Hey @emmanuel,
I started using bubble about 6 months ago and since then have launched a project management app for in-house use at our small HVAC Design business. There are a lot of features that have been built into it an I thought it would be useful to showcase how someone with no programming training could built something this complex in six months as a one man team!
Here is a pdf description of the app’s features go.designexperts.ca/feat that maybe Bubble would be interested in using to show others how much can be done so quickly. A brief set of features include:
Timesheets
Invoicing
Url shortening using our domain
Embedded forms on our website
Project management (progress bars, task assignment, client progress tracking)
CSV to export info to Excel
Searcheable archives
Accounts Receivable
Payment processing
Affiliate account creation with data sharing
Privacy settings
Chat
File storage
Filepath creation for File Explorer
Right now the app is private and the data has privacy settings so it is not possible for others to use our app. If you are looking for examples of happy customers I’d be willing to present the app somehow.
That’s great. I need to think a little bit about the best way to showcase apps. Right now what we do on the app gallery page isn’t great. Maybe we should have a detailed view of an app with the list that you have written? What do you guys think, if you were new to Bubble’s site?
Listing features would definitely help newcomers learn what’s possible, especially if they’re looking for something specific, and seeing a variety would drive home the point that there is so much opportunity.
Personally, being able to build my own user management system and database structure are what first drew me in. I know those things are highlighted as features already, but having it spelled out again with an example app right next to it… I would have just thrown my money at you on the spot (I did that pretty quickly anyway…but you get me?).
So looking at the file, maybe we could (simply, for now), have a link under your logo in our apps gallery that opens the pdf. Now that means the app would have to be listed there. Would you be open to that (you could clone the app and have it there without data). If so, we’d need a logo and a description.
What plugins do you use vs what do you do in Bubble itself (so what solutions did you not find in Bubble natively, so you had to find a third party solution)?
How did you setup users and roles? Did you create new types? Things of type User or perhaps just a Thing called Role with a list? Something else?
Maybe tie this in somehow with the ‘app/feature marketplace’ you said was on the roadmap?
People are building great apps and feature sets with Bubble - but with no easy way to share all or bits of what they’re working on - people are constantly having to re-invent the wheel (people repeatedly asking how to use repeating groups to create checkbox lists comes to mind as an example).
If people had a way to showcase the apps they’ve built and offer some or all of the features for sale/free this might help newcomers who are keen to adopt Bubble, but don’t have the time to build everything from scratch.
And if we all have a chance to see what we’re all working on… we can all work together to create cooler, newer things!
In my case NotRealTwitter was what convinced me to use Bubble, so for me just the app type and URL - for demoing - was the trigger to sign up.
Once in and after the tutorials, then it’s all doubts - so a feature list is good, but it will bring an issue about how to implement the feature.
Maybe the idea I posted last week about users creating articles/tutorial for credits (like in Digital Ocean) should be a start to a Bubble knowledge base.
@csfalcao, you are right. Something like Digital Ocean’s KB would be good. They have awesome tutorials where they exactly tell you, where to click in order to get something up and running. There is a lot of potential with Bubble, but how to implement it is a key hurdle for non coders like me. If we had bits and pieces of practical functionally wrapped in a tutorial, then we could take what we want and integrate it with our idea/app.
I think listing features would be a great idea. I was also thinking that it would be really helpful to have a gallery of short videos (2 minutes) of screencasts with people using the apps they’ve built (showing their site working in real time). When I first signed up for Bubble, and even after seeing/reading about features in the forum, it still felt a little foggy to me about how I could turn the ideas in my head into something on the screen. That’s not to say that that’s everyone’s experience of course; I knew there were amazing features, but I personally didn’t have the minimum, overall, programming/conceptual understanding to understand the ‘power’ of those features at the time. I saw Bubble on Medium and read about it previously, but it was really once I saw the videos of The CodeFree startup’s AirBnB clone working in real-time which wholeheartedly convinced me, and showed me how incredible and different Bubble is. Simply watching the site in action stunned me, and proved immediately to me that Bubble was nothing like all the other sites I’ve signed up for which made similar promises but turned out to be another restricted, build-without-code-through-templates site. I loved what I read when you stated that this site wouldn’t be about customizing templates, because we’d all delete them anyway. I really think that’s such a unique thing to emphasize, especially to designers who want creative freedom but don’t necessarily believe the code-free claim initially until they see it in action.
I liked the Twitter example on the homepage. The only thing was that once I clicked to go try the microblogging site for myself – I didn’t want to input my information in so I never really saw how it worked (my fault of course–I just saw the ‘test’ tweets of random letters and wasn’t sure what to think/do, so I went back to Bubble). Seeing the timelapse made me ‘get’ how amazing Bubble was without me doing anything. But, both are great! I would definitely love to see a timelapse of any Bubble app – such as the Twitter example. I think any timelapse is great especially because I’ve always held the belief for years that for me to build anything, I need to spend thousands of hours learning to code before even attempting to build anything. So to see something functional and beautiful get built in a timelapse is personally so helpful for me to see. I remember most the titles that say “I did this in 10 hours” or the article you wrote where you built an “app in 30 minutes” about puppies. I guess in summary it’s been more helpful for me to sit and watch how others build (since I am not a very good builder yet) and then be totally and completely amazed. And from those examples, see what’s possible and how I could learn to build them too. But to answer your question, yes, the Airbnb timelapse was most helpful for me to see.
Problem most of the newcomers are facing is implementation. They have big ideas, but how to get it across is the issue. Timelapse will give folks an idea of what bubble is capable of. If tutorials can be created on some big sites like Facebook, Airbnb etc, it will serve dual purpose. Help newcomers learn plus show the professionals its raw capabilities.
Once newcomers have figured it out, then you will have loads of great quality product coming out and you can showcase those as well. This is where Digital Ocean like KB, or Bubble marketplace is needed. Unlike fiverr, we newcomers can buy simple blocks and tutorials. So ethically, mashing up a few blocks here and there would enable someone to produce something. I am aware @emmanuel mentioned somewhere that they are working on a marketplace. (Just thinking loud)
@emmanuel I just noticed the “Element templates” part of the builder. In the same way that you can install plugins could you add an ‘Install’ button that takes you to a menu of elements built and shared by other users?
Yeah… we’ve been experimenting with element templates but not sure how good it is. We’d like to get there, but we need to find a good way to have a a good quality review system. We’ll do that when we’ll work on the plugin system, it’s a similar spirit.
But to answer your question, yes, the Airbnb timelapse was most helpful for me to see.