This weekend Trixie Tracker celebrates its third birthday and we’re excited to announce some big reasons to celebrate. We’ve made continuous, incremental improvements over the last three years, but all our improvements had to fit within the existing code architecture. It’s been hard to add major new features because the original code base (from March 2006) wasn’t built in the most flexible way.
The only way around this problem is to rebuild the application from scratch, and design it to accommodate future growth and exciting new features. The downside to a rebuild is the significant time and money needed to simply replicate the existing application, and it’s not always clear if that’s a good business direction.
Last December, we reached a decision point about the future of Trixie Tracker. We’re a small company, but we’re growing every year and we realized it was time to make the financial commitment. So, since January, we have been working on a brand new version of Trixie Tracker. Initially, the new version is going to look pretty similar to the existing application — with a few minor improvements such as improved date and time user interfaces, more sharing, and more averages.
But under the hood, the new version provides a solid architecture for a bunch of neat features coming later in the year including: better dashboard options for twins and multiples, better iPhone integration, and even a daycare version. We’ve also received a ton of great ideas from existing users that have been put on hold because of the Trixie Tracker rebuild. After the rebuild launches, we’ll start tackling those requests.
Thanks so much to all the dedicated parents whose curiosity helped make this site possible. We’re looking forward to the next three years and beyond.
Ben MacNeill
Founder, Trixie Tracker
I look forward to seeing the new features!
thank you so much Ben,
annie
The twins have been with you for 3 years now and I honestly feel that we couldn’t of done it without you…really. This has been the most amazing tool for us and looks like we’ll probably be using it thru high school
Matt: I’m looking forward to the new features too. As we closer to launch, there will be a lot more blog activity here. That’s one of the reasons for the new blog design — I wanted to spruce things up a bit in anticipation.
Annie: It feels great to know TT has been so helpful. TY for sharing and growing with us!
Wow, scary decision. We love Trixie Tracker so far, and would hate to see it disappear like oh so many companies that chose to re-write before you.
JD Conley: Glad you love the app! After three years of doing this, we’ve got a proven business model and solid monthly growth. Rest assured that Trixie Tracker is not going to disappear.
Ben, if by “daycare version” you mean something that daycare providers could use, entering data for my child while he’s at daycare but having that data be integrated with my ‘home’ version, and also allowing them to keep those records (if they wanted), then I think that would be awesome! Of course, with our final child being nearly 10 months old, I don’t know if we’ll be able to use it. But I want to see Trixie Tracker thrive, and I would push for our daycare to adopt it, even if we’ve left the baby room!
Tom: Bingo! What you described is exactly what’s coming. Thanks for the support!
I love the site and the ability to track what my daughter does every day and night. I just don’t know how to read the graphs and what they mean, I can’t seem to see a pattern. Am I a dope or is this difficult for anyone else?
Carolyn: If you share your site with me, I’ll be happy to read your charts and tell you what I see (but, if your child is very young, there might not be any strong patterns yet). It might even make a good blog post to help out other parents unsure about interpreting the charts. Let’s get in touch over email.
Great news. But will there be a mobile app besides for the iphone? i don’t have one, nor does my husband. the biggest barrier to use for us is having to remember the details of the day or waddle over to one of our laptops, all bleary eyed, to be sure we record everything. if we could enter the details immediately on our devices (i used a palm centro, husband’s on a blackberry) that would be ideal. Thanks again for such a great concept though, now using this on our second kid, and still loving it.
Christine: Currently our mobile version is simply an optimized version of the website. It’s designed with a streamlined interface and doesn’t use as much bandwidth. If you have a web browser on your Palm or Blackberry, then you can use the “mobile” site right now. Just click the “mobile” link at the bottom of any page to see what it looks like. We don’t have plans to build dedicated apps for Palm or Blackberry but do want to make sure that the mobile-optimized version of the site looks good on all small devices.
How awesome!!! I’m so happy I found TT! My 7.5mo has been on it since she was about 1 month old, and has had sever Infant GERD since about 2 months of age. Being able to track exactly when she had her medicine, when she slept and for how long, when she nursed (and now that she’s on a hypoallergenic formula), how much she ate, has been a LIFE SAVER. People keep asking me how I’ve kept my sanity (after being present for one of her “episodes” where she screams and cries for hours straight) I can honestly say I think it was my TT! My previous child was easy to “read”. Hey had a “hungry cry” and a “sleepy cry” and so it wasn’t difficult to know what he wanted. Since the new baby cries so much all the time, it’s hard to know exactly what she needs, but I can easily look at her TT and know what it is! One thing I would love to see is a community forum where we can all share our tracker links (if we want) and possibly make friends! I recommend TT to anybody I know having a baby! THANKS!!!
Ramsey: Thank you for your story. I’m glad that TT has been helpful in so many ways. I hear you about wanting to share and connect with other trackers. The new version is going to let us build more social features. They are not going to be in the initial launch, but will be coming shortly thereafter. thanks for the feedback!!
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