[rollinDyno]

Have you ever wanted to write your life story but found it too overwhelming? I’m developing an app that acts as your personal interviewer, guiding you through your memories and helping you share them with your loved ones.

The app is designed for older adults who enjoy reminiscing but struggle to organize their thoughts into a coherent narrative. The goal is to preserve their hard-won insights and pass them down—to family members who may be too busy to ask the right questions now, and to future generations who would otherwise never hear these stories.

I have a working prototype that allows me to test the interview flow, and I’ll soon be sharing it with friends and family for initial feedback. I’m now looking for a designer to collaborate on the next phase.

Design will be a critical part of this app. The way stories are visually presented will be central to the user experience and will likely determine the app’s success. If you’re a designer interested in this kind of work, I’d love to hear from you. Given the text-heavy nature of the app, experience with typography and content-focused design will be especially valuable.

[raudette]

I love this.

My great grandmother, who lived into my 20s, wrote a 10 page memoir about growing up - life stories, people, places etc... And I found it super interesting - I built a vacation around the places last summer.

I asked her daughter/my grandmother to do the same, but she wasn't interested. And then I've thought about the exercise myself - it's hard to think of things in my life that a future great-grandchild might find interesting. And it's not clear if my great-grandmother's story I find interesting, in contrast with financial hardships I did not face? How do you pick out the interesting from the mundane? What is most interesting about today 100 years from now?

And I can see the potential for core interview questions to help draw it out.

[fnands]

Interesting! I built something similar at a hackathon a while back: https://fnands.com/blog/2024/factory-hackathon/

We called it Journalaist, and billed it as a personal ghostwriter. What we found is that it lives or dies by the quality of the interview

[rollinDyno]

Thanks for sharing! Yes, I quickly came to that conclusion as well. It's put me in the novel position whereby product development is about finding the right prompt, and maybe even about finetuning.

[avyfain]

Very cool! Would love to check this out. Have been meaning to interview my aunts for years to write down my family history now that my dad is no longer with us. A tool like what you describe could be super helpful.

[sgoto]

This sounds super interesting! I'd love to beta test it if you are looking for people to try!

You can find me at:

http://twitter.com/samuelgoto

[rollinDyno]

Sure, I'd love to have your feedback. Let me package this into my first beta and I'll reach out.

[DeltaCoast]

Would love a link to the demo if and when you’re open to sharing. I’m a product designer but not looking for projects, I’m mostly curious - this is one of the more unique ideas I’ve heard.

[rollinDyno]

Yea, let me send it your way once I have it! Please update your profile with contact info.

[Fripplebubby]

Have you heard of https://www.autobiographer.com/ ? Is it similar, different?

[rollinDyno]

It's pretty much the same, but I have a few ideas to make my app stand out. Thanks for sharing! Nice to see the idea has potential.

[lobsterthief]

Sounds really cool! Best of luck. Do you have a website or samples/demo yet?

[rollinDyno]

Nothing yet, but I can keep you posted. Please update your HN profile with contact info.