Why I build these apps.
A personal collection of useful apps, built for fun but shaped by my professional design experience.
Why I build these apps
Most of my apps start because I have a need for something myself, so as a design professional I decide I would rather use something I had designed and built myself.
I enjoy the whole process of designing and building an app, and I believe the apps I create are high quality even though I build them for fun in my own time.
Once I had built something I found useful, I wanted to share it for free as I thought it could be useful for other people too.
Professional background
My day job involves working in application development as Head of Product Design at BroadShield , a UK-based company focused on workforce development solutions.
It is a role I really enjoy. I get to work on a wide range of projects, helping turn ideas and requirements into products that people use and that can make their working lives better.
A big part of our work is Myrus , our workforce development platform. Myrus brings together areas such as learning, competency assessment and performance management, and we are continuing to develop and improve the platform as our products evolve.
We also now have dedicated solutions for some of the sectors we work with.
MyrusBuild is focused on the construction and built environment sector, helping organisations manage and evidence competence across people, projects and supply chains.
MyrusCare is designed specifically for health and social care, bringing learning, competency management and workforce development together in one platform.
These are areas I am particularly proud to be involved with. We are always looking at how we can improve the products, solve real problems and make what can sometimes be complicated processes easier for the people using them.
The apps and tools featured on this website are personal projects created independently in my own time. They are not products of BroadShield, and the views, content and tools on this website are entirely my own.
Free to use, with no hidden fees
Out of principle, I want my apps to be free to use without hidden subscriptions or unexpected costs.
Some of the apps include adverts, but these are mainly there to help cover costs such as hosting, development services and app store fees.
Keeping the apps free also means I can have fun designing and building things without the same commercial pressures you would have with a normal product.
What I enjoy about these apps
One of the things I enjoy most is building an app and then releasing it into the wild.
In my professional work, products are planned, launched and marketed properly. With these apps I do almost the opposite. I build something I think is useful for myself, then put it on the App Store / Google Play and see what happens.
I don't spend time marketing the apps, which makes it fascinating seeing how people find them and where they end up being used.
Sometimes it is completely unexpected. An app might suddenly start getting downloads in Sweden, Germany or somewhere else I hadn't particularly designed it for.
For me, that is a big part of the fun — making something useful, putting it out there and seeing whether other people find a use for it.