{"id":18199,"date":"2019-10-01T11:00:36","date_gmt":"2019-10-01T10:00:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/marvel7077.wpengine.com\/?p=18199"},"modified":"2020-11-12T11:36:34","modified_gmt":"2020-11-12T11:36:34","slug":"quest-find-happiest-notes-app","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/marvelapp.com\/blog\/quest-find-happiest-notes-app\/","title":{"rendered":"The Quest to Find the Happiest Notes App"},"content":{"rendered":"

For some reason, I\u2019ve always been obsessed with note-taking apps. It took me some time to understand why, but looking back (literally at notes from the past), I\u2019ve noticed that they have essentially become idea vaults. Note-taking apps is where we store our ideas, hence their value.<\/p>\n

Initially, it wasn\u2019t so much about the apps per se, but rather about finding one that actually worked for me. Simply because when you find a good notes app, you take more notes, and if you take more notes, you store more ideas, and when you have a lot of ideas, you get to that quote about the best way to have a good idea:<\/p>\n

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\u201cThe best way to have a good idea is to have lots of ideas.\u201d\u200a\u2014\u200aLinus Pauling<\/p><\/span><\/blockquote>\n

The Pain<\/h2>\n

I have tried them all. I really have. But with each new app comes a new method for organizing notes: folders, sub-folders, tags, stacks, feeds, lists, and the list goes on.<\/p>\n

We\u2019ve all been there. You download the new app on the block and start taking a few notes here and there, but before you realize it; it\u2019s already a complete mess. You have failed. So you do what most people do to solve problems these days: you download another app.<\/p>\n

And so the cycle continues until you run out of space on your phone.<\/p>\n

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The Aha! Moment<\/h2>\n

For a long time, I thought it was my fault and that I was just bad at taking notes. But when talking to other friends and colleagues about the problem, it became clear that I wasn\u2019t alone. It turns out, filing is a hard thing to get right.<\/p>\n

As an app designer (and admirer of Napoleon Bonaparte quotes), I couldn\u2019t help but think that if I wanted to find the right app, I had to design it myself.<\/p>\n

The first insight came while chatting with my then-boss at Cabify, David Smyth. Quoting from memory and without permission, he mentioned something like:<\/p>\n

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\u201cI need an app where I can quickly capture an idea and worry about organizing later.\u201d<\/p><\/span><\/blockquote>\n

Aha\u2026 ???? Seems like most apps expect you to have a system in place before you even start typing. But ideas don\u2019t work that way. It\u2019s not easy to know where they belong. They might start as one thing and quickly morph into another. A skeuomorphic filing system based on how we organize physical paper just doesn\u2019t cut it these days. David continued:<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve just started using [insert popular notes app here] and have already messed it up. It makes me feel like I'm failing before I really get started.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Aha!!!<\/p>\n

This resonated so much. The perfect app should be flexible. It should allow you to make mistakes and most importantly, to change your mind. It should make it so easy to capture and organize notes that you actually feel like you\u2019re good at it.<\/p>\n

Putting It All Together<\/h2>\n

With those insights in mind, I remembered a classic Mac app called Notational Velocity. It was last updated in 2011 and never really hit the mainstream, but it developed a cult following because it had something to it. The secret behind Notational Velocity is that it has a single text input to both search and create a note. So you just launch the app and start typing: if the text matches a previous note it will show up on the list, if not, you hit Enter to create a new one. No folders, no tags, no filing system at all. It\u2019s so fast and so simple that using it becomes almost a reflex.<\/p>\n

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That seemed to solve part of David\u2019s problem. You never have to worry about filing anything. You just have to type!
\n\u201cHow come no one has ever designed this for mobile?\u201d I thought. ????<\/p>\n

So on a long flight from Madrid to Mexico City (which has become my go-to-workplace for side projects), stuck to my seat and filled up on cheap in-flight coffee, I set out to design the \u201cmobile version\u201d of Notational Velocity.<\/p>\n

The result of that flight was this Marvel prototype:<\/p>\n