The video on week 7 took me lots of time to finish and that there are certain apects of it that were not considered until now.
Small Reflection
Now, Id like to leave a little note on how my life has been going lately. I have been notified that my contract working at the college is not to be renewed…which greatly upsetted me for around a week until I started picking myself up again. Reflecting on ol’ times, I think im getting better at doing so, I flunked out of Uni and started fresh back here in Hong Kong from a higher diploma, battled a half year depression & anxiety, and a couple years back was lost and wasn’t sure what to do with myself. This time facing this though this course has given me a lot of knowledge and inspiration to stand my ground…this job ending might not be a bad thing at all! I am actively talking to people around me and has come to the conclusion to establish my own firm, is currently going through business registration and has linked up with an old collegue, now bandmate & business partner, an experienced website designer to make things happen, and these things, include almost all that is happening in this module. So compared to when I first ran a small “room” of 3 right after graduating from my higher diploma, this time I think I am more ready and is fortunate to have signed up for the right programme, recieving awesome guidence in building a design business. (let’s hope the economy doesn’t belly flop on me now)
Back to OnLeash
A major part that is missing from the video is the actual experience and how it is to be setup.
The thought of users being able to charge for hosting tours came from last module’s analysing of Food Panda: the fact that it provided a “part-time” job that is free for anyone to sign up really picked up in Hong Kong, many of jumped at the opportunity having been laid-off due to the pandemic & social unrest of 2019, which got me thinking about the draw of being able to earn a quick, direct income with an app.
Name & Logo
Alec was kind enough to have adviced me that people might think that this is a dog walking app, at the time I was only done a lil’ gif as an icon for The Puppies (participents or “people on tour”, see pdf document above for details). That is why I went for the whistle as my main icon.
For the name, I tried to think : Cam On Legs, Walk Me or E-tour…but OnLeash still stuck. The name came from the happy picture in my mind I cannot rid of : Dog owner going “wanna go for a walk?”, then dog happily wag’s tail with all the excitment in the world, and puts on a leash.
This might be able to serve as the project’s name for now until a better name pops up, I do understand and feel that the word leash does give a certain impression of restriction or even S&M, but again, I can’t rid of that picture of my ol’ bipoo yanking on the leash infront of me, excited to see what is to be encountered on our journey together.
A Link To The Handout
The idea of OnLeash is also due to the conceptualising of The Handout. A big part of the The Hong Kong Handout comes from doing interviews (now im making a habit to just record long conversations on specific topics), to get in touch with someone local is already sort of a hassle, but what about somebody overseas?The whole concept actually started as a way to interview others, thinking that if I had access to talk to someone that would be great, then wait…what if they could show me around? Then violia, that’s it!
While I was making the video for week 7, I had trouble looking for locations that are interesting enough for me, then it suddenly came to me that : I could just film any corner here, and for those of you that are let’s say, in the UK, that could be one of the most interesting corners you will see today.
Control
It is most important for OnLeash to be a safe platform and free from the pollution of dating, sex & race related insults.
I would like to assure the user that all happenings are well documented & monitored, which is actually the reason for the clean, simple graphic design choice; friendly and even child like at times in communicating a safe, cozy platform to build healthy conversations & exchange.
The management in maintaining a service like this would be massive, a set of staff would need to be seated in treating complains & over seeing transactions. Servers would also need to be purchased in keeping a massive set of data compiled by recordings of tours being hosted.
Kickstarter
Later on you’ll be shown Sneaker Graveyard, a first collaberation with my web design buddy which has so far only taken us about $1K HKD (around 98pounds), not a lot specially when 2 are chipping in; for OnLeash I never even started to check on pricing already knowing that just a programmer might cost me a minimum of $50,000 HKD (around 5000 pounds) already, and that price was only quoted based on a simple buy & sell app.
Then one day when I was making coffee, it struck me to take this baby to Kickstarter.
So when this module is over, ill be punching on a calculator and working on more details of OnLeash. Compared to Sneaker Graveyard, I don’t think i’ll have too much of an expectation for it since I can imagine having to gather quit an amount of funding to achieve the full picture, but trying out crowd funding would be quit an experience I am looking forward to!
ANDY WAS HERE
ANDY was here 🤓 