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Telling yourself, “Oh, you have all the time in the world, you have all the money in the world, you have all the colors in the palette you want, anything you want,” I mean, that just kills creativity.
—Jack White

I was going through the parts I had highlighted in my Kindle version of Austin Kleon's book, Steal Like An Artist, and I keep thinking of how much I like this quote from musician Jack White, talking about using constraints to stay creative. I think about how much constraints and removal of the unnecessary makes a difference in helping flow in the tools I use as well.

The quote was actually taken from an interview of White that you can watch in the documentary Under Great White Northern Lights. There's an extended except in the Makin' Ads blog here, or watch a video clip on YouTube here.

"Getting the details right is the difference between something that delights, and something customers tolerate."
—Jeff Atwood

I didn't read Jeff Atwood's article about cat feeders right away, because it really is 90% about a cat product. It's also a terrific demonstration of what he's saying above. The first version of the product, a cat feeder, served a core need well enough for him to satisfice with its shortcomings because the net return in time savings and improved quality of life, for him anyway, was absolutely worth it.

The punchline is this.

• Be sure you're first getting the primary function more or less right.
• Do the work of listening to users every day.
• Refine the details of your product based on their feedback.

Listening to the opinions expressed by customers, obsessing over the details, and getting them right in the design is necessary and hard. But over time, if the points of pain are incrementally addressed and the design improved, the collection of those well-thought-out details embody a better experience.

Get better slowly, but do get better. Suck it up and feel your users' pain. Assure them that you're listening by sweating the details.

http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/2012/05/this-is-all-your-app-is-a-collection-of-tiny-details.html

People still occasionally ask me if I make the small bound Wireframe Sketchbooks, but I stopped selling them after a few years, and instead just posted instructions for how to make your own. I know that few people have the time or interest to do that, so I've been looking at alternatives for them.

A month ago, Brad from JetPens contacted me to tell me that he started supplying a sketchbook from Maruman that I might like. What I really liked is how closely it resembles the one I made. Some of my Instagram friends have been seeing pics of me using the Maruman Mnemosyne Inspiration Notebook, and a few like it as I do. The one I'm using is the A5 (5.8" X 8.3"), which has a 5 mm X 5 mm pale gray lined grid, title line, and 70 perforated sheets.

Below is a photo of the Konigi notebook on the left and the Maruman on the right. The Sharpie is there to give you a sense of scale.

You can see that the Maruman is the same width, and only 1/4 inch taller. The Maruman paper is smoother paper than the Konigi, and works well with inks. I'm using with a fine Hi-Tec-C and really love the feel of pen and marker on it. The Konigi book had a little tooth/texture because I like to work with soft pencil as well as pen/marker.

I think this is the closest of any notebook I've tried to mine. It meets the same requirements that I had for a sketchbook: small and wire-bound, white sheets with small quadrille, perforated paper, and can ideally be used in landscape orientation.

Thanks to Brad Dowdy for indulging my pen and paper addiction by letting me test and review the Maruman. If you're interested, you can check it out here.

http://www.jetpens.com/Maruman-Mnemosyne-Inspiration-Notebook-A5-5.8-X-8.3-5-mm-X-5-mm-Graph-70-Sheets/pd/4078