Compatibility:
Requires iOS 7.0 or later. Compatible with iPad.
Description:
Paper is a good idea-keeper. It can help users to capture
the ideas as sketches, diagrams, illustrations, notes or drawings and share them
across the web. Paper’s interface design is very impressive for me. I want to
demonstrate it in three aspects: visibility, consistency, and conceptual model.
The official website of Fifty Three:
Download link:
Paper Blog:
DESIGN PRINCIPLES
Visibility
“Paper” has a high degree of visibility, which allows the
user to work out the current state of the system and the range of actions
possible.
For example, when users swipe the screen, the journals will slide
to the left or right, the journal which move to the middle will move close to
users (it turns bigger). Users can understand that this journal is which they
can edit only and immediately. Users can recognize every journal by the name
beyond it, and also can get the current state of the page numbers.
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| Fig.1 visibility |
When the journal move to the middle, the small “i“ on the
top-right corner of the journal will show up, which will remind users that they
can edit the setting of this journal. There are three icons under the journal,
which is very easy to understand as the functions of “delete”, “export” and
“add a new one”.
As an app for drawing picture, when users enter a single
painting page at first time, the tool bar will show up without slide the
screen. I think this is also a very thoughtful visibility design for new users
who are unfamiliar with this app. Users will not get confused when they start
experience this app at very beginning.
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| Fig.2 visibility of tool bar |
What’s more, the small
plus sign will show up when you are at the last page of the journal and you slide
it to move to the next page. This small sign is very reasonable for users to
get a feeling of where they are.
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| Fig.3 |
Consistency
This application is internally consistent. Every journal you
create has the same structure. Except those journals, the information windows
keep a consistent style, such as “Welcome Guide” and “About Paper”. They have
same size, same layout, and same fonts.
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| Fig.4 (a) |
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| Fig.4 (b) |
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| Fig.4 (c) |
Besides, there is a collection of good paintings from other
users, which named “made with Paper”. Since this is a special part of this app,
“made with paper”, keeps a very good consistency in this app. Even it doesn’t
look like a notebook, and you cannot open those pieces in full-screen; but the
same design of fonts, the similar gesture experience, and the unique animation
effect make “made with Paper” fix well in this App.
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| Fig.5 (a) |
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| Fig.5 (b) |
Conceptual model
Paper presents a perfect conceptual model, which allows the
user to build up a true picture of the way the system holds together. Users can
add, update and delete the journal in the app. In a journal, user also can
edit, add, update and delete every page. For every page, users will have
several tools to accomplish their pictures or notes.
Besides, this app maps “undo” with a go-back-in-time clock,
maps “zoom out” with a magnifying lens, which are very decent conceptual
models.
As a new painter, I always want to undo the lines I made.
Instead of using the small undo arrow to achieve this function, Paper designed
to accomplish “undo” by a gesture, which asks users using two fingers contra
rotate on the screen. On the other word, users can also use two fingers to rewind
to any previous point in time without leaving your flow. It is not only
convenient for us when draw pictures by fingers, but also making a common sense
of “back in time”, which is an essential meaning of “undo”.
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| Fig.6 (a) |
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| Fig.6 (b) |
Users can zoom out the details, like a magnifying lens. This
function gives users fast access to deeper levels of the drawing, without
losing the place on the page.
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| Fig.7 |
What’s more, users can close a journal by pinching it, page
turning by simply swipe it. Tap and hold a single paper, users can pick up a
page or journal, pinch and swipe to navigate while moving.
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| Fig.8 (a) |
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| Fig.8 (b) |
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| Fig.8 (c) |
Affordances
This app provides property of objects and environment, which
allows users to perform an action. When look at every pen in the tool bar,
users can have a perspective, and imagine what kind of stroke the pen has.
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| Fig.8 |
The mixer, also meets users real-world experience. The mixer
is perfect when users paint between the shades. This is a very natural way to
mix beautiful colors, and users can hold the color they create to save it in
the palettes.
Limitations:
When I want to close the small window of information, I
cannot just touch the dark area of the screen to return to the main screen.
53 Pencil's connection is not reasonable enough. If I
haven’t used the pencil for a long time, I need to activate those tools by
connecting the pencil again. However, what if I lost my pencil?
