Made in Sydney by independent designer/developer Chris Sealey, in collaboration with discerning people all over the world. User interface design, icons and front-end code for iOS, macOS and the Web, meticulously crafted and shipped for the platforms that embrace good design.
Simple and enjoyable finance management
Location-specific advanced weather information
I have tracked and categorised every transaction on my accounts since 2007. Having access to this information has helped me make calculated decisions like when to buy property or find a new job. Since December 2012, the way I’ve logged said data is through Savings; the only product I found to be remotely presentable in this category.
I always wanted to build a Mac app and finance is an area I care a lot about so, in March 2014, I sent an email to Yi, the sole developer of Savings 1:
Hi Yi,
I wanted to let you know I love your app, Savings. I think it’s easily the cleanest and simplest finance app on the Mac. If you’d ever like help with design, I’d be happy to lend a hand.
Chris
Yi immediately responded back and we arranged a video call. We recruited Tomáš Srna—another Savings 1 user—to help with the development and the three of us worked together on Savings 2 over the following years. Today, we’re really proud to release the first version of the new Savings.
Savings 2 is the same simple finance management app reimagined with a modern interface and new features such Scheduled Transactions on iOS, a Breakdown pie chart, multiple Trends and a more performant iCloud Sync, allowing you to keep your data on macOS and iOS with confidence.
There is plenty more in the initial release and we have a roadmap of fixes and features planned well ahead, so visit savingsapp.com to discover, download a free trial or purchase a copy today.
This morning, we sent out the first round of beta invites for Twine, a product I’ve been working on with the folks at Anomaly. Twine is a new approach to productivity; an organisation tool without a prescribed workflow. Rather than projects or lists, you share tasks with friends, family and colleagues and then organise them however you like.
By assigning metadata such as tags, locations and dates to each task, dynamic views—specific to you—can be created in Twine. Think of Smart Playlists in iTunes, where parameters are defined to build a view of songs, but can be adjusted or destroyed at any time without affecting the contents.
Twine steps into a very crowded market, but acknowledges that everyone approaches productivity differently. While GTD or alternative systems may work for some, ultimately we all think and organise our lives individually. Being able to mould a workflow rather than the other way around is an idea we feel is worth exploring. For small teams, large companies or individuals, if you’ve been looking for more fluidity in the way you manage things, we’d love for you to give Twine a go.
We anticipate our beta period will run for 1–2 months before we open it up. It is early days and we have a lot of work to do, but if you’d like to be considered for early access, register your interest.
Two years ago, I removed the contact form on this site and published my rationale shortly afterwards. Yesterday, I reversed that decision and restored the form, tackling it from a different angle. Here is how and why.
There were several reasons for removing the form in the first place. The lack of server code and reduced UI appealed to me and I figured most people preferred to use their own email client anyway.
The advantages of plain email:
Turns out, it might not be that black and white. I noticed a clear drop in leads through the site after removing the form. I also struggled to find an ultimate ‘call to action’ for the site, because having the most prominent button on a page open an email client is a little odd.
My conclusion is now that, while some people enjoy the freedom and familiarity of email, others like a bit of hand-holding. Filling out a form is more subconscious and requires less thinking than an empty white screen. So why not offer both options? The main roadblock was that I really didn’t want to write any server code.
I found a solution in one of my favourite products, Campaign Monitor, which offered all of the features I needed to make this work without a server:
All I had to do was write the HTML, CSS and XHR function to communicate with Campaign Monitor’s service. This matched up with most of the advantages email had over my previous form, but for those it didn’t, I’ve actually found the restrictions—250-character cap on inputs and no file attachments—to be beneficial; they force brevity, which invokes conversation.
In the end, email is still available and having several methods of contact on offer can’t hurt.