Actually

The Brief

This one wasn't a client project. I built it for myself. No school place, SEN home education — and the constant low-level dread of not being able to show what my kids were actually learning. I tried spreadsheets, Notion, apps built for teachers. Nothing fit. Real learning — the kind that happens in conversation and play — had nowhere to go.

So I built the thing I needed: simple enough to actually use, produces reports structured around Ireland's seven areas of learning, holds up when someone official asks.

The Constraint

This audience had already been failed by systems designed for schools. Any hint of surveillance — streaks, scores, "you're behind" — and they'd close the tab. The tool had to feel like a relief, not another obligation.

At the same time it needed to produce something a Tusla assessor would take seriously. Two very different things to hold at once.

Key Decisions

• Freemium, not a trial

  No credit card to start. With a trust-sensitive audience that has been let down by institutions, friction at signup kills conversion before the product gets a chance. The free tier is generous enough to be genuinely useful.

• One-time lifetime option alongside monthly

  Families in SEN situations often have unpredictable finances. A monthly sub at €12 works for some; a one-off lifetime purchase (with Klarna at checkout) works for others. Optionality is product design.

• Report generator mapped to Tusla's framework

  The seven focus areas in the report generator aren't arbitrary — they mirror the Tusla assessment structure. Parents don't need to translate their logs into inspector language. The export does it.

• Photo uploads on every log entry

  "We went to the science museum and talked about circuits for two hours" is real learning. A photo attached to that log makes it inspection-ready evidence, not just a diary entry.

• Nothing mandatory

  No streaks. No daily prompts. No feeling of falling behind. If a parent logs once a week or once a month, the app still works. The design has no opinion on frequency.

The Outcome

In daily use.

Built for my family. Used by my family.

Actually is live at actually.ie and used for real home education tracking. The full subscription infrastructure — monthly, yearly, and one-time with Klarna — is built and running. It's not being advertised yet. When it is, the product is ready.

This is what I do when I have a problem: I build the thing. No template, no shortcut, no good-enough. Production-grade, because that's the only way I know how to build.

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