Countdown: Interactive Sketchbook 2.0 – Part III

Ian on December 19, 2012

THE COUNTDOWN IS OVER!

Version 2.0 is finally live in the App Store. This version is totally rewritten from the ground up to be more stable, have more features, and have more performance. We’ve also engineered it to be easy to maintain and update far into the future. More Updates & Features to come!!!

Click the icon above to see Interactive Sketchbook in the App Store! Below is a peak at what the new version looks like when sketching from your photo reference.

Countdown: Interactive Sketchbook 2.0 – Part II

Ian on November 19, 2012

EVOLUTION OF AN ICON

Interactive Sketchbook 2.0 is just weeks away from being complete. And as we continue to finish up the next version I wanted to share some of the process of shaping the icon along the way.

Original Version

This is the version of the icon that is currently in the app store. While not bad, there were lots of ways to improve it, especially the way it looks on the higher resolution of a retina screen.

Improving For Retina

V1 below is effectively what the original icon looked like when viewed on a retina screen. Fuzzy and pixelated. Creating anything that looked better was one of the first priorities once I had early builds of the new version running. V2 has all the assets swapped out and rendered in the appropriate resolution. The extra detail of v2 improved the icon quite a bit, and so it was left alone for several weeks. (It no longer hurt my eyes on a retina iPad. Notice the extra detail in the face and text.) V3 changed the thickness of the pencil. I probably made v2’s pencil too fat, and though it was certainly iconic, I wanted our icon to feel a little more professional, and less cartoony or kid like.

v1v2v3

Bring in the Graphic Designer

V3 was left alone for months as I focused on implementing the UI for the App. Once I had enough of the interface working I began to work with Graphic Designer Tim Whalen. Tim created beautiful new assets for almost everything in version 2.0 of Interactive Sketchbook! In the last month or so we’ve been jumping back to work on the icon with the new interface assets.

V4 uses our new pencil asset. The new pencil is a more highly detailed illustration, yet it is cleaner than a photographic asset. However we felt that something about it was unbalanced once it was shrunk down to the size of the icon. But it wasn’t worth getting too caught up in tweaking until we had replaced some of the other assets in the icon. V5 we swapped out the old binder for a new one. The new binder has a neat wrap around effect where you can see the coils curl back behind the sketchbook. This makes the icon really look like a sketchbook, but after living with it for awhile it seemed to make the icon feel like less of a touchable button. V6 we simplified the binder. And though a lot of detail was thrown out, I think the result is much more inviting.

v4v5v6

Almost There

For V7 we have increased the contrast on the pencil and added an outline to help it pop from the sketchbook background. Adding a deeper shadow on the pencil also made the icon a bit more pleasant to look at. With the deeper shadow my eyes tend to focus mostly on the face and pencil, whereas before the icon would draw my eye too many places at once. We’ve also replaced the original texture for a newer one that is more subtle and organic.

At this point the icon is fairly good. There are some likely last minute tweaks that will be made before the app launches, but those can wait until we’ve lived with this icon for awhile. It’s important to have time to let a design sink-in, and time to grow (or not grow) on you. A lot of work goes into designing even something as simple as an icon, and you might accidentally get attached to a detail that doesn’t improve the design. Or you may not notice a subtle quality that reveals itself with time.

Bonus Icon Timeline

Here they are all at once so you can see a purely visual progression.

v1v2v3v4v5v6v7

iPad mini: Form Factor & User Interface

Ian on November 8, 2012

A New Tool (A New Toy)

How does the form factor of the iPad mini affect the experience of using software originally meant to run on the full-sized iPad? Does it just work? For the most part, the answer seems to be yes. All the buttons, toolbars, and layouts seem to work just as well with miniaturization. With one exception…

The Keyboard

With the iPad propped up in landscape with a smart-cover, there is a nearly full-size keyboard to type away on. When typing something medium to long form this is usually my preferred method. (Find a table, use the smart-cover for an ergonomic angle, and type away.)

With the Mini however, the landscape keyboard is too cramped for normal touch-typing. I end up resorting to a “two-finger-per-hand-hunt-and-peck” style of typing.

iPad_mini_landscape

In practice with the mini, I seem to prefer this never. So aside from a bluetooth keyboard, what options does one have?

The Split Keyboard

If only Apple had customized the keyboard experience on the mini to make typing more comfortable. It turns out they did, but just for the split keyboard!

In iOS 5 Apple introduced a new feature called the split keyboard. It allows you to type like an iPhone by splitting and shrinking the keys. You can hold your iPad in both hands and thumb type – all while losing less screen real estate to the keyboard. This quickly became my default mode of text entry for shorter writing on my iPad. On the mini, I now use it for everything.

Feels The Same

You might think those look the same. I didn’t notice a difference at first. Probably because my fingers didn’t feel a difference. But the difference is huge! Apple enlarged the split keyboard to offset the shrink in form factor of the iPad mini. Check it out below. (iPad mini on the left, full-size iPad on the right.)

Should I Enlarge My User Interface?

As a developer, this is a question that needs to be pondered (and tested). In most cases, I think the answer is no. With the exception of the split keyboard, apple didn’t change ANYTHING* across all of iOS for the iPad mini. But in this one case, it made a huge difference. In instances where the UI is trying to mimic the feel of a real world tangible object, it is worth considering.

Sweat the details, it makes a difference!

*UPDATE: Apple also enlarged the font and icon size on the non split keyboards within each key on the mini.

Countdown: Interactive Sketchbook 2.0 – Part I

Ian on November 3, 2012

Coming Soon, To An iPad Near You!

Version 2.0 of Interactive Sketchbook has been in development for over a year now and has been rebuilt from the ground up to be better in almost every way. We are now just weeks away from launching the free update. As we finish tweaking and optimizing the app, we will continue to show sneak peaks of the new version.

Fist Sneak Peak:

What better way to show of an app for sketching then with a sketch?

Sketch by artist Matt Busch. Created using an early build of the drawing engine for Interactive Sketchbook 2.0.

Stay tuned, we have a lot more to show you!

How To Draw on iPhone 5

Ian on September 16, 2012

Version 1.1 of How To Draw* will be hitting the AppStore soon with full compatibility for iPhone 5 and iOS 6. Here is a comparison of the screen real estate on a 3.5 and 4 inch retina display.

Is Bigger Better?

In this case the answer appears to be yes. So much vertical space is lost to status bars and toolbars, that a taller screen ultimately shows more content. The 4 inch retina display presents the entire drawing canvas at once without having to remove the toolbars by going into fullscreen mode. This extra screen real estate will be just as useful when zooming into the artwork.

September 21st can’t come soon enough!

*“How To Draw: With Artist Matt Busch!” is available for both iPhone and iPad. Click here to view it in the AppStore.

Path To A New App

Ian on May 3, 2012

Digital Wave Creative’s second app is going to be released soon for both iPhone and iPad! I thought you might be interested to know what the process behind creating it was.

Inspiration:

I literally had the inspiration for our first app, Interactive Sketchbook, the first day apple announced that they were going to launch a new product called the iPad. That was January 27th, 2010 – shortly after 1pm eastern standard time – for those who still remember.

The iPhone was already proving very popular, and I had already spent countless hours daydreaming about becoming a developer for the platform. But I never put forth the effort to make it happen, because without an idea worth pursuing, what would be the point?

After seeing Apple demonstrate what was possible with a 10 inch version of their iPhone platform, the idea struck me. My brother was (and still is) a well known entertainment illustrator who I was currently helping produce a series of How-To-Draw videos to promote a book he had made with Lucas Film: You Can Draw Star Wars.

An hour of excited pacing post Apple’s announcement yielded an idea worth pursing. The iPad didn’t just have enough screen real estate to draw on, it had enough screen real estate to draw on next to photo reference, or interactive tutorials.

My brother didn’t take much convincing, and most of the application design was on paper by the next day.

Constraints:

Early in the development process of Interactive Sketchbook, we could see that playing with the interactive tutorials was fun. You could touch the art, and explore it. This would also appeal to some who either want to draw along on real paper, or who might have an iPhone in place of an iPad. The iPhone screen is too small to make the side-by-side drawing feature of Interactive Sketchbook work, but the tutorials themselves would work great on the device. We resolved to make a cheaper version of the app sans drawing that would be available on iPhone – but not until we finished Interactive Sketchbook.

New Direction:

Interactive Sketchbook had a successful launch, but was progressing at a slower pace then I would have liked. Shortly after it hit the app store our software engineer became super busy. He was amazing to work with and super talented, but those traits made him highly sought after, and less available to us. After months of trying to find a capable programmer who we could afford, I found myself at a crossroads. My day job as a video producer gave me a bunch of skills that translated well to the field of software development. But after 8 years of working with clients to produce videos promoting their products and services, I was ready for a change. What if I quit my day job and took the time I spent there and the time I spent looking for a new programmer and put it towards learning to program for iOS? It was a gamble, but I wasn’t getting very far in my search for a replacement programer, and with a successful app already in the store, I was certainly motivated. I quit my job, and made learning Objective-C and Apple frameworks my full time job.

Fast Forward 6 Months:

So here we are today. Between working occasional contractor video shoots for my prior employer and income from Interactive Sketchbook, I still have a roof over my head. Learning to code was a long tedious process of rewiring how my brain works. It was extremely frustrating at times but there were enough breakthroughs to push me through the difficult days. And my first test of skill, and the first part of rebuilding Interactive Sketchbook from the ground up, is the new “How To Draw” app that will be available in the next week or so.

Its available for both iPhone and iPad. It features gorgeous illustrated tutorials created by my brother, with new higher resolution assets that look stunning on retina displays. It features a simple, sleek, and playful interface. It’s done. It’s delightful. You should try it.

~Ian