We asked various users who already took notes via mobile what they wanted. The top three requirements were:

1. Networked app - no notes locked into the phone and no syncing
2. Speed - no hanging around for slow web pages - “jot as I think of something”
3. Constant access - works with or without mobile network coverage

These are somewhat mutually exclusive goals for mobile app design, but we have achieved them all.

Network App

ThumbJot is web-based, which means that your jots are stored online and immediately accessible from anywhere without a messy sync problem. To get the best possible web experience, we focussed on the best mobile web device on the market today, which is the iPhone. This also allows you to store a webclip icon on the homepage to gain instant access to ThumbJot. You can store a webclip to the homepage and a webclip to create a new note, bypassing the homepage. Even if you’re on the homepage, the new note page is already downloaded into the memory and can be accessed instantly.

Speed

Although our iPhone interface is optimised for speedy access, including the pre-loaded page to create a new jot, we recognise that even the relatively small delay in loading the first page can be a problem if you’ve got something to jot in a mega hurry. That’s why we also implemented a text-messaging interface. Simply text your jot into your jot store. Bang! It’s there and you can access it later. The key user experience is ‘fire and forget’ - make the jot and relax that you’ve got it down.

Constant Access

What if you can’t access the net from your phone? Not a problem. You can still send a text message. Without network coverage, the text message stays in the phone’s send-box until the network coverage resumes. Then bang! The jot gets pushed into your jot store. The key user experience is ‘fire and forget’ - make the jot and relax that you’ve got it down.

Future Mobile Features

We intend to add input via email in order to improve the offline jotting capability. Text message is still the quickest offline method, but email will overcome the 160 character limit, although most jots, we think you’ll find, will be within the 160 character range. There are other mobile features we’re planning to add - keep an eye on our blog.

Future Mobile Devices

Not everyone’s a iPhone user. That’s true, although our concern is staying with the above three design goals. On most mobile phones, the web experience is too lousy and the data entry too cumbersome. These get in the way of jotting at the speed of thought. However, we intend to evolve the service to work best with all productivity devices on the market. The iPhone is first and the Blackberry will be next. Blackberry and mobile users can still use TJ today via the text-messaging input and web interface.