heartbreak: moleskine ios app misses the mark

I was really exited yesterday to find out through PSFK that Moleskine had released an official app. for iOS (It’s free, by the way). Unfortunately, when I downloaded the app last night I was much less excited. Make no mistake, the Moleskine app does a lot. You can write notes, draw sketches, categorize your notes, geotag them (ideal for travel) and share them via Twitter and Facebook (I’d like to see them add WordPress to the mix). Unfortunately, the app. is just too clever for it’s own good. It packs too much functionality into the app and users have to navigate that functionality before they can begin actually using that functionality. What’s worse, it hides those functions behind fly-outs and page peel-aways that are difficult to find and decipher. In short, it’s too difficult to understand how you’re supposed to start writing (or drawing) with the app. You start writing and drawing, by the way, by double tapping on the page you want to write on — a fact I could not find anywhere in the app instructions. Also, there is no landscape mode for typing on the iPhone, a huge oversight for an app that is supposed to be about conent creation.

All of his added stuff (which is all beautifully crafted by the way. The app itself is beautiful) meant that after downloading, I spent the first couple of minutes with Moleskine trying to navigate the UI and not writing or recording my thoughts. This is not good. When you create an app for an offline experience that people know and are passionate about, you damn-well better replicate that offline experience. What people love about the Moleskine experience is that they can open one up and begin writing right away on a high-quality notebook — no interference, no mumbo jumbo, just pure thought. That’s what Moleskine is all about. When I open up my Moleskine I don’t want to see this (And I’m pretty sure I don’t want to see it when I open up my Moleskine app.):

Moleskine app instructions

So what’s really going on here? Well, the fact that Moleskine prominently links to its catalog from the app might give you a clue. Perhaps some marketing guys got a hold of this thing, loaded it with unnecessary functionality and turned it into a marketing vehicle.

Despite its short comings, I’m going to try to keep the Moleskine app on my phone for now, but I’m not sure how I’m going to use it. If you’re looking for a pure and quick note taker for iOS that can sync with a desktop client, my suggestion is to go with Simplenote and pair it Notational Velocity on the desktop. I’ve been using these for months  and they’re great — fast and seamless and they get you writing right away.