Simple notes React app idea
Hi everyone,
I've had this idea of making React app for taking aesthetic notes.
The main features include:
- Add new notes
- Rich text editing
- Save notes to folders
- Search notes
- Save favorites
- Dark/light mode
- User setting
Here's my first design on Figma:
Dark-mode Home page
.png)
Light-mode Home page
.png)
Dark-mode All notes
Light-mode All notes
.png)
I will update the project progress both here and on GitHub. If you have any feedback, please drop me a note any time via email or Twitter. Thank you!
Trending on Indie Hackers
How do you define 'aesthetic notes'?
Like what is the aesthetic?
Hi Josh, that's a great question! I guess I have the wrong word to describe the app there:) since aesthetic means different things for different people. For me, I see aesthetics as something simple and having a good balance in design.
I wonder if your app supports encryption as a "private folder". It's a valuable feature that users can save anything sensitive notes like passwords, money, confidential information, etc.
Hi @harrytran103, I actually haven't thought about that yet but it's such a great idea. I will try it figure that out after completing the main UI. Thanks so much for recommending it!
thats quite a good, important and sensitive point which harry just pointed out and saved you lots of trouble in future, if this beautiful notes takes off. On behalf of naomi, Thanks harry:D
Thanks, Karanveer!
I am waiting for your application, so excited to be one of the first users.
Wow, thanks so much, Harry!
With a clear enough focus you can surely make a splash, but keep in mind that this space is crowded.
There are plenty more that I have tested and forgotten. But I'm always looking for new note taking apps, it's almost a hobby, and there's lots of people like me.
What I personally value most of all in this apps:
Those designs look awesome :)
Wow, those are great advice. I will keep them in mind when making the app. Thanks, Carlos! And I kinda agree with you there. We're ever searching for the perfect note-taking apps :)))
Good Job, Naomi. Keep it going!
Thank you, Alex!
It's a competitive space, but I haven't yet found a note taking app that nails it. What I'm looking for personally:
I bought a long-term subscription for Standard Notes a while ago, but its UI is quite clunky and it doesn't have a great editor experience.
Hi Steve, thank you for your comment! I've just checked out Standard Notes. I don't think I can get to that yet I just started learning front-end early this year. Simple note would just be a simple note app, though I will try to implement encryption and a private folder.
Good Morning Steve.
Seems like you need to get to know ERA (https://era.sh)
It is made for developers, super simple and easy to use. It is currently in beta, so you can use it for free and in future it wont be expensive either.
We focus on privacy, so you decide what happens to your data. Currently we store everything in a local db, but within the next sprint, you will be able to sync it to any cloud service that you desire.
It’s easy to build something like that, which is why there are so many of them. The editor is a
textareaand the viewer is, no doubt,react-markdown. I’m a developer, but don’t assume that means I want my note-taking experience to be like Visual Studio Code. I appreciate a polished UI as much as any end user.ERA isn’t for me, but good luck and I wish you success.
I've built https://github.com/vincaslt/e2e-enc-notes as a project example for the teaching I do. It could serve as a good starting point if you'd like to build the notes app yourself.
I’m getting 404. Is it a private repo?
Damn, indeed it was :D
These look cool! When I was searching for a proper notes app few months ago, I wanted something that has passcode lock and backup on cloud feature. I came across many services which didn't have these features and I had to remove them instantly. These features will be good to have.
Thank you so much! I also love having things on cloud since it frees up a lot of space. Will definitely add these to my feature list!
Hi Naomi, have you though of adding video audio notes as well?
I run a product that adds live video/audio recording capability to standard Html <textarea> elements. It has got the encryption feature as well, for both the text and the multimedia.
I think it would add value to your project. Let me know if you want to try it out.
Wow that'll be so cool! Can I contact you after I have completed the main UI for the app?
Thanks, absolutely.
Here's a demo case, with encryption option
https://ecardify.io/demo/record-video-audio-gift-message
Here's a live installation on a customer Contact page
https://dhurata.com/en/message
Installing it for the first time, takes about 20 mins.
If you give feedback now, you get the ultimate plan, lifetime free.
Wow, that is amazing! Thank you so much, Lirian! I will definitely check it out.
Love the simple and elegant UI !
I see "Log Out" action on the sidebar. Does that mean, this will be cloud-based? Or just has user account support but the notes are stored locally?
Hi @spy16, thank you so much! I plan to use Firebase for authentication and data storage, so it will be cloud-based.
Okay understood.
I think this is an extremely competitive space with lot of players. From what I have seen, people often complain about privacy concerns in some of the existing solutions and is a big concern for lot of people because the app might be used to writing down ideas, learnings, personal journaling to keeping passwords. Like mentioned by few others, an offline option or encryption option will definitely be a good feature!
All the best 🙂
Wow I love the UI Naomi! I’ma huge fan of productivity apps, particularly notes apps like yours.
Some features I’d like to see in a notes app that I would totally use would be encryption and password-protected Individual notes, since I like to brain-dump every now and then and usually those aren’t pretty lol.
Keep up the great work!
Hi @KyloKyoshi, thanks so much for your kind words! I will keep posting here the app progress in case you want to check it out.
I don't really know much about implementing encryption but I think it'd be so great to have the notes more secure. Have you been using it for any of your projects or using an app with one?
Absolutely! Depending on how you’re users are storing their notes, there’s plenty of libraries you can use for encryption. It would essentially be the same method as password.
I was building one but then got sidetracked by another project I got inspired by lol.
That's great to know! I will definitely give it a try after I've completed all features of the app.
I’ll definitely be following along with your progress!! I just figured out how to follow on here lol
Thank you! Maybe we can also connect on Twitter or GitHub?
Sent! It’ll come up as @codrsteve on Twitter and @steveanthony999 on GitHub.
Yes absolutely!!! I’ll send you follows on both.