I saw the Base44 challenge and thought: what if I built an actual app?

I've built plenty of websites, and my workflow there is pretty well established. But building an app entirely on my own, as a designer? I've never done anything even close to that. So naturally, I wanted to try.

And I already had an idea I'd been putting off for a while.

About a year and a half ago, I became a mom, and one of the things that drove me absolutely crazy was introducing solids. The information was scattered across dozens of sources, recommendations were confusing, and I ended up putting together my own plan piece by piece. And then trying to keep all of it in my head. Not exactly what you need when you're already sleep-deprived.

That's where the idea for Tastimi, a gentle guide to your baby's first foods, came from.

So I got to work. Designed the screens, created the logo, thought through the user flows, and got a little carried away, as usual.

Then I looked at the calendar and realized that even with AI assistants and all their superpowers, building an entire native app in a few days was a bit too ambitious.

Well, what do we do when there's not enough time? 🚀 MVP, of course.

I already had the designs, so I decided to turn them into an interactive website using Base44. Something that could introduce the product, give parents actual value, and help me test the idea before investing months into development.

So here's what I managed to build:

1. Design: Custom branding, illustrations, real app screens, and a fully responsive, mobile-first website. Everything is based on my original app designs.

2. Automatic language detection: The website opens in English or French depending on the visitor's browser settings, with a manual language switch.

3. Interactive quiz: Parents select their baby's age and get a personalized starting-solids plan with food suggestions, practical tips, and things to avoid. The recommendations are curated, not AI-generated. I love AI, but I'd rather not let it improvise when it comes to feeding babies.

4. Waitlist and lead capture: Since the app isn't available yet, visitors can leave their email instead of clicking a download button that leads nowhere. The idea is to start building an audience before the actual launch.

5. Behind the scenes: I've also been working on the signup flow and automation logic, including personalized follow-ups and collecting insights about potential users. Some parts are still a work in progress, but the foundation is there.

I did hit a few limitations with my current Base44 plan, so there's still some setup to finish. But given the deadline, I decided to focus on getting the MVP live and leave the polishing for later.

The business logic is pretty simple: instead of spending months building an app based entirely on my assumptions, I can start validating demand now. Parents get something useful through the quiz, and I get a chance to understand what to build first.

Is it the native app I originally wanted to submit? No. Is everything finished? Also no. But it's a working MVP, and honestly, I'm pretty happy with how much I managed to get done.

So here I am, jumping into the Base44 challenge literally in its last hours. Better late than never, I guess 😅

Here's Tastimi: https://tastimi.base44.app

Would love to hear what you think!

#Base44 #ProductDesign #BuildInPublic #MVP #NoCode

Unbelievable 😍