Here's an idea for a side project: Take one painful, labourious, repetitive task on Photoshop/Indesign/Sketch/Final Cut Pro/any editing software for that matter, and make that into a product.

Like this nifty little remove.bg web app. I love it. Removing backgrounds can already be done in Photoshop for sure, but to do it well (especially removing background from hair), it does take some manual effort. And it’s a task that happens pretty often enough to feel quite repetitive, boring and simply an unproductive use of time after a while. Software automation is great for tasks of such nature - manual, labourious, simple-enough, repetitive, boring.

I remember reading somewhere that Invision was built to facilitate client feedback, to make screen prototypes more shareable so that it’s easy for anyone (even non-designers) to comment. Imagine the loss of productivity from endless emailing of pdfs back and forth, versioning the different files each time - clientwebsite-final-final-final.pdf. Again, Invision replaces one repetitive, labourious and painful task of communication ping-pong into a product. Same with Google Docs.

This idea for a single feature app or software product sounds so simple, yet so difficult to practice because everyday routine and habit blinds us to opportunities like these. So this made me think:

What boring, painful and simple work tasks that we do repetitively and manually on a regular basis, can be replaced by automation/software?

Let’s hear it!

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