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The latest of version of Evernote for iOS not only looks different, it streamlines many of the popular app’s note taking and content capture functionality.
“All of the main things that you want to do in the application are just a touch away,” Nate Fortin, vice president of Design at Evernote, told eWEEK during an interview. Crafting an interface and overall experience that got out of the user’s way was the central philosophy guiding the company’s efforts in the months before the Jan. 17 of the redesigned app, he added.
Evernote didn’t just slap a new coat of pixels onto its venerable app. The company took “the time and resources to fundamentally rethink how we want to represent who we are,” said Erik Wrobel, chief product officer, at Evernote. That investment in talent and time spent on developing and fine-tuning the app has paid off in a modern, more frictionless way of organizing users’ professional and personal lives, according to the company.
Evernote 8.0 for iPhones, iPad and iPod Touch sports a minimalist, uncluttered start-up that showcases a user’s notes and provides quick access to notebooks and the app’s search functionality. Users will notice that the old home screen is gone, affording users immediate access to recent notes.
Fortin said his team paid particular attention to the app’s navigation, settling on an interface that users’ time is spent “less navigating and more [on] getting things done.” Another of the most striking examples of the company’s new approach to mobile note taking is the new, multi-function note button.
Appearing at the bottom of the screen, the green button can be quickly tapped to create a new note. Holding the button gives users other options, including the ability to record a voice memo, snap a photo or set a reminder.
Wrobel said the new note button, along with numerous behind-the-scenes performance tweaks, lend the app a sense of “an immediacy in terms of how you create content.”
Instead of digging through menus to collect and organize notes, users can now capture and manage their ideas and inspirations “at the speed of thought,” he said. The company’s goals for Evernote 8.0 on iOS were “simplicity, immediacy, speed and elegance,” added Wrobel.
Power users needn’t fear the app’s new, more consumer-friendly trappings, Wrobel assured. Evernote remained respectful to their needs, although they may need some time to adjust to the new experience, he admitted. Plus, there are new features to satisfy longtime enthusiasts and newcomers alike, he said.
The app features a note editor with more customization options. Users can now select new font sizes, add color to text and highlight important passages. The app’s search functionality has been integrated with other features.
For example, tapping on the alarm clock that appears atop any note will show all the notes that have a reminder associated with them. To search for notes with certain tags, users can tap the tag button on a notes list and filter the results.
Evernote Business can now create clear divisions between their personal and work notes. Switching between personal and business accounts only requires a long press of the account selection in the app’s tab bar.