Truly Simple Tools

About Colin

Hello! I'm Colin Wright. I'm a generalist maker-of-things, and this is where I keep my apps, web projects, etc.

You can learn more about me at my writing- and podcast-focused page, but the basics are that I'm 40-years-old, I live in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA, I went to school for design but write books and essays (and make podcasts) for a living, and sometimes I speak to big (or small-but-wonderful) crowds of people.

Principles

To give you a sense of how I approach tool-making (and all the other things I do), here are some principles I'm using to guide my tool-development process:

  • Don't do recurring fees or ads
  • Aim for free and low-priced, ideally with all features available to free users and an inexpensive lifetime upgrade unlocking a nice little bonus
  • Keep the users' data on their devices and private clouds
  • Opt for simple over complicated (but include customization options when possible so the user can play around and make the tools their own)
  • Stick with standard UI approaches and patterns unless there's a very good reason not to
  • Try to make tools so intuitive that my parents can use them
  • Use code that's native to the OS when possible (to avoid bloat, weird translations, discordant aesthetics, and processor sluggishness)
  • Use AI tools to make other tools, not in place of other tools (use them to empower people, not to replace people)
  • Don't make tools that are meant for everyone, make tools that are very useful for some narrow slice of the population
  • Tools don't have to be apps (though most of the initial ones probably will be)

Support My Work

My intention is to keep most of what I make free (this is true across all my work: writing, audio, and otherwise) and to charge as little as possible when I do ask for money, because, well, money is pretty scarce for a lot of people a lot of the time.

That said, if you'd like to support my work, you can pay for the 'pro' version of one of my apps, buy a book, become a supporter on Patreon or Substack, or buy me a coffee.

No worries if you're not in the position to monetarily support my efforts right now: please enjoy the apps and consider leaving a quick review if you have a moment :)