Introducing the "Picasso's Library" App Concept

There is a lot of amazing e-books for designers and artists on the internet. When designers are reading e-books, they sometimes need to take notes about their reading or may need to use some of the book’s images for reference on their work.

Mobile applications are now the most popular and useful way of accessing the internet. There is almost one app for everything. Today’s reading apps do not bring a designer-oriented service where users can have direct access to their notes. This e-reading app has a Kindle phone app as its main competitor. The difference we bring to the table is the number of books oriented to designers and the ability to make creative notes to them. Users will have the ability to add notes, crop assets, categorize them for later users in their projects and export them for later use.

People who do design or product research may find it crucial to have tools that help them speed up their workflows. This is why Picasso's Library was created for, helping people collect valuable information or assets from the web. In this example, we will look at my approach to designing a native mobile app for Android or iOS devices. This article will also provide an overview of why native design matters in terms of some apps’ success.

Collecting all of your ideas in one place

The Picasso's Library app makes it easy to save ideas as they come to you - no matter where you are or what device you're on. Save images from the web, screenshots of PDFs, photos from the camera roll - it's all at your fingertips. Picasso's Library is your new creative dashboard, where you can collect, export, and categorize your research. With just a few taps, you will be able to seamlessly collect and export assets from your PDF files or websites.

Dedicated space for collecting and exporting assets

Whether you need to create a presentation or write a blog post, Picasso's library can help. In addition to letting you take read E-Books or collect assets from PDFs, now you can also make notes and highlight content for inspiration.

Mobile-optimized design

With a clean layout and easy-to-use interface that fits any screen size or orientation, it's never been easier to access your research anywhere!

Export assets from your E-Books and PDFs

“Are you a creative person who does a lot of research? Then this is the app for you. Ladies and Gentlemen, presenting Picasso's Library, a mobile app natively created for Android and iOS. With this app, you will be able to seamlessly collect and export assets from your PDF files or websites.”

Objective

Picasso’s Library aims to bring the definitive reading app for designers and artists, giving them quick access to notes and assets from their readings.

Who is this app for?

This app is meant to be used mainly be used by graphic designers, artists, and other types of designers who want to buy books digitally. With this app, the user will be able to perform some different tasks:

  • Browse art and design books.
  • Buy digital books
  • Manage a digital library.
  • Read digital books.
  • Send digital books to kindle and other e-readers.
  • Add notes, highlight content for ideas, or memorizing. And then, categorize them.
  • Export notes to Figma, XD and Sketch, PDF, SVG, and PNG formats.

Why native design matters

There are different ways to make mobile apps, you can go with a hybrid development or a native development. A native mobile app is designed to run on a specific kind of device, for example, Android or iOS. In this case, I chose to make a native mobile app because it can be used to store books in the device’s memory, which makes them load faster.

Designing a native mobile app for Android or iOS devices

Designing UI for Android and iOs systems is very similar to any UI design workflow. The native development approach should only determine that multiple variations must be made in order to follow each of the design system’s rules. But I found some considerations that may help in the creation of other native designs:

  • You may find it difficult to find a breakpoint resolution that is the same on Android and iOs, so don’t worry about this, just take similar resolutions breakpoints for your designs and you’ll be fine.
  • Even if it sounds obvious, these designs are recommended to be made with the mobile-first approach.
  • Spacing will be very different between iOs and Android, causing one app to look more compact than the other. Try to always follow the latest rules on each design system.
  • The shopping “Cart”, or “Bag”? Terminologies may vary across systems, try to see other similar apps and identify their jargon.