Kami

We were working on a project with a freelance designer. He was building a UI for our snazzy game app (now mostly defunct). When we received the PSDs, we were amazed. The design was awesome.

It was also useless. We spent about two weeks turning the pixel-perfect mocks into a functional UI, butchered some of it, and 'improvised' most of the changes prompted by user testing. And we thought we were doing pretty well, and this was just how you "do" app development.

Until, in our retrospective, someone asked "isn't it weird that designers use applications like Sketch and Photoshop to create these awesome UIs, and the we have to pretty much create them from scratch? I mean, most of the stuff they want isn't even that hard. Why can't they just build it themselves?"

About 30 user interviews later, we realised we're not the only ones who think that. And so we decided to take the plunge and build the first app that lets people - designers in particular, but anyone with an idea really - build their dream app, but without writing code.

How we're doing

So far, we've replicated AirBnB and Tinder's functionality (including saving, loading data from APIs, logging in, webhook-based refreshes etc - but also swipe gestures, smooth animated transitions, and a look and feel that matches the original pretty neatly. We've also built a rudimentary editor (think "Sketch 1.0 meets IFTTT, with a pinch of Google Blockly thrown in for good measure.

Where we're headed

Ultimately, our goal is simple: we want to empower people to build their dream app. If you're a back-end dev who wants a good, functional interface, Kami is there for you. If you're an entrepreneur that needs a functional app in the app store, Kami makes that possible. And if you're a creative and you want to get your app ideas out of your head and into peoples' hands, we've got you covered.

Our product is - at first - a creator tool that's elegant, intuitive, and inspiring. That means we look at the whole workflow - from how you source your icons to how you do usability tests for your user flows (and generate the screenshots for your marketing material). And building a UI platform that lets you collaborate - not just with clients, but with users.

But there's more to it than that: we have a great opportunity to show our users what it takes to build great products. On usability and the importance of user experience. And on iterating fast (our users can deploy their changes with confidence, and the push of a button!).

And while we do all of this, maybe we put a few replica-producing app development shops out of business.

Who we'd love to have on the team

Building a creator app has some engineering complexity. And making a powerful - yet intuitive - user interface for it is similarly tricky. But if that's the kind of challenge you look for, it will be rewarding: your ideas will have almost immediate impact, and you'll get to work with smart, down-to-earth people and grateful, demanding users. If that sounds like you, let's chat.