Defter Notes
The iPad is a great tool for productivity and creativity. Yet some of the best apps on the iPad fail to improve very basic features. Most iPad note-taking apps force you to use one page, one orientation, one tool… As a designer and developer I believe there is only one reason for this: those apps are easier to design. This is why I and my partner decided to develop Defter Notes as an alternative.
I, as a user, have been experiencing a lack of realism in digital note-taking due to this one issue:
I needed to put notes side by side… And no app seemed to care.
When we decided to create Defter Notes we asked ourselves how we use traditional notebooks.
In real life, it is very rare that you would take notes on just one page.
When you are comparing notes, making edits, or brainstorming you simply need more than one page in your workspace.
Think about how you work with papers: you draft on a few, discard a few, rearrange in piles.
For instance, when your're using the Cornell method, you're supposed to cover up a part of the page.
This is the reason why in Defter Notes you can drag and drop your pages anywhere on your screen, even stack them on top of each other.
With this unique experience design, your iPad's screen turns into a window to a giant desk top you can carry around in your hands.
Did you ever feel stuck on portrait or landscape mode when you are using a note-taking app?
I know I did.
Finding yourself in weird positions, trying to fit handwriting in a tiny box…
Traditional note-taking apps don't support gestures and there is no reason note-taking can't be a more free experience.
Defter Notes uses multi-touch so that you can pan, pinch and rotate anywhere on the page.
It allows you to rotate the page and keep it in an angle that feels right while handwriting with the Apple Pencil.
Using these gestures you can navigate and zoom in on a focused subject or zoom out to look at your work from a broader perspective.
This creates a very deft way of notetaking.
The more we use digital tools the more we create digital content. Organizing and safekeeping these images, pages, and files should not be a burden. Some apps do this by letting you create pages in a folder, some do this by using tags… But none of them lets you add web links, photos, email links, files, and even more folders along with your handwritten notes. This is the reason we designed Defter Notes not just as a note-taking tool but also as a spatial organization app. You can name, color, and tag your folders according to your style of file management. You can nest folders infinitely and locate them easily in breadcrumbs or tree-view. With Defter Notes' unique archival tray, you are able to stash items away quickly as you are working and get back to organizing whenever you want.
Imagine your office or a library. Imagine all the books lined up and stacked around in a workspace. Defter Notes addresses the need to have multiple files open at all times. The unique user experience of Defter Notes lets you write, highlight, and even add page-specific sticky notes on your imported PDFs while maintaining smooth page scrolling. You can pull out individual pages from your PDFs, rearrange and create new stacks with your notes. This is a feature unique to Defter Notes, designed for a real-to-life note-taking experience.
Defter Notes works flawlessly with Apple Pencil. Unlike text-based note-taking apps, you can sketch, draw, write and sign digitally just like you do on real paper. You can customize floating tools menu and quickly access the tools specific to your needs.
Defter Notes is designed for the iPad and Apple Pencil. It is for everyday and professional use. You can download Defter Notes on the App Store to use on your iPad.
