem with the servers on launch day.

What advice would you give to those who want to create something like this?

Many projects have been created as a solution to a specific problem. You should ask the simple question: what problem I'm looking for solutions, and which one is the best?

(via)