Time Chart
An app concept for recording a life over time.
With the development of the Internet, various kinds of platforms that enable people to record their lives have been flourishing. Lots of platforms rose and fell, in and out. The time chart is not only a private diary, but also capable of syncing the contents in the platform to users’ accounts, which, combining with the cloud functions, makes it possible to preserve information permanently.
Lots of products on the market share common features: sharing, recording, timeliness. Sharing comes from meeting people’s desire for social contact, which arouses recording. However, because the pace of timeliness is too fast, reducing a multitude of products to a kind of fast-food culture, instant rising yet falling rapidly, thus humanity feelings cannot be accumulated. The goal of Time Chart is to provide a sustainable recording platform in a brand-new way, under the condition of meeting the basic demand of products on the market.
Competitor Analysis
Renren attracts lots of users who are mostly students and teachers of higher institutes, with high quality of shared information which, however, tends to be more academic. The account registration applies the real-name system, and visitors must be verified before browsing the users’ main page, which guarantee privacy to some extent. The diary function also helps express emotions and the record is relatively intact.
Weibo is now the sharing platform with the most followers, involving a wide range of social groups and frequent information sharing. However, the disordered information bears apparent timeliness and low credibility. Weibo posting with limited number of words is quite weak in terms of expressing emotions. And the content of account is practically public with little privacy and is hard to be preserved by category as well.
Moments of WeChat is an emerging sharing platform on which the information involves more personal life and less disordered information. With a high level of privacy, the information on the Moments is mainly shared with close friends. Smartphone is a necessity to use Moments of WeChat and the record cannot be preserved by category.
QQzone is not convenient for quick recording and sharing, with fewer users. But it has a clear online environment sorting out disordered information and users. QQzone is designed for long diary that provokes emotion expression. In the meantime, voluminous information can be linked to other convenient sharing platforms. The level of privacy can be set by users freely and the record can be preserved by category neatly.
WHAT PEOPLE SAY
Alex, Designer
"I have a couple of accounts, even on the same platform, so that I can post different stuff toward different people."
"When I write something personal, I prefer no one else is around me."
Alex
23 female
Freshman who just started her career, loves to make connection with close friends on the internet.
Keith, Writer
"I try to keep dairy but I realize my dairy is everywhere."
"I totally agree we should record our lives, after all memory is all we have when we die."
"I think everyone writes their dairy in a non-public space, at least I do and I do it right before bedtime."
Keith
21 female
Undergraduate student who loves to find interesting news on the internet.
Ven, Manager
"Sometimes one platform gets popular and you start to use it, you forget the old one and you lose your old stuff."
"I spend a lot of time on deciding whether I should delete or private my ex's photos on my social network."
"Every time when I realize people may accidentally see what I am typing, I give up."
Ven
25 male
Graduate student studying abroad, who enjoys everything in life.
Q1: The reasons why you (may) change to use a different social media platform?
Because friends changed platform, also the old one couldn't provide the up-to-date information.
New platform provides better function and I feel more comfortable with less users.
If I don’t change the platform, I will lose connection to my friends who did. Above all, it is more user-friendly.
Q2: What difficulties did you have when you record your life in various ways?
I am busy with so many things every day, life and work. And I do not have enough time to record all of them rightly on that day and later I forget why I thought it was worth recording, so I just let it go.
Some of the applications are difficult to use. It takes time to get used to new platform.
Q3: In what way do you think the live recording can be improved?
I want to have more time to record and reflect upon my life.
Simple interface with less advertisements and a private platform for individual which not just intended to show off to the public.
The online preserved function stability should be guaranteed.
Q4: What’s the best way/form to record you life for you?
Pictures with description.
Photos with sound which could record the feeling when taking the shot, also both cell phone and computer applications are important, cell phone for recording conveniently and computer for compilation.
Keep substantial photos.
Every individual is like a grain afloat on a vast ocean of universe. Tiny as we are, we possess our specialties. In the eternal universe, you belong to your exclusive planet that records your stories only.
Personal lifelong record can be preserved systematically, which is safer and with lower rate of loss than other sharing platforms. Time Chart Diary is totally private, which can be used in parallel with other platforms to enjoy the sharing of recording platform. It serves as a powerful information integration and backup software. It is a lifelong effective recording platform. It will not be replaced or abandoned because of the flourishing of another new platform. When there are new platforms springing up, Time Chart is capable of upgrading sync functions and adding cooperated platforms if needed. In this way, all sorts of records will be integrated into a unified and exclusive format of Time Diary, helping people to preserve every single fragment of memory.
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