Interview with Brian Linder – You Rule Chores

This week I have an interview with Brian Linder of Opposite Inc, the development studio behind the unique and delightful chore app You Rule Chores. It’s one of the most ingenious translations of chores to app that I’ve seen to date. Brian was kind enough to answer my questions and give us a peek behind the curtain of You Rule Chores.

Tell us a little bit about yourself.

New Orleans is where I was born and Texas is where I live with my wife and two sons. I’ve never eaten a McDonalds hamburger. I’m fairly tall, somewhat bearded and oddly duck footed. I spend way too much money on music. When I work on the computer I lean all the way back in my chair so most of my body is under my desk. I don’t know why I do that and I’m sure my back will suffer one day for it. I’m a designer/artist and I can’t write a lick of code. Luckily I’ve known and worked with some amazing programmers over the years. The programmer I work with now, Nathan, is especially awesome.

What were you doing before you began developing iOS apps?

Before starting this app development venture I was in the advertising world for 12 years. I was a creative director and principal at a pretty big national advertising agency called The Richards Group. I spent a lot of time pitching website, social and mobile ideas to brands like Patron Tequila, GameStop and TiVo among many others. I guess you could say I came up with ideas for a living. I did big campaign pitches and TV spots as well. I had a dirty little secret though, I never liked advertising but it was a great way to develop my approach to design.

What was the reason you made the jump into development?

The first time I saw a mobile app in action on the iPhone I knew I wanted to go there. I saw the usefulness and immediacy of the experience as something very meaningful. Apps offered a way to channel my 12 years of design experience into something that could hopefully have a little more substance than just another advertisement. I like making stuff after all. And as far as stuff goes, apps are cooler than ads.

How did you get started?

I had been collecting app ideas for years as sketches and treatments. It was time for me to stop having ideas and start making them real. So, I made a plan and then I quit my job. Fortunately a programmer who shared my desire to make apps quit his job too and off we went to make apps.

Where did the idea for You Rules Chores come from? That first spark of an idea?

I was trying to get my sons to clean their room but their faces were entranced by the zombie glow of their iTouches and they couldn’t even hear me. I said something like “Why don’t you guys download an app that’ll clean your room for you”. And that was the spark. I thought an app might not be able to clean their room, but if a chore app looked and acted like the apps they like to play, then maybe an app can motivate them to clean their room. So we dove in, fusing some simple game mechanics into what is essentially a dolled up productivity app. We probably had 5 names before You Rule came along though. I think we were calling it Chore Blazer first, and then Chore Wars and then Chore Up. I’m glad we ended up with You Rule though.

You Rule Chores strikes just the right balance between managing/scheduling chores and motivating children to get them done. I know I’m not the only mom that will tell you that good chore systems are hard to find. How did you get to the point where everything clicked with the app?

We spent a couple weeks designing wireframes, comps and storyboards of how the app would work and we quickly saw that we were trying to do too much. Engaging in what I call “feature-frenzy” we were trying to add so many “useful” features that the app was becoming complicated and useless. That click happened the moment we decided to buckle down on staying true to You Rule’s two core goals: 1) Empowering for kids 2) Simplicity for parents

We looked at every feature we had on a whiteboard and if a feature didn’t serve our two core goals, no matter how much we liked that feature, it was cut. We were going to include a wallet system and a coins/dollar conversion system. Both of these features were great, but they were not simple. “Simplicity for parents” was a priority so we cut out the wallet and coin conversion system. Staying true to our two core priorities helped give You Rule that simple streamlined feeling that we were hoping for.

It might sound strange, but when you find yourself killing a lot of ideas that you really like than you know you’re moving in the right direction. “Simple is hard” is a saying I once heard and we really believe in that. If we’re not filling a trashcan with failed ideas and if we’re not racking our brains over finding a better way then we’re doing something wrong. Because simple is hard. You Rule is a deceptively complicated app from a programmer’s standpoint. The fact that this complication is invisible to the user is something we are very proud of.

Do you have any “success stories” from users that you’d like to share?

There are two kinds of successes we hear a lot and they really make us proud:

The first is that after starting You Rule a lot of parents are realizing that their kids are capable of doing chores they never thought they could do. Like an 8 year old cleaning toilets or a 5 year old washing windows. Kids will surprise you with what they are capable of and this little app just happens to unlock a little bit of that potential.

The second kind of success I call “the end of nagging”. In these cases, parents are noticing that they don’t have to nag their kids into doing chores any more. For the kid, it’s no longer about mom nagging me to death, it’s about my level-up, my character, my progress and my rewards.

This question is from my daughters – any plans to add more girl characters?

It’s my fault that there aren’t more girl-oriented avatars. I did the illustration work myself and I have two boys so I am afraid I subconsciously leaned more towards the guy stuff when creating the art for this app. However, my developer partner in crime has two girls and he was always pushing me to create more girl-oriented characters. Without his input there would be even less girliness in the app then there is now. When we do get around to adding characters I will definitely focus on a new girl character first.

Anything coming up on the horizon that you can share?

We are currently in production on our next app. It’s called “What do I say?” and it’s an interactive children’s story for the iPad. It’s about a little space creature who is on a quest to discover his own voice. The cool thing is this app features the voice of the reader. You record your voice at the beginning of the story. And then you get to see your voice weaved into the story as you go through the app. We’re really excited about it. We plan to submit this next app in January and then we will turn our attention to making some You Rule updates.

After using You Rule for several months there are have been some great feature requests from various users and there have been some little bugs that we’ve found. But the big update will be incorporating Apple iCloud for multi-device synching. That’s something we wanted to include from the start, but iCloud wasn’t around yet and all of the other options for synching were les than satisfactory in our opinion. And we will also be looking into creating a “light” version.

What is your personal favorite app? The one you use most often?

This is always a tough question, There are apps I use almost everyday like Amazon Kindle, Netflix, HBO Go, Flixster and Nike Plus. While they are useful they don’t capture my imagination as much as other apps that I may use intensely for only a few weeks.

Some of the most inspirational apps for me (as an app developer) are Sword and Sworcery and World of Goo. And while Risk and Bike Baron are not as creatively inspiring, they sure can occupy my boys and I for hours on end.

See You Rule Chores in the App Store