A relaxing drawing application.

How we designed and developed a generative drawing application with over 5M downloads.

role

  • Project lead
  • UX
  • Development

    • stats

  • #1 Canada, Australia, Germany (+33 others)
  • #2 USA, UK (+10 others)
  • over 5M Downloads
  • 4.5 star rating

    • get it

  • The App Store
  • Google Play

    • technology

  • C++
  • Objective-C
  • Xcode

    • platforms

  • iPhone
  • iPad
  • Android

    • Flowpaper is an interactive drawing tool that lets you make beautiful flowing paintings using your finger tips. Perfect for making a personal background for your device or for a sharing with a friend.

    I setout to make a app that was part tool and part experience.

    Drawing with Flowpaper is not like drawing with other tools. Lines flow out from your finger-tips in semi controlled manner, allowing the drawer to sit back and watch as beautiful patterns unfold and to be inspired by the shapes they form. Or if they wish the user can attempt to control and master the medium.

    I started by sketching in code. Combining physics simulations and drawing, iterating and testing until there was something that felt right.

    Crafted a User Interface around this experience.

    And made sure that it kept the user in the flow with commonly used functions at their finger-tips.

    Instrumented the interface and used analytics to gain insights.

    I discovered things like what our users favorite colours were and iterated and modified the UI and UX to match these before testing again.

    I have been excited to see Flowpaper's community grow.

    Flowpaper has been downloaded over five million times across different app stores. It was the #1 popular app in Canada, Australia, Germany and #2 in the US and UK.