Reid Beels

A while back I came across a piece of software called Sidenote, developed by Pierre Chatel. It’s an incredibly neat little notepad app with a beautifully clean interface that sits on the side of your screen and pops out whenever you need it. At the time I found it originally, I didn’t really see the need for its functionality, but it was so incredibly cool that I kept it around just in case. Last week, when I was looking for a way to keep track of all of the stuff that I had to get done before the end of the term, I dug out Sidenote.

I soon discovered that, while it WAS great at storing my todo list, it also gave me an amazingly quick place to dump all of the other things that I wanted to get done, but couldn’t. I started using it almost as a digital version of my moleskine and soon found that I was getting more done because my mind was clearer.

Of course, it’s arguable that the real reason that I’m currently so enamored with the little program is because of one obscure design detail. When you upgrade to a newer version, the software tells you that it’s going to upgrade your note database. Many developers would have just spent twenty seconds, stuck this message in a standard dialog, and called it good. Pierre went so far beyond this, creating the beautiful animation you see here and making the message fit his interface flawlessly. When I saw the animation, I was struck with this giddy euphoria. “People still care about details!” I thought, and it made my evening so much better. Thanks, Pierre.

Attached Files:

• Sidenote Upgrade Animation