Scribbles 1.0

Intriguing new $20 little drawing app from Atebits. Delightfully simple, but very clever UI. The main window has just a handful of controls, and no text labels. The tools at the bottom — brush, color, and layers — are modal, but their modality is inline, and dismissed with a big, friendly Dashboard-widget-style “x” in a black circle. More thoughts on Scribbles’s UI design from developer Loren Brichter here.

Even if you’re not looking for a simple sketching app, it’s worth checking out just to examine the UI. E.g., note the way that the click-to-close “x” appears in the same spot as the corresponding brush/color/layer buttons in the drawing window.

★ Tuesday, 4 December 2007