When I am drawing the paper is my main focus. I don’t want to focus on the tools. The tools should get out of the way and never demand any attention; they should just work. This to me is the only way to remain focused on what I am actually drawing. However, drawing apps on the iPad have tools that keep breaking the flow. Tools that need attention which is just plain wrong.

The perfect drawing app for the iPad should have multiple pencils, each with its own settings. The artist should be allowed to easily switch between these drawing tools, and the state of each tool should be clearly visible on screen. This does not have to take up a lot of space if implemented in a clever way. The main point here is to not have to think when using the app.

Which leads me to another annoyance with most drawing apps: the confirmation dialogs. Penultimate is a good example of a pretty well made drawing application that recently introduced a confirmation dialog when clearing the page. To force the user to confirm an action breaks the flow. The problem here is of course that the clear action is triggered by a button. Which is why I suggest all drawing apps should use sliders for critical functions. That way the confirmation dialog can be removed as the controller only triggers the action when the slider has been dragged completely to the maximum side of the slider.

I have sent this suggestion to Penultimate, hopefully they will implement this in a future update.