Project ideas / Parents and families
These ideas come from parents, grown-up children and people with big families: a planner for each child's practice times and gear, a simpler way for older relatives to sign in to things, a birthday page that relatives can add to from far away. Each one was asked for by a real person, and many were found in public posts on Reddit and Stack Exchange and are credited on the ticket.
Has a builder brief
Parents of several kids lose track of practice times, equipment to pack, fees due and chores. Add each child, their activities and reminders, and see a family tablet view for the day. Calendars are too clunky for gear lists and bills.
Asked for by a father of three on r/AppIdeas
Older parents often can't cope with password managers that assume they understand vaults and autofill. A family member would set up and store the logins remotely, while the parent sees a few big buttons on their phone that open the right site already signed in. Success is measured by how few taps and decisions the parent faces.
Asked for by an adult child on r/SomebodyMakeThis
Has a builder brief
Family and friends often want to celebrate someone from afar. A host creates a page with a link, guests drop in photos, short videos and notes without needing an account, and the host gets a keepsake page or download afterwards. Optional reveal date keeps it a surprise.
Asked for by a party organizer on r/SomebodyMakeThis
Has a builder brief
Keeping up with many relatives' birthdays and what they like is a chore, and gift apps ask you to retype interests each time. Store a birthday and a few interests per person, get a reminder ahead of time, and see a handful of gift ideas with links without re-entering anything.
Asked for by a person with a large family on r/SomebodyMakeThis (Spanish-language post)
Has a builder brief
Some homes have a TV in the kitchen that hardly ever gets watched. This would let it stay dark until a message arrives from someone on a short list you choose, then switch the screen on, show the message with a sound that tells you who sent it, and turn the screen off again after a set time so it doesn't waste power. Messages from anyone not on the list would never show up. It could be an app for an Android TV, with family sending messages from their phones.
Asked for by a poster on Software Recommendations Stack Exchange
Has a builder brief
A lot of housework depends on the weather, visitors, or another job being finished, so a fixed schedule doesn't always help. This reminder would still handle the regular jobs, like laundry on Thursday evening, and also speak up when heavy rain is forecast (check the gutters), when guests are coming tomorrow (tidy up), or the day after a job that needs a follow-up (fold yesterday's washing). Everything would live in one simple list for the household. It could read the local weather forecast and let you add your own events, like a visit, that trigger the right chores.
Asked for by a commenter in a Hacker News thread about things people wish existed
Has a builder brief
Spare tiles, the passport, seasonal decorations and tools all get stored 'somewhere safe'. Take a photo, type where it went, and search it two years later; households could share one list so relatives can look things up too. Simple search matters more than fancy categories.
Asked for by commenters on an r/SomebodyMakeThis 'what do you wish existed' thread
Has a builder brief
Children aged about 7 to 9 would see a small row of pictures and write a few sentences that use all of them. As they type, each picture lights up when they use its word, so they can see what they still need to describe, and if they're stuck, tapping a picture shows or says the word. When every row is done, the pieces join into one story the child can read back or hear read aloud, then turn the page for a new set. A parent or teacher would choose the pictures and their words, and it would need no accounts or chat.
Asked for by a poster on Software Recommendations Stack Exchange
Has a builder brief
Young Chinese learners could use a toy where they pick two pinyin syllables and see every word those syllables can form, with tones, meanings and pictures. A switch would let the child search with or without tones, since in films the tones are often hard to hear. It could be built on a free, open Chinese dictionary as a simple website, helping kids look up words they hear in subtitled videos.
Asked for by a poster on Software Recommendations Stack Exchange
Has a builder brief
Many people never learned who their grandparents really were. A simple tool would let you record messages and set delivery to a future date or life event, with a plan for who receives them and how files stay readable in 50 years. Export-friendly formats and a trusted-contact handoff are the hard part.
Asked for by a person without memories of their grandparents on r/SomebodyMakeThis
If you build for families, keep it simple. The people who would use these are busy, or not very technical, so fewer taps and fewer decisions matter more than extra features. Some of these involve children's details, family photos or logins. Collect as little as you can, and say plainly where it's stored.
You don't need to be a developer to help. If one of these is something your family would use, mark your interest on the idea page so builders know people want it. If you have an idea of your own, post it in plain words. No technical detail needed.
Ideas never lock, so more than one person can build the same idea, each in their own way.