電腦科學學生打造 Vitae iOS 考試温習規劃應用程式

I'm a computer science student from France, and I've been building iOS apps alongside my university studies.

One of my projects is Vitae, an app designed to help students plan their exam preparation and decide what to study each day.

The idea came from a simple problem: when several exams are approaching, knowing that you need to study is easy. Knowing what to study first, how much time to spend on each subject, and how to stay on track is much harder.

I wanted to build something that could help solve that problem.

The idea behind Vitae

Many study tools focus on timers, notes, or task lists. These can be useful, but they don't necessarily answer a student's main question:

What should I study today?

Vitae is built around a simple workflow:

1. Add your upcoming exams.
2. Organize your subjects and available study time.
3. Generate a revision plan.
4. Follow daily study recommendations.
5. Track your progress.

The goal isn't to give students another list of tasks to manage. It's to help them turn an overwhelming exam period into a clearer, more manageable plan.

Building apps while studying computer science

Working on personal projects alongside university has taught me that building an app involves much more than writing code.

You have to think about the user experience, decide which features actually matter, handle edge cases, test your assumptions, and figure out how people will discover the product.

I've also been using AI-assisted development tools as part of my workflow. They can help me explore solutions, understand unfamiliar code, and move faster through implementation.

However, generating code isn't the same as building a reliable product. I still need to understand the decisions being made, verify the results, and make sure the different parts of the application work together.

For a small independent project, deciding what not to build is just as important as implementing new features.

Why I'm focusing on the core experience

It's tempting to keep adding features to a product. There is always another idea that could make an app more complete.

But for Vitae, I think the most important question is whether the main experience works well:

• Can a student create a useful revision plan?
• Does the daily recommendation make the next step clear?
• Can the student follow the plan without unnecessary friction?
• Does the progress tracking help them understand where they stand?

These questions matter more than having a long feature list.

I'd rather improve a simple workflow that solves a real problem than build a complicated app that tries to do everything.

What I'm learning from building in public

Developing an app independently means making decisions without having a large team or an established user base to rely on.

You have to learn from feedback, observe how people use the product, identify where they get stuck, and decide which improvements are worth your time.

It also means accepting that releasing an app is only the beginning. Distribution, discoverability, onboarding, and retention are ongoing challenges.

I'm still learning how to approach these problems, especially while balancing development with my studies.

Final thoughts

Building Vitae has been a way to apply what I'm learning in computer science to a problem I understand as a student myself.

The project is still evolving, but my current focus is straightforward: help students prepare for exams with a clearer plan and a better idea of what to do next.

If you're building an independent app alongside your studies or work, I'd be interested to hear how you manage development time, choose priorities, and find your first users.

You can learn more about Vitae here: https://weissgerber.dev/en/products/vitae/