Quiet Software

As you know, I am helping beta-test Auer Notes, a simple and private note-taking app. The developer, a good friend of mine, wrote a piece on his blog that I found fits my own thinking about software. I asked him if I could repost it here and he said to go for it. So, here it is: quiet software.

Quiet Software

We live in a world where information competes for our attention. Alerts, feeds, reminders: noisy software.

Personally, I prefer simple software that remains out of the way until you need it. This is why when I thought about the must-haves for Auer Notes, I chose to make it quiet. From the interface, to the features and how those two interact, my aim was to be as stealthy as possible, focusing on distinguishing the app by its simplicity and, more importantly, silence. Quiet software.

Quiet software is distraction free and it appears when needed. Quiet software focuses on less, when everyone is looking for more.

Quiet software is aggressively mute, simple, and stealthy.

Think about it. Do we need all those alers? All the information on screen? Do we need to constantly require input from the user?

No. Not for this kind of app. And, I would argue, not for a lot of apps out there either.

Let’s push for quiet software.

Let’s focus on stealthy functionality, with less and not more.