Have you ever failed? Everyone has a different interpretation of “failure”. What I want to share is about a failure I had in my career. This is about the “Juander”, an app that I conceptualized 2 years ago.
This will be the first time I will fully disclose the concept that I made for a travel app I called Juander. Before anything else, why “Juander”? It came from the word “Wander” + “Juan”. My own definition of “wander” is something where you walk or travel somewhere and discover something new. And Juan is a given name that is a common name of a Filipino male, the name originally came from Spanish. That is why I named the app, Juan’der.
Check the Landing Page that I did for the App.
March 23, 2016, I was doing some random stuff, challenging myself to become a better designer, then I came up with this idea that I turned into visuals and I posted it on Dribbble. I believed that this startup may be profitable someday. But, I didn’t have the knowledge to do it myself. Plus, I didn’t have a large amount of money to pay for someone to do it all. So I gathered every resource I have and gathered friends who can help to start this project. I finalized the app flow and created screens for a better understanding of the concept. Back then, I disclosed it to a handful of people only because I thought that this idea might be stolen.
Juander
This app is really basic. It’s something like a digital directory of the places you could go to the Philippines. Mostly, travel spots such as beaches, mountains, forests and even resorts. The plan is to make an app where you can easily check guides on how to get to the specific spots, top hotels that you check in, or even best restaurants that you could try. So if someone wants to travel, without any knowledge or idea to the specific locations, this app is suitable for them.
Splash Screen
This is where the app will start. When you open it, it will be the first screen to welcome the user.
Main Screen
There are 2 types of the main screen of the app. The “Featured” where we will list to top locations and the “Nearby” where you can find the nearby location using the user’s phone GPS. The Main Screen has also a function of quick and advanced filters, as well as search.
Single Screen or the Location Screen
This is where you can get all the details of the specific location. Each location has 3 tabs – “How to get there”, “Check-ins”, and “Hot Spots”.
How to get there – is a full instruction on how you can get to the location, it’ll get your current location and will give you guidance on transport. It will also give you the amount of budget you need and the ETA to get to the location.
Hotspot – is a combination of restaurants you could visit and sub-location within the area. For example, El Nido, there are other places you can within El Nido such as Nacpan Beach and others.
Check-Ins – by the word itself, it’s the Hotels.
How will it be profitable?
If we promote the app and if the traffic starts, we can implement ads system where restaurant and hotels can bid for there top spots on the list. There is more, but I’ll let you imagine the rest of my idea on how it can be fruitful someday.
Well, I believed so much that the idea is really fantastic. But we never finished it, I spent all the budget I had, I stopped pushing the team as they also have different day jobs, and I stopped hustling. I gave up! But I got nothing to regret. I did my best and this failure taught me a lot.
Today, I received a Job Invitation with the same concept that I did 2 years ago. I declined! The rate is a bit low. Hahahaha! That’s why I came up to write this blog.
I wasn’t unhappy at all. There will be more ideas that will come. Next time the opportunity knocks or a multi-million idea crosses my mind, I won’t hesitate to take a risk again.
Or maybe I can still work this out…