It sounds like there's 3 main things to solve: (1) ux, (2) tech, and (3) what the steps of the roadmap actually are. @mysterious-tomato-10057 is step (3) that anyone besides you will be collaborating on? Or should we just assume you're taking care of that part and focus on (1) and (2)?

Id genuinely like other people's thoughts on 3, but also recognize thats a big ask. At the very least, I think @curved-toothbrush-84425 will be very happy to help with number 3, but I think the people doing 1 and 2 would benefit from people able to contribute to 3.

Hi all, I'm excited to be collaborating with others on this project. Right now, I've been trying to get a few different UI views made so we can figure out which type works best. I have been running into some issues getting the actual design implemented, and I'd love feedback/guidance/assistance

A few thoughts: 1. Reaching the destination is more important than the path it takes to get there. 2. Complexity causes people to "drop out of the game". Its overwhelming and not enjoyable. 3. An decision can be financially optimal while only providing marginal financial gain and adding significant complexity or other costs that are harder to calculate. 4. You can hide complexity by showing different levels of abstraction at different times. a. ex. You can have 5 primary steps each with 5 secondary steps. b. The 5 primary steps can be shared as an infographic and give people an overall idea of what to expect over time c. While a person is actually working their way through it they would focus on the 5 secondary steps within the primary step they're up to. d. You don't benefit from seeing all 25 steps at once. If you're paying off high interest debt, maxing out your IRA isn't something you need to know or think about. My primary issue with the original roadmap is how verbose and complex it is. I would make the first task weighing each steps benefits with its complexity. Figure out which steps are absolutely necessary and which can be removed. One example might be HSAs. • They're relatively rare • They're complex on how and when to use them • They're no better than a tIRA unless you invest it and save all your receipts for decades They're definitely the optimal choice, but nobody needs them to achieve FI. How much does anyone benefit from an HSA after 40 years? Do they have an extra $50-100k? Its possible removing any mention of them would lead people to overall better results by having a simpler path to follow. It may be better as an advanced topic for those who enjoy the complexity and min/maxing. The second step I would take is determining how to group the steps in a way that makes sense, and even more importantly, memorable. I think after that its really just deciding how to present it. The more memorable and exciting it is the better. Emotional reaction to the process is as important as the process itself. Its what keeps people involved and actually accomplishing the steps. In regards to the software part. I think that should be the last thing you think about. Its easy to use software as a crutch for complex tasks, but I think its a lot better to simplify it first so that it can be done without technology at all. Then technology can be used to make it that much better.

@curved-toothbrush-84425 • interestly enough, i also was thinking that we should only really be displaying one step at a time (besides for the printable version) and at some point i must have forgotten that that was an important goal of mine. I totally agree with not wanting to show users too much data at once. at the same time, i do want to show them the services we offer that get “unlocked” if they do more work, how do you think we can accomplish both? • I think we can build the technology and revamp the roadmap in parallel. But I agree we need to put time into simplifying things, but I think even taking the exisitng roadmap with a little clean up and just showing things one step at a time is a massive improvement, so i don’t see why we would need to not write code while we simplify. • I am still thinking we can keep HSA but only show it depending on previous answers, like if they don’t have a high deductible insruance plan, don’t show it, if they xyz, don’t show it.

I think after that its really just deciding how to present it. The more memorable and exciting it is the better. Emotional reaction to the process is as important as the process itself. Its what keeps people involved and actually accomplishing the steps.

What are you thinking here?

another confusing part of the marketing issue, we have a third “roadmap”-like thing https://frumfinance.featurebase.app/roadmap

@curved-toothbrush-84425 I think one of the main issues though i was trying to point out in the doc you didn’t address which is the confusing part of people needing to progress through two parallel roadmaps (our internal resources and their own financial journey). both of those combined would affect unlocking services as well as both of them being relevant to unlock new steps

@wonderful-restaurant-20604 do you know when you'll have time to start chatting with @red-intern-48280 in here? Thanks!

hey guys sorry for the delay @red-intern-48280 i would love to hear more about what your doing and where I can come in. I think the sidebar idea has potential it's not as exciting so we would have to find a way to make it more intuitive but it's very clear and organized which is what we are trying to achieve...

@mysterious-tomato-10057 what do you think

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Thank you @wonderful-restaurant-20604. Right now I have one basic view up on github. If we are going to go the sidebar route, than it might now be worth working too much more on that. I have 2 concerns so far with my work: 1. I am new to React, so I'm sure my code is not super nice, and I might be doing things in the wrong way. 2. At some point, I reach a point where I don't know how to do/fix something, and AI is not too helpful either.

I have some experience with React so I guess let's first figure out what we should be working on and then we'll try to get it running...

Hey sorry I thought I responded on the above! My only concern with the sidebar idea is that it doesn’t really show the interdependencies part here, which maybe that’s a good thing. I was thinking its a lot more like a skill tree. Since really you can progress in investing and debt management, or budgeting at different speeds and there are occasionally interdependencies… https://www.civfanatics.com/civ3/medieval-tech-tree/ I guess the problem is my vision is simply too complicated unless we have some great UI/UX

The react concern i definitely can’t help with, since I don’t know react either 🙂

i started playing around with a visualization bc i really can’t come up with good roadmap data if i can’t see what I am building so i took a stab at doing it with lots of inlfluence from @red-intern-48280’s work. Not saying this is the necessary direction, just experimenting https://github.com/frumfinance/FrumFinanceUI/pull/29 https://deploy-preview-29--glistening-khapse-e11bfd.netlify.app/roadmap-visualization

Capto_Capture 2025-03-30_07-08-17_PM.mp4

I'm planning to make a lot of progress on this today. Id love help with the backend.

I'm really mainly focusing on the config file, not the UI or UX. I am just vibe coding a UI because I need to visualize the config I'm building.

Today I plan to get some local caching of state working so refresh doesn't reset so I can make some progress without yet having a backend. I also plan on creating onboarding questions that help inform the creation of the roadmap itself. It will also make it so we have steps already checked off for the user so we can track starting place vs progress.

I'm having a react bug I can't figure out. Anyone able to help? https://github.com/frumfinance/FrumFinanceUI/blob/baruch-ui-attempt/roadmap_navigation_debug.md

lots of progress, same PR, getting bigger 🙂 https://github.com/frumfinance/FrumFinanceUI/pull/29

notice the lock/unlock on services

Anyone following along with my progress?

Hey it's been a long time. anything going on over here? any work to be done? where's the roadmap holding?

@wonderful-restaurant-20604 @glamorous-king-96947 @gray-market-39757 Any of you still have an interest in contributing here? I have been spread to thin to help focus here while i’ve been building #C093EMUUC68, but @brash-restaurant-46761 has offered to be the PM here to make sure it keeps charging forward

Hi 👋 everybody! Anybody here? Happy to help keep things moving forward! Pls reach out. Ty.

🙏

@wonderful-restaurant-20604 @glamorous-king-96947 @gray-market-39757 Any of you here?

@mysterious-tomato-10057 @brash-restaurant-46761 I’m here! So sorry I dropped off the face of the map, things got crazy but now are calmer and I’m available to take on some work here