Muna goes live

Last year, when the pandemic forced me into a 4-month sabbatical, I decided to use my free time to learn new skills. After securing a bunch of certifications — Python, PMI Agile, Six Sigma, and Creative Leadership at IDEO — I thought my next project should be to learn how to build an iOS app. 

I love using flashcards to study and so does my partner. But we could never find a good flashcard app, one with a clean, easy-to-use interface. Most, if not all, flashcard apps for iPhone are painfully ugly and cluttered. 

So I taught myself Swift, Xcode, Core Data, Sketch, and a couple of other tools and put myself to work with the goal of building a flashcard app that me and my wife would enjoy using. Three months later I had 95% of the development and design done, but then my attention shifted to my exciting new job and I put the project on ice. 

This month, I decided it was time for my project to see the light of day. I tied up the design, burned down my backlog of bugs, enrolled some friends as beta-testers, and, after a surprising quick review by Apple, I finally got it live.

The app is called Muna (Icelandic for “remember”). It does not do an awful lot of things (yet), but what it does it does well. It’s simple, clean, and, I dare to say, fun to use. And, as a bonus, it lets you import the highlights from your Kindle books as flashcards. 

Ah, and it’s free.

I hope you enjoy.