Recently we had an opportunity to speak with Sifiso Ripinga, the Founder at Ripinga Enterprises Limited about Noggin Notes

Please share with us the backstory of what motivated you to create this app.

Myself and a friend met a year before we started developing the app through travels, in Cambodia. He is from Wales and I am from South Africa. He had to leave Cambodia and found work in Spain as a developer and I stayed in Cambodia working as an electronic engineer.

A year or so later we connected on facebook unexpectedly and we were both going through difficult times in our lives and that's when we started chatting about how to create a platform for people to share their emotions and thoughts. A platform where people can express themselves without judgment. Before we knew it we were brainstorming creating and Noggin Notes was born.

What features do you hope to roll out to your app in the future?

We are very excited to be working on creating a forum within the app. The forum will be a private section for users to connect with other users that are experiencing or going through the same situation as them.

We are also looking at rolling out a meditation and helpful exercises. Currently we doing our research so we can provide the correct and most helpful content for our users.

What has been the most rewarding aspect of the creation of this app?

Not really expecting anything, but receiving emails and messages from users expressing their gratitude for us making the app as it has helped them in one or more ways in their lives.

Knowing that you have created something that is actually helping people around the world is really and incredible feeling.

Using your own light to help light up other people's lives, cost nothing and seeing them shine from your light is priceless.

What is the coolest or most innovative feature of your app?

The Noggin Notes Gratitude Bar, I feel is the coolest part of the APP. You get to fill the your daily gratitude for the day and with everyday you fill the bar you get a streak running for the week, which gives the user motivation to keep being grateful in their lives.

What surprised you most in your journey to create this app?

Our main mission is to stop the stigma of mental illness, and I expected people to look down on us or not support any of our work. But surprisingly so many close friends I never expected to be, were motivating me in this and were my biggest fans and cheerleaders.

Which other mobile apps or technology have inspired you?

Headspace is an amazing app, I use it now and then when things in my life get a bit hectic. Meditation is really important.

Another great app is SanoMind, It's an amazing mental health wellness discovery platform connecting people to audio content created by licensed mental health professionals.

Do you have any recommendations or advice for others wanting to create a mobile app?

Keep it simple. There is no need to create a platform with a million bells and whistles.

Pick something and grow that towards the needs of your users.

How did you decide which platforms to release your app on and do you plan on releasing your app to other platforms?

We started off on Android as it is much easier to release on android, and only released on IOS 5 month later. We will stick to IOS and Android for now as we build the app further. If there is a need to move to other platforms it is definitely something we can look at.

How is your app different than the rest of the market? Which unique need does it fill?

Our app is built with the foundation of Carroll Izard 10 discrete emotion. Emotions all have an adaptive function, meaning that they serve to inform us of our environment.

In order to know what our environment is telling us, we need to use the correct language, lest we mislabel - and subsequently mis-respond - to our environmental stimuli. This covers the need of users not understanding their thoughts and emotions. We give them a platform were they can understand their emotions and thoughts better.

You can view Noggin Notes here