> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.artisancraft.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Two products, one theme: clarity - URL: https://www.artisancraft.dev/two-products-one-theme-clarity/ - Published: 2025-12-29T09:58:48.000Z - Updated: 2026-02-16T22:32:42.000Z - Description: Two SaaS products. No launch dates. One shared idea: designing for clarity instead of noise. A short reflection on building Expensio and dotmap — and why calm interfaces matter more than features. - Author: Daniel Plomp - Tags: buildinpublic, design, Dotmap, Expensio, feedback, founderjourney, productdesign, roadmap, saas, startups, tech, ux January 1st usually comes with big announcements. This one doesn’t. No launch dates. No roadmaps carved in stone. Just a reflection on a year of building — and why I ended up working on two very different SaaS products at the same time. At first glance, **Expensio** and **dotmap** don’t have much in common. One is about expense claims. The other is about discovering professionals on a map. Different audiences. Different problems. Different surfaces. And yet, the more I build them, the clearer the shared theme becomes. --- ## Clarity as a starting point Both products started from small, personal frustrations. Not “there should be a startup for this,” but “this should be simpler than it is.” With Expensio, it was the friction of filing basic expense claims. No invoices. No complex accounting. Just a clean overview I could send as a private individual — and occasionally as a business owner. With dotmap, it was visibility. How professionals are discovered, reduced to lists, feeds, and SEO-driven profiles — stripped of context, geography, and intent. In both cases, the problem wasn’t missing features. It was noise. --- ## What Expensio taught me Building Expensio forced discipline. Every time I considered adding something, the question was simple: *Does this reduce cognitive load, or add to it?* Most ideas didn’t survive that test. The product became an exercise in subtraction: - fewer concepts - fewer decisions - fewer steps between “I need this” and “this is done” It reinforced something I already suspected: clarity is not about minimal UI — it’s about minimal thinking. --- ## What dotmap taught me dotmap pushed me in a different direction. Discovery isn’t a form problem. It’s a context problem. Lists flatten people. Maps don’t. Once you introduce location, proximity, and visual density, you change how someone explores — and how they present themselves. dotmap is less about profiles and more about presence. Less about optimization and more about orientation. It’s still early, but the lesson is clear: interfaces shape behavior more than features ever will. --- ## The overlap I didn’t expect Somewhere along the way, I realized I wasn’t really building two products. I was exploring the same idea in two domains: > What happens when you intentionally design for calm instead of scale? Both Expensio and dotmap: - start from personal use - avoid “enterprise by default” thinking - favor legibility over flexibility - try to respect the user’s time and attention They don’t try to be platforms. They try to be *clear tools*. --- ## Looking ahead to 2025 I’m not starting this year with resolutions. I’m continuing an approach: - build slowly - write openly - ship when something feels finished, not when a calendar says so Expensio will move toward real-world usage and polish. dotmap will focus on community signals and exploration. Both will stay small for as long as possible. If there’s a theme for 2025, it’s not growth. It’s intentionality. If you’re curious where that leads — you’re welcome to follow along. ### Expensio Read the first blogpost in this series: [I built Expensio — A simple expense tool I needed myself](https://www.artisancraft.dev/i-built-expensio-a-simple-expense-tool-i-needed-myself/) ### dotmap Read the first blogpost in this series: [Episode 1: Why I started building dotmap](https://www.artisancraft.dev/episode-1-why-i-started-building-dotmap/) ## Sign up for ArtisanCraft Developing with craft, clarity & care. Subscribe Email sent! Check your inbox to complete your signup. No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.