holiwrit and the ipad
It has been too long since I have posted to my wonderful li'l pixelfaith.com! The last post was about the use of the multi-column layout module of CSS3 with the text of the Bible and included my li'l experiment in doing just that. Well, last week I introduced a product that is of direct connection to that experiment. holiwrit is a breath of fresh air in a world of overly complicated Bible apps and Bible readers.
So what is holiwrit? Well, back in January one of the most revolutionary and magical devices was announced. That device, of course, was the iPad. I saw it and my first thought was how amazing it would be for reading the Bible. I waited for a month or so to see what app developers would announce and/or show off, and saw amazing apps coming from Panelfly, MLB, Icon Factory, and many others. Sleek, simple, and large interfaces that displayed content in wonderfully thought out designs. I grab a paper and leather-bound Bible, and I expect careful typography, but for some reason no one seemed to care about typography when it came to the Bible on mobile applications. No one seemed to care about user interaction and flow with the Bible. They often seemed to focus too much on the Bible reader as opposed to the Bible itself. And, thus, holiwrit was born.
I started with a simple page and worked from there, using multi-column as my basic foundation, simple serif typeface over that, and some nice whitespace through large leading and spacious margins. holiwrit doesn't implement word studies, commentaries, or anything else. It is a Bible first and foremost, focused with a great reading experience, easy navigation, and clear typography. I believe it succeeds at all of this, but I know that people want more.
holiwrit is not a "study tool" in the sense of word studies, commentaries, etc. I don't want it to become that, at least not right now. I want to be able to read the Bible, and not have all the complexities hovering around. If I'm going to implement it, I will need to find the right way to do it. I don't want to just do something to do it, or do it to make more money. What is next for holiwrit is social, along with enhancing the navigation flow and the foundation of the reading experience. In the coming weeks, I will be revealing more about the next big release of holiwrit, here and on Twitter and Dribbble. Stay tuned!
PS: This entire article was written on my iPad, in Pages with a Bluetooth keyboard. This device is truly magical, and in, so many ways, way better than my MacBook Pro or any other computer I have ever worked with.