So I read this design document today and I find it quite inspiring. The designer and author, Khoi Vinh, noticed an action writers around him were taking to be more productive. Understanding a bit about technology, he went about designing a software application that would fulfill these writers’ needs, without forcing them to go out and purchase a brand new (or old) tool…in this case, a typewriter.

Vinh created a short, to the point design specification for a tool he calls Blockwriter. The features of this tool are amazingly simple and well justified. He doesn’t recommend features for their own sake, but keeps the tool light and lean, with plenty of room to grow (or not grow at all).

What really impresses me about this side project is the fact that Vinh simply put his idea out on the internet, with the hope that some developer out there would make his design a reality. I hugely support this model of designer-developer interaction, where an idea can be seeded and then turned into reality by a team who knew nothing of one-another in the beginning, but who are brought together by the will of the internets.
Check out this work, and look forward to details about a little side project of my own…I’ll be starting any day now.